Megawati too busy to meet Howard at Bali anniversary
Megawati too busy to meet Howard at Bali anniversary
Telly Nathalia and Michelle Nichols, Reuters, Jakarta/Canberra
Indonesia said on Tuesday its president will be too busy to meet Australian Prime Minister John Howard when he visits Bali next month to mark the first anniversary of bomb attacks that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
Foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda told a regular House hearing that Howard had wanted to discuss terrorism cooperation with President Megawati Soekarnoputri.
Hassan said Megawati would be tied up with a visit by the Algerian president the weekend of Oct. 12. But the move could be seen as a snub to Howard, who is often perceived in Indonesia as lecturing the world's most populous Muslim nation.
"Because the president is busy with other heads of state in (visits) already scheduled, the Indonesian president cannot fulfill the request of PM Howard to meet in Bali on Oct. 12, 2003," Hassan said in prepared remarks.
He mentioned no others beside the Algerian visit.
Howard will bring 1,500 victims and relatives of the October 2002 blasts to Bali for memorial ceremonies being organized by Australia, Hassan said.
A palace official said Megawati, known for shunning the spotlight and sometimes accused of passive leadership, had no plan to attend the events. One local newspaper said she would inaugurate a memorial to the victims on Oct. 12 in Bali.
In Canberra, a spokesman for Howard said the prime minister had known for some time it was unlikely Megawati would attend the Bali commemoration.
The October 2002 Bali bombings were the worst act of terror since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Most of those killed in Bali were partying in nightclubs on an island many Australians had seen as their own backyard.
The attacks were akin to Australia's own Sept. 11, shattering the feeling that the huge island continent was immune to the arbitrary violence of terrorism.
Hassan said that on Aug. 21 he conveyed the message that Megawati could not meet Howard. He said the Indonesian government was not making the Bali anniversary a national day of remembrance because such events had already been held.
Most recently Howard raised eyebrows in Jakarta when he said he was disappointed judges had not ruled Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir led the Jamaah Islamiyah militant group when an Indonesian court jailed him for four years on Sept. 2 for acts of treason.
Howard did say he was pleased Ba'asyir had received a jail term. Indonesia has blamed Jamaah Islamiyah for the Bali atrocity.
Indonesia and Australia have often had prickly ties, although they have cooperated closely in antiterrorism efforts since Bali. Hundreds of Australian police helped their Indonesian counterparts track down Bali bombing suspects.