Airports quiet as departures slow down
JAKARTA (JP): The wave of foreigners and Indonesians scurrying abroad dipped markedly yesterday, with Jakarta's main Soekarno- Hatta International Airport appearing almost back to normal.
Embassies here have reportedly advised their nationals to leave the city but strongly warned them not to travel yesterday, anticipating a possibly hazardous situation.
At the airport, only a few people sat with their fully packed luggage in the departure atrium.
"The number of passengers is only around 5 percent of the previous days," an airport official told the state-run television station TVRI. He did not provide exact figures.
A Korean embassy official who was stationed at the airport to organize the evacuation of his country's nationals said there was only one flight provided which had a 275-seat capacity.
Myung Kyu Yoon said at least 5,000 South Koreans had left Jakarta since last Thursday when the widespread riots erupted.
"We have to leave the city not because we dislike Jakarta in particular or Indonesians, but there are women and children who need to be saved," he said, adding that some Koreans with important positions in factories were staying on.
He stated the national flag carrier Korean Airlines had flown seven planes and 2,000 passengers up to late Tuesday.
Killing time in the waiting lounge with chess and novels, Australian David Wilson, 21, and his three friends were scheduled to depart on a flight bound for Adelaide, Australia.
Ucu, a native Indonesian. said she was leaving because she was afraid of getting trapped in the streets of the capital. She was waiting to board a flight to Selangor, Malaysia, where she would stay with friends.
The situation was far from tense.
Siti Mariyam, a cashier at the McDonald's restaurant at the airport, also noted a drop in the people at the airport.
"Now it's less crowded than previous days but, still, today is more crowded than regular ones," she said.
At Halim Perdanakusuma Airport, East Jakarta, an airport official said five chartered flights left the airport Tuesday, but none was scheduled for Wednesday.
"Today there is no evacuation flight at all, but I don't know about tomorrow."
He explained that chartered planes sometimes arrived with only two hours' advance notice.
Types of aircraft used also varied, with not everyone choosing to suffer through crowded flights.
"There was a rich Canadian who flew alone with a chartered flight which can accommodate six people," he said. He added that Singapore appeared the most popular destination.
Just a 90-minute flight away, the island state has become a prime destination for fleeing foreigners and Indonesians alike.
The Directorate General for Customs and Excise here yesterday refuted reports that its officials had demanded fiscal fees of Rp 5 million to passengers departing abroad.
In a statement the directorate said it had nothing to do with this fiscal tax which it said were being expropriated by the Directorate General of Tax.
Marines
A United States Marine amphibious force led by a helicopter carrier is being diverted toward Indonesia in case a military evacuation of Americans is needed from Jakarta in the coming days, the commander of the Marine Corps said yesterday.
Gen. Charles Krulak said the Navy helicopter carrier Belleau Wood and two support ships carrying some 2,000 Marines would be stationed north of Jakarta over the next four or five days in case civil unrest in Indonesia's capital again turned violent.
The U.S. State Department has ordered all non-essential U.S. Embassy workers and their dependents to leave Jakarta because of recent violent protests.
Defense officials have emphasized that U.S. forces such as the Belleau Wood would be used only if the State Department decided that it could not safely evacuate Americans using commercial or chartered jets.
"For the next four or five days ... they will sail to the vicinity of Indonesia and will basically bore holes in the ocean to see what happens in Indonesia," he said. "They are prepared and they do have contingency plans to execute a NEO (noncombatant evacuation operation). Hopefully it would be one that was not opposed," Krulak said as quoted by Reuters.
Meanwhile Japanese military personnel took a commercial flight from Singapore to Indonesia yesterday to plan a possible evacuation of Japanese citizens from the strife-torn country.
The Associated Press reported that the nine soldiers were an advance party to check the situation at airports in Jakarta and other Indonesian cities.
Six Japanese Air Self-Defense Force C-130 transport planes that would be used in an evacuation arrived in Singapore Tuesday and remained at Paya Lebar Air Base.
More than 200 members of the Air Self-Defense Forces accompanied the six transports, making them the first armed Japanese soldiers on Singapore soil since the end of World War II.
Each aircraft can carry 80 passengers.
Japan's coast guard was also preparing to send two of its largest cutters to waters off Indonesia to evacuate Japanese if necessary.
An estimated 13,000 Japanese citizens live in Indonesia.
From Taipei, it was reported that Taiwan dispatched two C-130 military transport planes to Singapore yesterday to evacuate its nationals out of Indonesia.
Two Taiwan warships, which are making a courtesy call at Indonesia's Bali Island, are also standing ready to pick up Taiwan nationals.
Since the riots erupted last week, Taiwan has airlifted some 5,000 investors and tourists out of the country. There were about 30,000 Taiwan nationals in Indonesia.
Speaking in a Central Radio Station broadcast to Indonesia, Foreign Minister Jason Hu urged Taiwan nationals to come home.
"I hope our nationals in Indonesia can return to Taiwan on the evacuation flights. If you can't, I hope you can stay home for your safety," he said.
"In case of emergency, Taiwan nationals should go to the 17 shelters we have set up in Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan and Bandung."
The shelters have prepared food and drinking water and are protected by hired Indonesian police.
The Foreign Ministry has also set up a satellite linkup with Taiwan's trade office in Jakarta to ensure a channel of communication is open if riots in Jakarta worsen and telephone lines break down.
Meanwhile, more than 40 Papua New Guineans were to be flown home yesterday after being evacuated overnight from Jakarta.
Prime Minister Bill Skate said the government had hired an F- 28 jet to evacuate diplomats, their families and students from the Indonesian capital.
"The charter has been sent to collect Papua New Guinean citizens not because they are in specific danger, but because there is currently a great shortage of supplies in many Indonesian centers." (emf/aan)