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Washington Warns U.S. Citizens Visiting Indonesia
JAKARTA, Aug 11 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The U.S. State Department Saturday warned citizens to avoid non-essential trips to Indonesia, saying "extremist elements" may be planning anti-American attacks, as police there began searching for the killers behind a massacre on Thursday.
"The U.S. government has received information that indicates extremist elements may be planning to target U.S. interests in Indonesia, particularly U.S. government facilities, and could also extend to U.S. tourists and tour groups," a State Department travel warning said, according to the embassy.
"In addition, social unrest and violence can erupt with little forewarning anywhere in the country."
The warning comes in the wake of a massacre in Aceh province, in the northern part of the island of Sumatra, in which more than 30 plantation workers - including a woman and a three-year-old boy - were lined up and shot dead Thursday morning.
Non-essential trips to anywhere in the country should be postponed. Americans should avoid any visits to Aceh, Maluku, Papua (Irian Jaya), West Timor, parts of Borneo island and Central Sulawesi, it said.
In Aceh, police said Saturday they had launched a hunt for the killers of the plantation workers, as 12 more fatalities were reported in separate incidents.
Free Aceh Movement (GAM) members and the military have blamed each other for the slaughter in which civilians were lined up and shot dead on the estate where they worked. The military says 38 people were killed while the GAM and a local rights coalition say 31 died.
A police spokesman said they have located the killers' hideout. He said they are holding an unspecified number of other plantation workers for use as human shields.
Because of such dangers, the State Department has urged Americans to maintain a low profile, vary routes and travel times, "and treat mail and packages from unfamiliar sources with suspicion".
It said that in the past some foreign travelers had been subject to arbitrary arrest and detention, and deportation.
In November last year, anti-U.S. groups in the central Java city of Solo carried out sweeps to identify U.S. citizens and ordered them to leave the country, the statement said.
"There have also been a number of acts of intimidation and violence directed at American companies and U.S. diplomatic facilities. Indonesian security officials have sometimes been unwilling or unable to respond."
The State Department also cited a potential threat from the Filipino Abu Sayyaf kidnap gang in parts of Indonesia close to the Philippines. The group is holding at least two U.S. hostages in the southern Philippines.
Indonesia's new government of President Megawati Sukarnoputri faces daunting security problems.
Sectarian unrest is tearing apart parts of Kalimantan on Borneo island, Sulawesi and Maluku and separatist struggles are intensifying in Aceh on Sumatra island and Irian Jaya in New Guinea.
Activists in Aceh have been fighting for an independent Islamic state since the mid-1970s. The death rate reached its highest ever level this year, with more than 1,100 people killed since January.
In addition, a series of unexplained bomb blasts has rocked Jakarta and other cities over the past 15 months.
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