Government to proceed with CGI meeting

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The venue for the meeting of the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI) will not be moved from Jakarta despite threats of "sweeping" directed against foreigners, a senior government official said.

Ministry of Finance specialist Anggito Abimanyu said on Tuesday that the venue for the meeting would remain the same but that the meeting would be held a day later.

"The meeting will go on, but between Nov. 7 and 8, not Nov. 6 and 7," he said on the sidelines of a hearing with the House of Representatives' Commission IX for financial and development planning affairs.

The meeting, which had been scheduled for September, was postponed because of the unexpected attack on the United States on Sept. 11.

Rumors had been rife that the CGI meeting would be moved to Tokyo for fear that recent threats against foreigners by radical Muslim groups would lead to it being disrupted.

"Where did you hear that? That's just gossip. The meeting venue has not been moved," Anggito asserted.

The Muslim groups have threatened that they will attack the U.S. Embassy here and expel American citizens from the country if the U.S. attacks Afghanistan in retaliation for the Sept. 11 incident.