Beijing to host NAM meeting on women's affairs

JAKARTA (JP): State Minister of Women's Roles Mien Sugandhi will, in place of President Soeharto, open and close a two-day Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) ministerial meeting on women's affairs in Beijing on Sept. 1 and 2.

"President Soeharto is supposed to attend (the meeting) but he is very busy, so I will be delivering his message," Mien told reporters yesterday of Soeharto's decision to delegate to her the responsibility of addressing the NAM meeting.

After meeting with President Soeharto, Mien said Indonesia would participate in the United Nations Conference on Women, to open on Sept. 4 and to last through Sept. 15, and would campaign for the inclusion of the Jakarta Declaration.

"In the Beijing Conference, I will have the opportunity to address it and express (my) views because Indonesia made a great contribution to the preparation of the Jakarta Declaration last year," Mien said.

"We have to fight so that the Jakarta Declaration can be accepted by the world (conference) as well," she said.

The 10-point declaration for the advancement of women was prepared and adopted during the Second Asian Pacific Ministerial Conference on Women in Development here in June last year.

Considered the blueprint for the regional efforts for the advancement of women, the declaration focuses on efforts to attain, among other things, equal opportunities for education for women. It also strives to achieve better health programs for women, an end to violence against women, and the integration of gender concerns in all stages and at all levels of sustainable development.

The declaration also stresses the importance of poverty alleviation for the advancement of women.

Mien will lead a delegate of around 90 Indonesian representatives to the Beijing conference. The Indonesian Women's Congress, a non-governmental organization, will coordinate 147 women activists to attend a parallel meeting of non-governmental organizations in Huairou, a town some 50 kilometers away from the Chinese capital.

Mien said all of the Indonesian delegates "have been prepared" by the ministries of foreign and home affairs so that they would be able to deal with questions regarding Indonesian political and social affairs.

"(Their) responses should be linked with the image of our nation," she said. "I told (the delegates) that they are the people of Indonesia, all of them, and that they will bring with them the name of this country."

"So, if there are problems, don't always respond (to them) just like that...they mustn't," she said. "It's better for them to keep silent, and not just talk nonsense so that controversies would not become even bigger."

Mien gave as examples several issues which she said might be raised by representatives of the other countries, including abuse, harassment and violence against women.

"I used to say that there were cases (of such violence against women) but it's not rampant here," she said. "The world now knows that there are increasing incidents here, but still not as bad as what happens in the more developed countries." (swe)