The construction of a helipad in Indonesia's famed botanical gardens for an upcoming visit by U.S. President George W. Bush will damage protected plants, an opposition party said on Tuesday.
JAKARTA — The construction of a helipad in Indonesia's famed botanical gardens for an upcoming visit by U.S. President George W. Bush will damage protected plants, an opposition party said on Tuesday.
Bush will visit Indonesia this month on a brief stopover after attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam on Nov. 18.
Details on the Bush visit have not been officially announced, but Indonesian media reports say it will take place on Nov. 20.
Bush is due to meet President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the summer palace in Bogor, located inside the 87-hectare Bogor Botanical Gardens, south of the capital.
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said using the gardens as a landing place for helicopters would hurt the fragile environment.
"This means the (Indonesian) president is sacrificing environmental conservation for the sake of political interests," PDI-P said in a statement.
The Rakyat Merdeka daily, which showed picture of a mechanical excavator digging earth inside the gardens to prepare for the helipad, also criticised the cost of the Bush visit.
The paper's Tuesday edition ran a story with a headline: "Bush in Bogor costs 1 billion rupiah ($110,000) an hour."
On Saturday, about 500 Indonesian Muslims staged a protest outside the U.S. embassy in Jakarta against Bush's planned visit to the world's most populous Islamic nation.
Around 18,000 security personnel will be deployed during the trip, the capital's police chief was quoted as saying.
Bush first visited Indonesia in 2003 when he met President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who is also PDI-P's chairwoman, and Muslim leaders in Bali.
Despite differences over Middle East policy and occasional rowdy anti-American demonstrations in Indonesia, Jakarta and Washington have generally good relations, and the Southeast Asian nation is considered a key ally in U.S. anti-terrorism efforts.
Source: Reuters
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