Megawati leaves for Johannesburg to attend Earth Summit

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

President Megawati Soekarnoputri left on Sunday for Johannesburg, South Africa, to attend the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development, from where she will start her tour to Algiers, Hungary, Bosnia, Croatia and Egypt.

Megawati, who hosted the final preparatory committee meeting on the summit in Bali last May and June, is scheduled to deliver a speech, along with South African President Thabo Mbeki and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

On the sidelines of the four-day summit, Megawati will hold bilateral meetings with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Dutch Prime Minister Wim Koek, South African President Thabo Mbeki, Croatian President Stepjan Mesic, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and Rumanian President Ion Iliesku.

After the four-day summit, Megawati will start her whirlwind tour of Northern Africa and Eastern Europe and visit many tourist attractions in the five destination countries.

A source told The Jakarta Post that the current tour would cost the state some Rp 22 billion (US$2.4million), as Megawati will take with her an entourage of 111 people.

An official at the palace told the Post on Sunday that thus far, the President had spent about Rp 105 billion on foreign trips, excluding the current one.

Earlier, the Alliance for a New Indonesia (PIB) estimated that the President had spent US$22.8 million on visiting 27 countries during her first year in office.

On Sunday, only a few ministers saw her off. Present at Halim Perdanakusumah Airport were Vice President Hamzah Haz, Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto, the three service chiefs of staff and National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar.

This time, the President leaves behind mounting domestic problems, including the migrant worker crisis and the reportedly inhumane treatment these expelled workers have received at the hands of their own government.

It has been reported that thus far, 64 people and children have died in the worker camps in Nunukan, East Kalimantan, after the Malaysian government implemented harsher penalties against illegal migrants.

The number of expelled workers that have flooded the camps has reach 22,000 people; that number could increase in the coming days.

While Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is welcoming expelled Philippine workers returning from Malaysia, Megawati will be sightseeing at the Egyptian tourist attractions of Luxor and Alexandria.