ASEAN summit to be held as scheduled in Indonesia despite blast
ASEAN summit to be held as scheduled in Indonesia despite blast
Agence France-Presse
Manila
Southeast Asian leaders will hold their annual meeting in
Indonesia as scheduled in October despite the deadly terrorist
bombing in Jakarta, ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong said on
Wednesday.
"We are going to be there to reaffirm our confidence in the
Indonesian authorities and the Indonesian people," Ong told
reporters on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) finance ministers meeting in Manila.
The ASEAN leaders had decided last year to hold their 2003
meeting in Bali on Oct. 7-8 in a move to show regional defiance
against the terrorist attack on Indonesia's holiday island last
October.
More than 200 people, mostly foreign tourists, were killed
when bomb blasts ripped through Bali's popular Kuta district on
Oct. 12, 2002.
On Tuesday, terrorists staged another deadly bombing -- this
time at the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, killing 14 people and
leaving 152 others injured.
"We are all committed to this ASEAN summit in Bali and we'll
go. We just have to be careful. From now onwards, we have to be
careful with every meeting," Ong said.
He said the ASEAN summit was aimed at displaying the
grouping's confidence in Indonesian authorities and "therefore we
all would be there".
Ong said there were some groups which had questioned whether
the ASEAN finance ministers meeting should have been held in
Manila amid rumors of another coup attempt.
"But I think the fact that all countries are represented in
the meeting here shows our strong reaffirmation of support for
(Philippine) President Gloria Arroyo," he said.
About 300 soldiers were involved in what the government has
described as an attempted coup against Arroyo with a siege at the
heart of the Makati financial center in Manila on July 27. They
decided to return to their barracks after intense negotiations.
The ASEAN finance ministers are meeting a block away from a
high-end serviced apartment complex in the Makati financial
district that was occupied for more than 20 hours by the rogue
soldiers.
The ministers on Wednesday expressed concern over the economic
fallout from the deadly Jakarta hotel blast, and called for a
firmer stance against terrorism.