Indonesia increases security for climate change meet

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JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia will deploy 10,000 police and soldiers to guard a high-profile U.N. climate conference in the resort island of Bali, which has been the scene of deadly militant attacks in recent years, officials said.

Some 10,000 people from about 190 countries -- including ministers and senior officials -- are expected to gather in Bali from December 3 to 14 to find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on cutting climate warming carbon emissions which expires in 2012.

 

By Ahmad Pathoni

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia will deploy 10,000 police and soldiers to guard a high-profile U.N. climate conference in the resort island of Bali, which has been the scene of deadly militant attacks in recent years, officials said.

Some 10,000 people from about 190 countries -- including ministers and senior officials -- are expected to gather in Bali from December 3 to 14 to find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on cutting climate warming carbon emissions which expires in 2012.

Security has been tightened at sea, air and land entry points to Bali, but there have been no intelligence reports of a possible attack during the meeting, police spokesman Antonius Reniban said on Thursday.

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Bali was the scene of two major bombings in 2002 and 2005, which have been blamed on Islamic militants. More than 220 people, mostly foreign holiday makers, were killed in both attacks.

Armed forces spokesman Sagom Tamboen said military units including anti-terror personnel would be deployed during the conference, which is expected to draw a host of government officials and celebrities such as "Titanic" actor Leonardo DiCaprio and British rock band Radiohead's frontman Thom York.

"We are on alert for any eventuality," Tamboen said.

Bali, a Hindu enclave in the world's most populous Muslim nation, has barely started to recover from a crisis in its vital tourism industry triggered by the bombings targeting its nightclubs and restaurants.

Security personnel and equipment, including hundreds of patrol cars and motorcycles, have been dispatched to the resort island as part of an operation codenamed Great Temple 2007 for the climate conference.

The main conference venue in the manicured Nusa Dua resort area will be guarded by 64 U.N. police, backed by 140 Indonesian officers, said police spokesman Reniban.

"Our simulations include different types of threats, from anarchic demonstrations to a chemical bomb attack," he said. "We can't ban demonstrations, but if they become anarchic, we have to take action."

The Bali conference will seek a successor to the U.N. Kyoto Protocol, which binds 36 industrial nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.

(Editing by Sugita Katyal and Sanjeev Miglani)