Jakarta Awaits Bush Visit

A politically weakened U.S. President George W. Bush will face anger over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan when he visits mostly Muslim Indonesia on Monday for talks aimed at broadening ties with a strategic ally in the war on terror.

Islamic groups have vowed to disrupt Mr. Bush's brief stop in the country, which is also seen in Washington as a key counterbalance to China's emerging might in Southeast Asia. Security officials said the threat of a terrorist attack has increased dramatically in recent days.

Maj. Gen. Adang Firman, the police chief in the capital, Jakarta, did not say if a plot by al Qaeda-linked militants had been uncovered.

"It is higher," was all he would say Saturday of the threat. "It's escalated sharply."

Even so, while terrorism dominated talks last time Mr. Bush visited — just months after the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people — officials from both nations say this time around discussions will be more wide-ranging.

Poverty alleviation, education, health, corruption and investment are on the agenda, and Mr. Bush will also likely solicit advice from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on the Middle East crisis and the North Korean and Iranian nuclear disputes, they said.

"Focusing on Islamic radicalism appears to be a thing of the past," said Kusnanto Anggoro of the Jakarta-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, adding that the U.S. Republican party's stinging defeat in recent elections "puts Indonesia in a stronger position this time around."

"It opens the opportunity to talk about something else ... including the importance of taking a multilateral approach in engaging with the world," Anggoro said.

Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous nation and has more Muslims than any other, with about 190 million mostly moderate believers. But it is grappling with Islamic extremists, and has been hit by a string of terrorist attacks targeting Western interests, including the Bali bombings.

Yudhoyono, the country's first directly elected leader, has worked closely with the Bush administration, sharing intelligence about the regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah and overseeing the arrest of hundreds of Islamic militants.

Washington rewarded Jakarta last year by lifting an arms embargo that had been imposed in 1999 over human rights concerns. Removing the embargo was a largely symbolic move that helped restore the young democracy's international credibility.

And while Yudhoyono's cash-strapped government has bought only spare military parts from the United States since then, there are a lot of other things it wants from the superpower.

"The president has laid out a program of things he wants to fix, or wants to work on in Indonesia: education, health, governance, anti-corruption," U.S. Ambassador B. Lynn Pascoe told reporters recently. "And we think it's important enough that Indonesia succeed that we're willing to help."

But when Yudhoyono holds talks with Bush in Bogor, a hilltop town south of Jakarta, he will have to find a way to express his desire for continued U.S. support without angering political rivals who already accuse him of being subservient to the West, analysts note.

Anti-American sentiment is mounting and Islamic hard-liners and students have held near-daily rallies this month, calling Mr. Bush a terrorist and burning effigies of the U.S. leader. They are vowing to come out in full force during his 10-hour visit, and about 18,000 police will be deployed.

Rifle-toting soldiers, police and members of an elite anti-terror squad were patrolling the streets near the presidential palace in Bogor on Saturday, and a bomb squad was called in to investigate a suspicious vehicle left unattended for two days.

Police towed the sedan away after explosives experts determined it posed no danger.

Yudhoyono's political opponents are also getting mileage from Mr. Bush's visit, with lawmakers interrupting Parliament this week to ask why he is being welcomed.

"We should clearly state that President Bush is a war criminal who should not be allowed in Indonesian territory," Fahri Hamzah of the Islamic-based Justice and Prosperity Party told legislators.

Yudhoyono has already indicated that he's prepared to talk tough, however, saying Thursday that Washington needs to set a timetable for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Hours later, his defense minister vowed to continue to look to Russia for military equipment, saying the U.S. could "impose an embargo anytime."

Mr. Bush, meanwhile, with his popularity plummeting at home and abroad, is expected to have on kid gloves when discussing issues like Indonesia's ongoing battle with Islamic extremism, its failure to find justice in the poisoning death of the country's top human rights activist, and foot-dragging in fighting bird flu.