Asia and Africa begin AASROC meet in Bandung

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Bandung

Senior officials will begin the Asia-Africa Sub-Regional Organization Conference (AASROC) in Bandung on Monday, with the goal of reviving the spirit of cooperation between the two continents.

Security for the meeting will be extremely tight after an explosive device was found about five kilometers from the venue.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri will officially open the conference on Tuesday, when at least 25 ministers from Asian and African nations will begin meeting. About 20 international observers will be present.

Delegates from the Philippines will be absent due to the military revolt in Manila.

The conference will be cochaired by Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda and his South African counterpart Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.

The meeting is expected to bolster mutual support in addressing the various security challenges in Asia and Africa, ranging from separatist movements to terrorism.

"We need to build a strategic partnership, which we have allowed to lapse over the years," the spokesman for the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Marty Natalegawa, said on Saturday.

He said the two continents, with their fragile security situations, needed to tackle problems such as illegal immigrants and other transnational crimes.

"We have to compare notes on how we have so far handled these crimes, and we will be able to share experiences based on parity, with none of us dictating to each other," Marty said.

He said the relevance of the upcoming conference was that the two continents believed that these problems could be handled more effectively by working together.

The conference is expected to yield agreements on comprehensive strategic partnerships in security and stability, and on economic development.

Megawati introduced the idea of holding the conference last year to mark the commemoration of the Asia-Africa Conference in 1955, which was presided over by her father, founding president Sukarno.

The 1955 meeting, also held in the West Java capital of Bandung, led to the birth of the Non-Aligned Movement during the Cold War era. It also produced the Dasa Sila Bandung document, which underlined the equal partnership between Asian and African countries.

However, after the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, along with the lingering economic and security problems plaguing the two continents, each member sought its own way in getting support from developed countries.

This resulted in the shunting aside of the common understanding between Asian and African nations to keep their voice from being dominated by developed countries.

The current conference is considered a preparatory meeting for the 50th celebration of the Bandung Conference in 2005.

Megawati will open the conference on Tuesday at the historical Merdeka Building, where the Asian-African Conference took place in 1955.

Marty said the conference should be more than a nostalgic meeting to remember the achievements of Sukarno.

"We do not have any formal forum to bridge the two continents and we need to establish such relations again," he said.

Meanwhile, police in Bandung said on Sunday they were tightening security ahead of the AASROC meeting after a suspected bomb was discovered near the conference venue.

West Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Muryan Faizal Saladin, however, dismissed the discovery of the explosive device as a "significant threat" to security, and urged conference participants and locals not to fear for their safety.

"We have to clarify that what was found was not a bomb. It was merely a mineral water bottle filled with a paint-like substance and was unlikely to explode. The blast heard by people was from the bomb squad destroying the bottle," Muryan told The Jakarta Post.

He said about 2,600 police and military personnel had been deployed across the city to safeguard the conference, adding that many of the personnel would be plainclothes officers stationed at hotels where participants were staying and other locations.

Bandung was normal on Sunday, with residents looking unconcerned about security. People visited shopping malls, hotels and other public places as normal.