Stakeholders put high hopes on Palestinian conference in RI

Tony Hotland ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Amman   |  Mon, 07/07/2008 10:31 AM  |  World

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday he expected a lot from next week's international conference in Jakarta, where representatives from more than 100 Asian and African countries will gather and pledge capacity-building projects for Palestine.

The July 14-15 conference will be co-chaired by Indonesia and South Africa, organized under the auspices of the 2005 New Asian-African Strategic Partnership framework.

"This conference will be a very important help to the Palestinian people. It will be complementary to the conferences in Annapolis and Paris.

"It is a revival of the 1955 (Asian-African) conference and nobody forgot. We didn't forget, Indonesia didn't (forget) that there was a pledge to the Palestinian people and it will continue," Abbas said.

Abbas, however, said he wouldn't be present at the conference, but would send Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and a number of related ministers.

He said he would be in Paris on those dates for meetings with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Abbas was speaking after a meeting here with Indonesian diplomat Nana Sutresna, one of Indonesia's special envoys dispatched to deliver conference invitations.

Before meeting with Abbas, Nana on Thursday delivered an invitation to Qatar's government in Doha. On Sunday he met with Jordanian Foreign Minister Salahuddin Al Bashir and was scheduled to meet with the Syrian president on Tuesday.

"This isn't just a conference. In all meetings, I stressed that these countries should be ready with their pick of assistance projects for Palestine.

"We don't want pledges that remain pledges. Palestine has drawn up a list of projects they need, and the countries will be making their selections," Nana said.

Minister Al Bashir said he would not be able to attend the conference because he had events in Latin America on July 15, but said he would send a high-ranking official.

"We have a direct interest in the creation of a Palestinian state. By all means, this conference should come out with projects and their delivery assured. The political emphasis of this conference is strong, we want a Palestinian state," he said.

Jordan hosts some 1.9 million Palestinian refugees, representing 42 percent of the total refugees registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Peter Ford, a UNRWA representative, said his organization would use the conference to draw the attention of the attending countries to the refugee situation.

"None of the conferences in Annapolis or Paris dealt with the refugee issue despite it being one of the thorny issues. It's about time the bigger picture was considered," he said.

UNRWA is the only organization dealing with some four million Palestinian refugees. It depends on donors to cover 99 percent of its costs, and 90 percent of this comes from Western governments.

With current food and fuel price increases, Ford said operational costs had shot up but donations had been stagnant. He said this year's budget was at US$500 million with half of it having been realized.

Indonesia recently contributed $10,000 to UNRWA, adding to the some $60,000 it has given since 1997.

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