Soeharto off to Copenhagen for UN Summit

Soeharto off to Copenhagen for UN Summit

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto and his entourage left last
night for Copenhagen to attend the ongoing United Nations World
Summit on Social Development.

The trip will also take him to the Croatian capital of Zagreb
and to Sarajevo, the besieged capital of Bosnia Herzegovina. His
planned trip to the former Yugoslavia has especially won the
favor of Indonesian Moslem figures.

Soeharto, accompanied by First Lady Tien Soeharto and several
cabinet ministers, is scheduled to spend three hours in Sarajevo
on March 13 and will return to Jakarta on March 14.

In Copenhagen, President Soeharto will join 120 heads of state
and government, including U.S. Vice President Al Gore, French
President Francois Mitterrand, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl,
South African President Nelson Mandela and PLO leader Yasser
Arafat, all of whom are due to attend the conference's March 11-
12 finale.

President Soeharto is also scheduled to hold bilateral talks
with a number of heads of state, including those from Iran, the
People's Republic of China and Poland.

On March 12, President Soeharto will leave for Zagreb and meet
with Croatian government leaders, largely to discuss the prospect
of economic cooperation between the two countries. A group of
Indonesian business executives will join the entourage there.

On the next day, President Soeharto will be flown aboard a
United Nations plane from Zagreb to Sarajevo for the Bosnian
visit. Here, Soeharto, who is also chairman of the Non-Aligned
Movement, will meet with Bosnian leaders "to obtain first-hand
information" about the situation in the country that has been
ravaged by civil war for the last four years.

The United Nations peacekeeping force in Bosnia has guaranteed
the safety of the President and his entourage.

Soeharto's planned stopover in Sarajevo has elicited the
sympathy of the local Moslem community, with some Moslem leaders
calling on their congregations to pray for the President's
safety.

Ahmad Sumargono and Lukman Harun, leaders of two organizations
which for the last couple of years have actively mobilized local
Moslems' support for Bosnian Moslems, both expressed happiness
over the Sarajevo trip.

"We're happy. We support and respect President Soeharto's
initiative to show Indonesia's support for Bosnia," Sumargono of
the Indonesian Committee for World Moslems Solidarity told The
Jakarta Post yesterday.

"We'll pray for his safety in Sarajevo," he said, adding that
he hoped President Soeharto's visit would help in establishing
diplomatic ties with Bosnia.

Many Indonesian Moslems are still mobilizing various forms of
assistance, including money, but they have had difficulty
forwarding it to Bosnia due to the lack of diplomatic ties.

Lukman Harun, leader of the Committee of Moslem Solidarity,
called Soeharto's visit a historical event. He also called on
Indonesian Moslems, which account for 88 percent of the total
population of 195 million, to pray for the safety of Soeharto and
his entourage.

"We all know that Sarajevo is still a very dangerous place, so
we all should pray for the President's safety on this important,
historical visit," Lukman said.

He pointed out that this will be the first visit by the head
of a country with a large Moslem population. "This will be an
affirmation of the largest Moslem country, as well as of leader
of the Non-Aligned Movement, of its constant support toward
efforts to find peaceful solutions in Bosnia," he told the Post.

"The world will watch and see how Indonesia supports efforts
to halt Serbian aggression in the country," he added.

Both Lukman and Sumargono, however, agreed that Soeharto's
visit would unlikely put a prompt end to the four-year-old
conflict.

"This visit will be more of a symbol...a commitment of the
Indonesian people to reject any form of oppression in the world,"
Lukman said. "As for effective solutions to the conflict...they
may still be far in the future, and will depend more on the UN
and NATO."

Sumargono said he was hoping that Soeharto's visit would rally
the support of Indonesians behind the Bosnian cause.

In addition to sending medical and financial assistance, he
said, the Indonesian government should also be more supportive of
the local Moslems' wish to go as peacekeeping troops to the
region. (swe)