President Abdurrahman to attend Millennium Summit

President Abdurrahman to attend Millennium Summit

JAKARTA (JP): President Abdurrahman Wahid is scheduled on
Monday morning to begin his fourth overseas trip of the year, to
attend the United Nations-organized Millennium Summit in New
York.

The President will go ahead with the trip despite a warning
from the House of Representatives that he has already spent Rp
52.72 billion (US$5.85 million), or 98.64 percent, of his state-
allocated travel budget for the year.

The director general of protocol and consular affairs at the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rachmat Ranudiwijaja, told
journalists on Friday evening that during the planned nine-day
trip, the President also was scheduled to hold bilateral meetings
with at least 12 world leaders, including United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

"All of those planned meetings are at the request of the
foreign leaders," Rachmat said.

Palace officials said they expected Annan to raise the issue
of the prosecution of suspects in the mayhem in East Timor last
year, the problem of East Timorese refugees in East Nusa Tenggara
and the continued infiltration of pro-Indonesian militias into
East Timor.

The President's first meeting after his arrival in New York
will be with Australian Prime Minister John Howard. They will
hold talks at the UN Regal Plaza Hotel on Tuesday. The latest
situation in East Timor and bilateral issues are expected to be
the main focus of the meeting.

Abdurrahman several times this year has revealed plans to
visit Australia, but he has always changed his mind.

After his meeting with Howard, the President plans to hold
bilateral talks with Japanese Prime Minister Yosihiro Mori. Japan
is expected to host a meeting of the Consultative Group on
Indonesia in October.

With Philippine President Joseph Estrada, Abdurrahman will
discuss the latest developments in the investigation into the
blast at the Philippines Embassy in Jakarta early last month.

Abdurrahman met with Annan, Howard and Mori in June.

"All of the meetings will be held during his five-day stay in
New York, which will end on Friday," Rachmat said.

Before delivering a speech to the summit on Friday, the
President plans to hold a press conference with the international
media.

From New York, the President and his entourage will fly to
Baltimore on Friday evening, where the President will have his
eyes checked for a second time at Johns Hopkins Hospital. His
first checkup at the hospital was in June.

Abdurrahman, whose sight is severely impaired, has undergone
treatment on his eyes in Salt Lake City, Tokyo and Beijing. The
doctors have said there has been no significant improvement in
his sight, particularly in his left eye.

Apart from his sight, doctors have declared the President in
perfect health, saying the strokes he suffered several years ago
have not affected him. (prb)