Indonesian youths ask Bush to change 'hegemonic foreign policies'

Published: 2006-11-20

JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNS) -- Just days before U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to Indonesia, seven religious youth organizations asked him to desist from policies that cause suffering in developing countries. "We are writing you ... to show our strong disagreement with your hegemonic foreign policies which worsen (the) global world order," the groups said in a Nov. 17 letter to Bush. The chairmen of the groups signed the letter and delivered it to U.S. Ambassador B. Lynn Pascoe. Natalis Situmorang, chairman of the Central Board of Catholic Youth and one of the signers of the letter, told UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand, that Pascoe promised to deliver the letter to Bush. Bush spent less than seven hours in Indonesia, the last stop on an eight-day Asian trip that including several days in Vietnam, where he attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, and a stop in Singapore. In Indonesia, Bush met with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and other Indonesian leaders at the presidential retreat in Bogor, about 30 miles south of Jakarta.

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