Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – President Bush travels to Indonesia today on a mission to tamp down anti-American sentiment in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
He has his work cut out for him. Thousands of protesters gathered even before his arrival, a local shaman put a curse on him, and Indonesian officials went on alert for possible terrorist activity.
More than 20,000 police and security agents have been mobilized to help protect the president during his seven-hour stopover. Bush will meet with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Bogor, about 45 miles south of Jakarta, after a weekend trip to Vietnam.
“My curse will make him bloat like broccoli. Bush will feel unease during the visit,” Ki Gendeng Pamungkas told The Jakarta Post after performing a black-magic ritual at a busy Bogor traffic circle last week. His curse required the blood of a snake, a goat and a crow.
The American president is widely unpopular in Indonesia, largely because of the war in Iraq and U.S. support for Israel. During Bush’s last visit, in 2003, he was peppered with criticism by religious leaders.
“I think he’s going to hear it again,” said Zachary Abuza, an Indonesia expert and an international-relations professor at Simmons College in Boston. “They are very angry about Iraq. As far as they’re concerned, it is patently anti-Muslim – and that’s the moderates.”
Meanwhile Sunday, the U.S. and its partners in the campaign to force North Korea to end its nuclear-weapons program won the support of a broad summit of Pacific Rim nations, the latest effort to step up pressure in slow-moving talks with the Pyong yang government.
The declaration was issued in an informal statement delivered by the conference host, the president of Vietnam, rather than a formal, written paper – a distinction suggesting a less authoritative step.
It was issued at the end of the annual meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group.
At the end of the Hanoi meeting, President Nguyen Minh Triet of Vietnam read a statement saying that North Korea’s test of a nuclear device Oct. 9, and its missile launches three months earlier, posed “a nuclear threat” to peace and security and to the summit nations’ goal of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.
He called for full implementation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, which include the threat of sanctions to pressure North Korea to renounce its nuclear-weapons program.
The statement came a day after South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun told Bush that his government could not commit to boarding North Korean ships suspected of carrying nuclear-related cargo.
White House officials on Sunday cited the statement as a sign that the United States and its allies remain on the same track regarding North Korea.
The summit also produced what U.S. officials presented as a strong commitment to renewed global trade talks, which have broken down despite pledges to liberalize international trade practices through reduced tariffs and subsidies and greater market access.
