Japan to host Yudhoyono amid FTA hopes

TOKYO (AP): President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will
visit Japan in late November, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said
Tuesday, as the two countries work toward reaching a free trade
agreement.

Yudhoyono is expected to meet Japanese Emperor Akihito and
Empress Michiko, as well as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during his
Nov. 26-29 visit, the ministry said in a statement.

The statement provided no more details about the president’s
visit, which comes as the two countries work to conclude
negotiations toward a free trade deal that began in July 2005.

After the latest round of talks in Tokyo earlier this month, the
Foreign Ministry said the two countries made progress in areas
including goods and services and investment rules, but that
negotiations were still needed in other areas such as energy.

The two countries have been looking into ways to ensure a stable
supply of energy from Indonesia, which Japan relies upon for about one-third of its natural gas needs, ministry official
Yuichi Watanabe said.

The countries hope to reach an agreement in principle during
November, Kyodo News agency reported at the time, citing
unidentified Japanese officials. (**)

‘Military cooperation between China and ASEAN may promote openness’

WASHINGTON: The United States welcomed a request by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao for increased military cooperation with ASEAN as a potential step for greater transparency on military affairs by the Chinese. The Chinese Premier made the statement  at the ASEAN-China summit attended by Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and other ASEAN leaders in China. The office of State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement Monday (Tuesday in Indonesia) that Wen’s appeal to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations apparently was “part of a broader dialogue on common security issues.” The statement said: “Such military-to-military dialogue and engagement can increase transparency and promote stability. “We encourage China to be more open about its military strategy, doctrine and budgets as it modernizes its military.” U.S. officials have emphasized for years their desire for more openness by the Chinese on their military capabilities and plans. “Although ASEAN itself is not a security organization, engaging other countries and other militaries in the region on security issues can be a positive step, so long as it is done in an open and non-exclusionary manner,” the statement said4. (**)

Police arrest 15 suspects in Central Sulawesi

JAKARTA (AP): Indonesian police have arrested at least 15 Muslims
suspected of participating in violence against Christians on
Central Sulawesi in recent years, official said Tuesday.

The men, identified during eight months of police
surveillance, are suspected in 13 cases dating back to 2001,
including shootings, beheadings, bombings and robberies, said
national police spokesman Brig. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam.

Investigators are hunting another 29 suspects still at large,
he said.

Central Sulawesi, particularly the town of Poso, was the scene
of fierce gunbattles between Christians and Muslims from 1998 to
2002 that left at least 1,000 people from both faiths dead.

A peace agreement ended the worst of the violence, but
tensions flared anew after last month’s executions of three Roman
Catholic militants convicted of leading a 2000 attack on an
Islamic school that killed at least 70 people.

Critics say the men did not get a fair trial and allege that
religion played a role in their sentencing, noting that only a
handful of Muslims were punished, and none given more than 15
years in jail. (**)

Shares close up as overseas earnings boost index

JAKARTA (AP): Indonesian shares closed up as the market responded
to gains in overseas markets during last week’s Eid al-Fitr
holiday, traders said.
The Jakarta Stock Exchange main index closed up 7.343 points, or
0.47 percent at 1580.189 from 1568.741 intraday low.
“The Hong Kong market is high, of course we got help from the Dow
and even Thailand is picking up,” a trader at foreign bank said.
Expectations of positive third-quarter earnings for blue chip
firms including bellwether Telekomunikasi Indonesia and benign
October inflation data Wednesday likely to keep index in positive
territory rest of week, traders said.
The Indonesian rupiah ended slightly weaker at 9,112 against the
U.S. dollar compared to previous 9,103 close as month-end demand
from local companies undermines impacts of the greenback’s
weakness against most regional rivals, dealers said.
“Demand for the dollar may increase tomorrow as most companies
were closed last week,” a dealer said, and expected the rupiah to
be trader between 9,080-9,120 day range Tuesday. (**)

Dollar falls against yen in Asian trading

TOKYO (AP): The dollar fell against the yen in Asian trading
Monday as figures showing weaker-than-expected U.S. economic
growth continued to weigh on the American currency.
The U.S. dollar was trading at 117.44 yen by mid-afternoon in
Tokyo, down from 117.59 yen from late Friday in New York. The
euro fell to US$1.2719, from $1.2736.
During the Asian session, Japanese exporters, as well as
mutual and pension funds sold the dollar, sending the currency to
as low as 117.20 yen, dealers said
“After many unsuccessful attempts to lift the dollar above 120
yen (over the past few weeks) and the weaker-than-expected U.S.
economy, some players have given up challenging the dollar’s
upside for now,” said Jun Kato, deputy general manager of the
marketing department at Shinkin Central Bank.
Traders expect the dollar to remain weak this week as players
may hold off buying the greenback, and are eager to check to see
if the U.S. October non-farm payrolls, which economists on
average expect a 125,000 gain, will come out weaker than the
forecast.
Kato said the dollar may fall to 116.00 yen this week if the data turn out to be weak.
Also weighing on the dollar versus the yen is the possibility
that Bank of Japan Governor Toshihiko Fukui may take a hawkish
tone at his press conference Tuesday.
“Some players are speculating that the Fukui may sound hawkish
to leave the door open for a possible rate hike in December,”
said Kikuko Takeda, currency research manager at Bank of Tokyo
Mitsubishi UFJ.
The BOJ chief is scheduled to speak after the central bank’s
policy-board meeting and the release of its semiannual Outlook
for Economic Activity and Prices report. Currency players are
focused on whether the report will be bullish on the Japanese
economy.
Against other Asian currencies, the dollar was mixed, rising
to 36.74 Thai baht from 36.715 last Friday, and to 9,108
Indonesian rupiah from 9,095. It fell to 944.3 South Korean won
from 947.7, and to 3.6395 Malaysian ringgit from 3.6500. (**)

China wants closer defense cooperation with ASEAN

NANNING, China (AP): China hopes to expand military exchanges and
cooperation with its Southeast Asian neighbors, Premier Wen
Jiabao said in remarks to a regional summit Monday.
“We should expand military dialogue and exchanges, conduct and
institutionalize cooperation” and pursue a “code of conduct”
regarding territorial disputes in the South China Sea, Wen said
according to a copy of a speech to a gathering of Chinese and
leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Wen said Beijing favored setting up a nuclear weapons-free
zone in Southeast Asia and was ready to sign a protocol to a
treaty to that effect.
“China is committed to good neighborly relations, friendship
and cooperation,” Wen told the leaders of ASEAN, which groups
Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar,
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
“We should also step up cooperation on cross-border issues
concerning counterterrorism, transnational crimes, maritime
security, rescue operations and disaster relief,” he said.
Despite growing economic ties, Beijing and its neighbors are
still grappling with territorial disputes and other tensions. During their one-day summit in the southern Chinese city of Nanning, the leaders were said to be working on a proposed “code of conduct” for handling flare-ups in disputes over oil and fish-
rich islands in the South China Sea.
China, a nuclear power itself, was once seen by ASEAN members
as a communist menace but is increasingly a key driver of
regional growth. (**)

Tommy leaves prison cell

JAKARTA (AP): Former president Soeharto’s youngest son, who has
served four years in prison for ordering the murder of a judge,
was set to be released Monday in a move critics said highlights
the ability of Indonesia’s rich and powerful to evade justice.
Hutomo “Tommy” Mandalaputra’s original 15-year sentence was
reduced to 10 years on appeal. Following several lengthy
remissions for good behavior, he has now served two-thirds of his
sentence, making him eligible for release on parole, a justice
ministry official said.
Tommy left his prison cell in East Jakarta on Monday afternoon
but remained on prison grounds.
He was scheduled to go next to the prosecutor’s office, where
his release would be made official, but television crews and
journalists prevented his luxury black Toyota from leaving the
prison grounds.
Gusti Tamardjadja, head of the ministry’s prison division in
the capital, denied that Tommy was getting any special
privileges. “He is being treated like every other inmate,” he
said. “Everything is happening according to the law.”
But not everyone was convinced. <p>Tommy – who like all of Soeharto’s children amassed a vast
fortune and lived a lavish lifestyle during the 1980s and ’90s -
was found guilty in 2002 of illegal weapons possession, fleeing
justice and ordering the assassination of a Supreme Court judge
who had earlier convicted him of graft.
The two motorcycle gunmen who killed Syafiuddin Kartasasmita
each got life behind bars.
“It’s been clear from the beginning of this case that
Indonesia’s judicial system failed,” said leading human rights
activist Asmara Nababan, noting that the criminal code says the
mastermind of a murder should be punished more severely than the
killer.
That Tommy is walking free after serving just over four years
shows “nothing has changed” since pro-democracy riots forced his
father to step down in 1998 after 32 years of iron-fisted rule,
he said.
Under Soeharto’s reign, members of the first family were
considered untouchable.
Though Soeharto was indicted in 2000 on charges of embezzling
US$600 million in state funds, legal proceedings against him have
been abandoned because of his poor health. (**)

UN peacekeepers in East Timor vital: New Zealand PM

WELLINGTON (AP): United Nations peacekeepers in East Timor are
vital to keeping law and order and will be needed for some time,
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Helen Clark said Monday.
Clark was commenting on a surge in violence over the past
week, in which at least eight people have died and more than 50
were wounded in clashes between East Timor’s rival gangs.
The scale of the unrest – 200 to 300 people have been involved
in the fighting – has led U.N. officials in the capital, Dili, to
suggest the bloodshed may be planned.
“The violence of the last few days is very disturbing,” Clark
said.
“The security force there from offshore is absolutely
essential to maintain any sort of law and order, and I don’t
think the case for it being there is going to go away any time
soon, unfortunately,” she told reporters.
East Timor’s Deputy Prime Minister Estanislau da Silva said
Friday the government still fully supports the work of some 1,000
Australian and 110 New Zealand forces trying to contain the
latest outbreak of hostilities.
East Timor has been plagued by instability since rival security forces clashed in Dili in April and May, after the
government dismissed a third of the armed forces.
The violence has driven about 155,000 people from their homes.
Foreign peacekeepers took over national security, but gang
warfare, looting and arson attacks have continued as the country
remains split over attitudes toward more than two decades of
Indonesian occupation, which ended in 1999. (**)

Jakarta shares end up in the morning

JAKARTA (Antara): Share prices closed the morning session higher
after a week-long holiday break, with gains in mining stocks such
as Aneka Tambang and INCO, lifting the composite index to a new
intra-day high.
Dealers said there was also interest in stocks of firms’ that
have reported strong third quarter earnings.
The composite index closed the morning session up 7.920 points,
or 0.50 percent, at 1,580.766, after touching a new intra-day
high at 1,582.843.
The Volume was 527.86 million shares valued at Rp 965.29
billion.
The rupiah was trading at 9,102/9,107 against the dollar,
compared to 9,150/9,160 on Oct. 20, the last trading day before
the week-long break. (**)

ASEAN, Chinese leaders gather in Nanning

NANNING, China (AP): Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was meeting
Monday with Southeast Asian leaders in the south China city of
Nanning for a summit showcasing Beijing’s influence and
increasingly close ties with its neighbors.
The talks, held to commemorate 15 years of formal ties between
China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, were
expected to focus both on progress toward free trade and efforts
to keep peace in the region.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – countries
ranging from some of the most affluent to some of the poorest.
With China, the region is home to 1.8 billion people, more than a
quarter of humanity.
Two-way trade between China and ASEAN, already expanding at a
rate of nearly 40 percent a year, looks likely to expand to
US$200 billion a year by 2008, even before the China-ASEAN Free
Trade Area is due to be established in 2010.
But last year, China-ASEAN trade hit $130.4 billion, the
official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Preliminary plans for the free trade area were set in 2002. The FTA will create a regional market of some 1.7 billion
consumers and economic activity totaling more than $2 trillion
(euro1.6 trillion).
Countries have begun slashing tariffs on some products, though
tough negotiations are continuing on loosening trade restrictions
for finance and other services industries.
ASEAN likewise is a key market for Chinese manufacturers, as
well as a source for energy and other natural resources. Over the
weekend, China and Indonesia signed an energy investment deal
worth up to $4.26 billion (euro3.4 billion), media reported.
The agreement, involving six investment projects, was signed
in Shanghai by Indonesia’s minister of Energy and Mineral
Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro and China’s top economic planner,
Ma Kai.
China’s neighbors see obvious advantages in gaining access to
China’s massive market of 1.3 billion people, Ruan Zongze, vice
president of the China Institute of International Studies, wrote
in a commentary in the state-run newspaper China Daily. (**)