Indonesian President opens Asia Africa meet for Palestinians
INDONESIA: Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
opened an Asia-Africa conference on “capacity building for Palestine”
alongside Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad here Monday.
The president of the world’s most populous Muslim country said the
ministerial-level talks aimed to offer help to prepare Palestinians to
govern and administer their own state.
Yudhoyono said the 53 countries and organisations at the Asia-Africa
conference would reiterate calls for the implementation of the 2003
Middle East peace roadmap.
“The international community must work together in concert to realise
the goal of an independent, viable Palestinian state in the very near
future,” he said.
He backed what he called their “courageous struggle” against Israeli
occupation of the their territories.
“It is a bitter struggle. There are now some four million
Palestinians living in distress. They suffer all kinds of violence...
Their human rights and their human dignity are violated,” he said. The
one-day conference is being held under the New Asian-African Strategic
Partnership framework, intended to promote peace, prosperity and
progress in the two regions.
It comes after the Israelis and Palestinians held talks on the
sidelines of a summit of Mediterranean leaders in Paris at the weekend.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said after talks with Palestinian
leader Mahmud Abbas on Sunday: “We have never been as close to an accord
as we are today.”
Fayyad referred to ongoing negotiations with the Israelis but he made
no reference to the Paris talks.
He said the Palestinians needed help from Asia and Africa to realise
the “vision of Palestine that is democratic, that respects human rights
and that guarantees equal rights for all citizens.”
“Many of your states have recently passed through the phase we are in
right now, or indeed are going through it. We Palestinians are inspired
by your success stories,” he said, referring to independence struggles.
Jakarta, Thursday, AFP |
