Xanana to attend tsunami observance

JAKARTA: Timor Leste President Xanana Gusmao and special envoys from 27 countries have confirmed as of Friday their attendance at the one-year commemoration of the tsunami in Banda Aceh on Monday.

Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Yuri Oktavian Thamrin said the ministry had invited representatives of 87 countries and international organizations, including the United Nations.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will be represented by his special humanitarian envoy, Margareta Wahlstrm.

Yuri said the countries invited to the commemoration met the following criteria: having been contributing in emergency and humanitarian assistance and those whose citizens were victims of the tsunami.

He also said that the Indonesian government, on behalf of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, had proposed a resolution to the UN headquarters in New York on the strengthening of coordination of humanitarian assistance. The resolution is sponsored by 137 countries.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will lead the Dec. 26 commemoration in Banda Aceh and on Nias island in North Sumatra. More than 200,000 were killed in the tsunami in 12 countries -- most of them in Aceh. -- JP