Walhi takes campaign to Bangkok

Walhi takes campaign to Bangkok

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi)
plans to voice Indonesia's concern with industrial toxins at an
international non-governmental organization conference in
Bangkok, which will precede next week's Asia-Europe Summit.

Arimbi, Walhi's program manager for environmental law, told
The Jakarta Post that she will be presenting a paper on the
impact of the toxic trade during the conference.

Although the government has banned the import of industrial
waste, she said there are still concerns regarding industrial
chemicals and the transfer of obsolete technologies which produce
toxic waste.

The three-day, Asia-Europe NGO meeting will be held at the
Asia Hotel in Bangkok beginning on Friday.

The meeting, organized by the Bangkok-based Focus on the
Global South, will bring together some 100 representatives from
more than 30 Asian and European NGOs.

Leaders from 25 countries are scheduled to attend the
inaugural meeting of Asian and European states in Bangkok on
March 1-2.

Indonesia's President Soeharto is among the 10 Asian leaders
scheduled to attend this historical summit.

The summit will mainly focus on forging stronger economic and
political ties between governments from the two continents.

Organizers of the NGO meeting are also stressing the
importance of people-to-people contact and the need to address
the concerns they face, including the toxic trade which results
from, among other things, the export of chemicals from Europe to
Asia.

Arimbi said the theme of the NGO meeting is "to go beyond geo-
economics towards a new relationship between the people of Asia
and Europe."

A multitude of concerns will be highlighted at the conference,
including human rights, labor rights, women's issues, indigenous
rights as well as the environment.

One of the key issues likely to be brought up is the question
of East Timor, according to reports from Bangkok.

During the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
summit in Bangkok last December, demonstrations over East Timor
were among the many protests which hampered traffic around the
summit site.

In an apparent attempt to appease Jakarta, the Thai government
has rejected a visa request from Ramos Horta, the exiled East
Timor separatist leader, to attend the NGO conference.

Thai officials during a recent press briefing said the NGO
activists have the right to launch demonstrations and protests as
long as they do not impede the official proceedings of the
summit. (mds)