Megawati ends trip, stops over in Singapore

Agencies, Jakarta

President Megawati Soekarnoputri wrapped up her four-day official visit to Malaysia and Thailand, strengthening cooperation with the two countries to fight terrorism.

Speaking in a press conference at the end of her visit in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Megawati disclosed that the form of cooperation would be in sharing intelligence information.

"As we are talking about intelligence matters, I cannot go into details. The main point is that we agreed to enhance cooperation in fighting terrorism," the President said as quoted by Antara.

Cooperation in intelligence gathering is important especially to prevent future bombing by terrorist networks such as Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), which has been fighting to establish a pan- Islamic state in Southeast Asia.

During the occasion, Megawati thanked the Thai authorities for arresting top JI leader Hambali, the most wanted man in Southeast Asia.

"I thanked Prime Minister Thaksin (Shinawatra) for Hambali's arrest as he had been sought after by the Indonesian Police," the President said.

Hambali, born in West Java as Encep Nurjaman, has been on the run for years. He had been declared the mastermind of various bombing incidents in the country, including a series of Christmas Eve bombings in 2000, the Bali bombing in October last year, and the recent Aug. 5 bombing at JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta.

It was not clear, however, whether Megawati questioned Thailand's decision to hand over the terror suspect to the U.S. authorities, and not to Indonesia.

Besides Indonesia, Hambali is wanted by the Philippines for a number of bombing cases.

Besides strengthened cooperation on the quashing of terrorism, Indonesia agreed with Thailand to sound out the possibility of cooperation in building military industries and strengthening cooperation in fisheries.

The President ended her official four-day overseas visit on Sunday, but continued with a personal visit to Singapore.

A high-ranking official at the President's office told The Jakarta Post that Megawati would stop over in Singapore for a medical check-up.

Megawati has stopped over in Singapore after most of her overseas trips for treatment of a cataract problem.

She is slated to return to Jakarta on Monday morning.