Megawati leaves for Johannesburg to attend Earth Summit

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.