February 19, 2005
Australia Warns of Possible Attacks in Indonesia By REUTERS Filed at 5:26 a.m. ET SYDNEY/BANDA ACEH (Reuters) - Australia warned on Saturday that Islamic extremists could be planning attacks against foreigners working on tsunami relief efforts in northern Sumatra but Indonesia said there was no evidence of a threat. Australia said in an updated travel warning, issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, that its nationals should defer non-essential travel to Indonesia as a whole, and should avoid all travel to Aceh and Maluku provinces. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said information suggested bomb attacks against aid workers were possible. ``We've now found that some of the Islamic extremists are talking about mounting terrorist attacks in the region and that's tremendously disappointing,'' Downer told reporters in the Australian capital Canberra. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he had checked with police and local military commanders as well as chief social welfare minister Alwi Shihab, who is coordinating relief operations, after hearing of Australia's warning. ``There is no evidence that there will be a threat to aid workers, but of course I do ask my apparatus to maintain the harmony, to maintain coordination synchronizing all emergency relief efforts done by many organizations,'' Yudhoyono told a news conference in Aceh's provincial capital Banda Aceh. The Indonesian army also said it had received no hard information about specific new threats to foreign aid workers. ``We heard some rumors but we haven't got any hard facts on the threat to foreign workers,'' Brigadier General Hotma Panjaitan told Reuters. Yudhoyono toured the region amid tight security on Saturday. He went to Lhok Nga, just to the west of Banda Aceh, to inspect a bridge built by the army to replace one washed away by the killer waves. He traveled in a convoy which included armored personnel carriers. Elements of the police and army carrying automatic weapons guarded the road and every site he visited. Helicopters circled above during the 45 minutes he was in Lhok Nga. Indonesia and separatists from the Free Aceh Movementwill begin a fresh round of talks in Helsinki on Monday aimed at ending three decades of violence and securing a lasting peace in the gas-rich province. The tsunami threw the warring sides together but there have been clashes, with at least four rebels killed by the military near Band Aceh, a hub for the relief operation, last week. Panjaitan said security for foreign aid workers could be better in Aceh, especially along the stretch of road from Banda Aceh west to Lhok Nga and south to Meulaboh. ``It doesn't mean that foreign workers couldn't go into this area as long as we could know their presence and we could provide security to guard them,'' Panjaitan said in Lhok Nga. Aid agencies in Aceh said they were checking the Australian report. ``We didn't have any kind of security incident until now in Banda Aceh or in the field,'' World Food Program spokesman Inigo Alvarez said. The travel advisory said Australians should not travel to Banda Aceh or other parts of Aceh unless under the auspices of a recognized aid organization, it said. Australia, a close U.S. ally, has about 1,000 military personnel in Indonesia as part of the aid effort following the Dec. 26 tsunami that left 240,000 dead or listed as missing. A suicide bomber killed 10 people in an attack outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta last September. http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-australia-indones ia-travel.html?pagewanted=print&position= [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! 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