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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