VZCZCXRO6997
OO RUEHCHI RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHROV
DE RUEHJA #1348/01 1970517
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 150517Z JUL 08
FM AMEMBASSY JAKARTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9518
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS PRIORITY
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA PRIORITY 0283
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 5200
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 2757
RUEHLM/AMEMBASSY COLOMBO 1118
RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA 1077
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0885
RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 0592
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 1996
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 1121
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 2213
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 2834
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0919
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 JAKARTA 001348 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS, NEA, NEA/IPA 
NSC FOR E.PHU 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL EAID ID SF XF
SUBJECT: INDONESIAN-HOSTED PALESTINIAN CONFERENCE WRAPS UP 
 
REF: JAKARTA 1238 
 
¶1.  (U) This message is Sensitive but Unclassified -- Please 
handle accordingly. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  Indonesia and South Africa co-sponsored a 
capacity building conference for the Palestinian Authority on 
July 14 in Jakarta.  Officials representing over 60 countries 
from Asia and Africa met to pledge training and other 
capacity-building assistance in key areas such as 
agriculture, education, economic growth and health.  The 
Ambassador and other representatives of the Quartet attended 
the opening ceremony.  END SUMMARY. 
 
CONFERENCE IN JAKARTA 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Representatives from over 60 countries participated 
a conference on Palestinian capacity building held on July 14 
in Jakarta.  The formal title of the event was the "New 
Asian-African Strategic Partnership Ministerial Conference on 
Capacity Building for Palestine."  It was co-sponsored by 
Indonesia and South Africa.  Conference participants spent 
July 15 in Bandung, where they toured the museum 
commemorating the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference--an event of 
conspicuous importance in the Indonesian worldview--that 
helped spark the creation of the Non-Aligned Movement. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) The conference, organized by Indonesia and South 
Africa, aimed to complement the Quartet-led donor group that 
met in Paris last December and in Berlin in June of this 
year.  Organizers stressed that the conference aimed to 
generate promises of exchange programs, training and other 
forms of capacity building assistance, not donations of 
financial support. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Ambassador Hume and other envoys in Jakarta 
attended the opening session at the Presidential Palace 
although only countries from the Asia-Africa group 
participated in the conference's working sessions.  (Note: 
Delegates from Brazil, Chile and Venezuela also 
participated.)  Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister 
Salam Fayyad led the Palestinian delegation, which included 
four other ministerial-level officials from the PA. 
 
CALL TO BOLSTER CAPABILITIES 
 
¶6.  (SBU) The conference emphasized the themes of 
strengthening the Palestinian economy and improving the lives 
of the Palestinian people.  Speaking at the start of the 
conference, President Yudhoyono said the goal of the 
conference was to empower the Palestinians to build an 
independent state, as called for at the Annapolis Conference. 
 Yudhoyono also stated:  "Our collective conscience called 
upon 53 years ago to support the struggle of the Palestinian 
people.  Today our conscience calls upon us again to broaden 
that support and make it more practical, substantial and 
durable.  We are thus called upon to help the Palestinian 
people in a more concrete way."  PM Fayyad called on 
conference participants to help build a "prosperous Palestine 
with an economy open to other markets around the world." 
 
PLEDGES OF SUPPORT 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Conference participants reviewed 90 proposals to 
assist the PA in key areas, especially agriculture, 
education, economic growth and health.  Palestinian leaders 
strongly endorsed this approach.  While acknowledging the 
importance of the Quartet-led donor process, PM Fayyad said 
support from Asian and African countries was critical because 
the experience of these countries was similar to that of the 
Palestinian people. 
 
JAKARTA 00001348  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Participating countries pledged to support many of 
the projects tabled.  Indonesia promised to train 1000 PA 
civil servants at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DEPLU) 
training center, beginning with an initial tranche of ten 
Palestinian diplomats   (Note:  As of the close of the 
conference, DEPLU had not yet released a finalized list of 
the projects the group agreed to support.  Mission will 
forward a copy of this to EAP/MTS when it becomes available.) 
 
HUME