Indonesian APEC delegates await protest

Indonesian APEC delegates await protest

By Meidyatama Suryodiningrat and Ati Nurbaiti

VANCOUVER, Canada (JP): Indonesian delegates here are bracing
themselves for a planned major demonstration when President
Soeharto arrives to attend the two-day Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) leaders meeting Monday.

Student activists based at the University of British Columbia
along with the media here have been touting a large protest rally
to be held Tuesday with predictions of up to 1,000 people
attending.

The rally is likely to focus on Chinese President Jiang Zemin
and Soeharto who have been portrayed here as leaders with
allegedly poor human rights record.

Indonesian delegates are wary and say that Canadian security
officials have given their strongest assurances of Soeharto's
safety.

"So far it has been quite good but we continue to be
vigilant," Indonesia's consulate general to Vancouver Jacky Wahyu
told The Jakarta Post here Thursday.

Eighteen leaders will attend the APEC summit.

Soeharto and his entourage, which includes Minister of Foreign
Affairs Ali Alatas, are due to arrive in Vancouver tomorrow
evening and depart soon after the close of the meeting late
Tuesday afternoon.

Canada is known to have a strong lobby sympathetic to East
Timor separatists.

The situation has been exacerbated further with the arrival
last Tuesday of East Timorese separatist leader Jose Ramos Horta
to attend a People's Summit of non-governmental organizations and
activists running parallel to the APEC meetings.

Horta, who has been getting widespread publicity, has met with
British Columbia Premier Glen Clark who spoke favorably in
support of him.

Horta, however, has said he will be leaving Vancouver before
Soeharto was scheduled to arrive.

"I believe as a head of state he is entitled to the respect he
deserves... I do not want to be blamed if anything happens,"
Ramos-Horta said.

Indonesian delegates here have said that they would like to
avoid a repeat of the Dresden incident. During a visit to the
small town in Germany in 1995, protesters came in close proximity
of the President.

An Indonesian delegate revealed that Jakarta had some time ago
expressed their concern to Ottawa over the possible security
risk.

"They want to make APEC a success and sent an envoy to Jakarta
some time ago to assure that all the necessary steps on safety
would be taken," said the delegate who asked not to be named.

"With Horta here, we've got people coming from all over the
place," he said when asked who would be at the forefront of the
protests.

Students at the University of British Colombia held a minor
demonstration Tuesday in preparation for what they promised will
be a large protest.

Bryce Gilroy, a student activist, said the protests would be
nonviolent, but he asserted the activists' commitment to getting
their message across. He said that, if necessary, they were
willing to engage in acts of public disobedience.

He said the demonstrations are meant to highlight what he
calls "the casualties of APEC... victims of human rights abuses,
environmental degradation and labor exploitation in APEC
countries".

But when asked further about their activities, it seemed that
many of the students had little grasp of the primary function of
APEC as a forum of economic cooperation, not one with a political
agenda.

More than 3,000 officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police and Vancouver City Police have set up a security cocoon
around the Vancouver Trade and Convention Center, venue of the
meetings.

According to officials here, C$15 million (US$11.5 million) is
being forked out for security costs to ensure the safety of 18
leaders and 72 people who have been classified as "protected".

Altogether 5,000 delegates and 3,000 journalists will descend
on the meeting venue.

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