September 26, 2003	Friday	Rajab 28, 1424

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 25: Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri expressed complete support on Wednesday for Pakistan’s proposal to restructure the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) in order to meet challenges faced by the Muslim world.

In an interview with Dawn before the luncheon hosted by President Pervez Musharraf for the OIC leaders attending the UN special session, Ms Sukarnoputri said: “Islamic world needs to reassess its priorities and embark on a concrete action.”

Muslim world, she said, faced many challenges.

Referring to US-led war on Iraq, she said: “The war has created far many more problems than those it intended to solve. I do believe that a great many lessons can be learned from the Iraq war, in particular, that unilateralism carries heavy costs.”

Ms Sukarnoputri said: “Many eminent Muslims in Indonesia believe that once the major powers behave in a more just manner and make clear their impartiality in the Middle East, then most of the root causes of terrorism perpetrated in the name of Islam ... would have been resolved.”

The Indonesian leader, who gave a tough speech in the UN General Assembly, accused the world’s big powers of feeding the flames of political violence by taking an unjust approach toward the Arab-Israeli conflict.

“The countries whose citizens become the main target of terrorist groups should review their conventional anti-terrorism policies, particularly in dealing with the Arab-Israeli conflict,” she added.

Referring to the militants in her country, she said: “The motives and justifying arguments of their movement apparently arise from the prolonged unjust attitude exhibited by big powers towards countries whose inhabitants profess Islam, particularly in (not) resolving the Middle East conflict.”

Her criticism was directed at US policy in the Middle East.