Indonesia and Bosnia sign joint communique in New York

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia and Bosnia-Herzegovina solidified their diplomatic ties on Monday by signing a joint communique in New York to formerly establish representatives in their respective states.

The communique was signed by Indonesia's permanent ambassador to the United Nations Nugroho Wisnumurti and Bosnian Vice- President Ejup Ganik at the UN Secretariat building in New York City.

"This is just confirmation of the relations that already exist between the two states," Irawan Abidin told The Jakarta Post here yesterday.

During a visit to Jakarta earlier this year Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic agreed that the two countries should formerly establish diplomatic ties.

Neither Nugroho nor Ejup revealed exactly when the two countries would install their representatives, saying only that it would come soon.

Despite their restrained comments, Achmad Tahir, the Non- Aligned Movement's (NAM) ambassador-at-large to Europe, revealed during an inspection of Bosnia's future embassy on Jl. Agus Salim some weeks ago, that the embassy would be open by May.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas has also expressed confidence that Bosnian representatives can be established within the year.

The site of the seven-room Rp 3.5 billion (US$1.65 million) embassy located in the posh Menteng district was donated by Chinese entrepreneur H. Yukeng.

Currently Bosnian matters are handled through its representatives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Irawan said Indonesia will not at the present time open an embassy in Sarajevo, but will accredit it to a non-resident ambassador from a nearby mission.

"It will be located at one of our embassies in a neighboring country," he explained.

At present, Indonesia maintains embassies in Budapest, Vienna, Bucharest, Sofia and Athens.

In a separate development, the government has decided to donate US$25,000 to the people of Laos who are at the moment suffering severe famine as a result of a prolonged dry season.

The aid will be sent to the Indonesian embassy in Vientiane where it will then be promptly handed to government officials on behalf of the Laotian people, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. (07)