Malaysia, Indonesia to Discuss Haze, E.timor, Aceh
8/24/99
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Malaysia, Indonesia to Discuss Haze, E.timor, Aceh
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 24, 1999
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 24 (Reuters) - The leaders of Malaysia and
Indonesia are due to discuss environmental issues as well as
developments in East Timor and the restive Indonesian province of
Aceh at a meeting this week.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and visiting Indonesian
President B.J. Habibie, accompanied by a delegation of 80 including
army chief General Wiranto, are scheduled to meet for two hours on
Wednesday.
"The bilateral discussions will touch on illegal immigrants, migrant
workers, cooperation in education, haze management and technical
cooperation," Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told a news
conference in the capital Kuala Lumpur.
He said the situation in East Timor and Aceh will also feature in the
discussions.
East Timorese vote on August 30 whether to have greater autonomy
under Indonesian rule or break away and establish their own tiny
state. The run-up for the U.N.-organised vote has been marred by a
wave of violence by pro-Jakarta militias.
Staunchly Moslem resource-rich Aceh, at the northern tip of Sumatra,
has long battled against central rule.
Accompanying Habibie will be General Wiranto, Foreign Minister Ali
Alatas, Economics Minister Ginandjar Kartasasmita and Trade Minister
Rahardi Ramelan.
Habibie and Mahathir held a rare meeting in May on the Indonesian
island of Batam near Singapore, and Mahathir said they were able to
resolve some outstanding trade and logging issues.
The meeting in May between the two men, who spoke together at an
Asia-Pacific summit in Malaysia in November 1998, was touted as their
first real bilateral meeting.
Ties came under pressure after Asia's financial crisis erupted in
mid-1997 and Kuala Lumpur began deporting thousands of Indonesian
nationals, including some Acehnese who had sought asylum in Malaysia.
An estimated 2,000 people, most of them civilians, died during a
nine-year insurgency in Aceh which ended last year.
Bilateral relations were strained further during the trial of former
Malaysian deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, who was sentenced in April to
six years' jail for corruption.
Late last year Habibie expressed concern about Anwar's treatment and
Kuala Lumpur made no secret of its irritation with Habibie's support
for Anwar.
Mahathir said his talks with Habibie in May touched on border
crossing issues, a source of dispute between the countries which
share a long border on the island of Borneo.
He said Malaysia faced an influx of illegal immigrants in the first
three months of 1999 equal to the whole of 1998.
Widespread smog from Indonesian forest fires choked Southeast Asia in
1997, costing billions of dollars in agricultural damage, lost
tourism and health costs.
Southeast Asian environment ministers are set to meet in Singapore on
Thursday to discuss the return of regional haze.