Below is an article on the visit of the Indonesian leader to Washington to 
meet President Bush. It is so unfortunate that even she and her vice 
president stands a different position on this terrorist attack, but that does 
not make the vice president's stand the official position. Some of us who 
might have seen the press conference the Indonesian leader had, she stood her 
ground that her position is the Indonesian government's stand.
It is very unfortunate that Imam Fatty had to be controversial again to be 
recognized, but that should not mean that is the official position. He is 
entitled to his uneducated and very silly comments, but that does not mean 
that he had too be stopped. I hope NO ONE is to be stopped for making their 
minds known despite their positions.
I wish we could all stand beside our leaders when such a tragedy happens. Not 
doing so, is setting a very bad precedence here. Politics should have a 
boundary. Imagine if the Gambia sends no such condolences when even some 
Gambian died at this incident. 
The president have done what his duties called for and the least any one can 
do is to commend him. To President Jammeh, I join in as a Gambian sending 
condolensces to the American people. I hope such a massacre never happens 
again. God bless The Gambia. God bless the US.

Ousman Jallow Bojang.


<A HREF="http://www.theage.com.au/news/world"> AMERICA'S DAY OF TERROR </A>       
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Bush to welcome Muslim leader       

AFP
Wednesday 19 September 2001
President George W Bush will welcome Indonesia's President Megawati 
Sukarnoputri to the White House tomorrow. 
The talks will be the first with a Muslim leader since deadly terrorist 
attacks on New York and the Pentagon. 
Megawati, who leads the world's most populous Muslim nation, condemned what 
she called the "brutal and indiscriminate" assaults on the United States a 
week ago and said her country would join the global battle against terrorism. 
But she was expected to caution Bush during their meeting against taking any 
hasty reprisals which could be interpreted as a revenge against Islam for 
attacks in which thousands of people are presumed dead. 
Megawati, on her first visit to the United States as president, flew into 
Andrews Air Force Base near Washington today, US military officials said.
The United States has pledged to wage a war against terrorism and has named 
Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, who is sheltered by Afghanistan's fundamentalist 
Islamic Taliban militia, as the prime suspect in the assaults. 
Megawati's visit, originally planned to underline US support for democracy in 
Indonesia following the political crisis that saw her installed as leader in 
July, has taken on a completely different complexion following last week's 
attacks. 
Mindful of a string of incidents targeting Americans of Middle Eastern and 
South Asian origin in recent days, Bush and top cabinet officials have been 
careful to stress they have no desire to launch a war against Islam. 
To press home that message, Bush visited an Islamic centre in Washington 
yesterday and quoted the Koran. 
Megawati's arrival gives the administration another chance to stress that its 
target is terrorism not Islam in general. 
The talks, now expected to focus mainly on terrorism, will require Megawati 
to be politically nimble, as she faces pressure from Muslim groups at home. 
Vice President Hamzah Haz, leader of Indonesia's largest Muslim party, has 
warned the United States against making any Muslim nation a scapegoat for the 
assaults by hijacked civilian airliners on the World Trade Centre and the 
Pentagon. 
According to Muslim scholars, Haz said, tragedies can cleanse sins. 
"Hopefully, this tragedy will cleanse the sins of the United States," 
Sunday's Kompas newspaper quoted him as saying, in addition to condemning the 
terrorist attacks. 
Indonesia, partly due to its size, geography and fractious political climate, 
is seen by US officials as vulnerable to terrorist infiltration. 
Last month, the State Department warned Americans to avoid nonessential trips 
to Indonesia, saying antiAmerican attacks may be planned there. 
Some Indonesian Muslim militants fought and trained in Afghanistan during its 
war against the Soviet Union in the 1980s. 
The radical Laskar Jihad group was instrumental in declaring a jihad (holy 
war) against Christians in Ambon and the Maluku islands last year. 
Bush administration officials have reached out to Megawati's government since 
she came to power, with several leading administration figures travelling to 
Jakarta. 
The president is sure to express strong US support for continued political 
and economic reform in Jakarta. 
Some members of his administration want to explore a limited resumption of 
military links with Indonesia, frozen when the military was implicated in 
militia rampages and serious human rights abuses after East Timor voted for 
independence in 1999. 
Megawati is also due to meet senior International Monetary Fund and World 
Bank officials during her visit, seeking help for her economy which has never 
recovered from the ravaging it received during the 1997 Asian economic 
crisis. 



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