Business as usual at int'l schools, but security upped

Business as usual at int'l schools, but security upped

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With government pledges to guarantee the safety of the expatriate
community and to protect their interests and assets following the
war in Iraq, international schools here continue to operate.

British International School principal Peter Hoggins said the
school remained open and that the Indonesian government had
sufficiently secured the school.

"The school will remain open next week. (However) should there
be a deterioration or a change to security there is a possibility
of temporary school closure, an option of which we're not
pursuing at this moment.

"We're just watching the situation of security in the city
closely," he told The Jakarta Post in an interview on Friday.

He added that security had been heightened on the campus
following the Bali bombing last October and that the school had
close cooperation with the police as well as the police Mobile
Brigade.

It was also business as usual at the Jakarta International
School and the Australian International School.

The U.S.-led war to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, which
started on Thursday and also involves British and Australian
troops, has outraged some people here, who are calling the
offensive against Iraq an attack on humanity.

Jakarta witnessed on Thursday and Friday a number of
demonstrations staged outside the U.S. Embassy, which will likely
continue in the following days. Protesters also plan to rally
outside the embassies of other countries that support the war.

Penny Robertson, the principal of the Australian International
School located in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, said the school
had received government help in securing the campus, where police
patrol around the clock.

Other security measures will be taken based on "day-to-day
check on the security condition in the city", she said.

"The school, like many Australians, believes that this war is
not one against the people of Iraq, nor is it a war against
Islam," Robertson told the Post at her office, expressing hope
that the war would soon be over.

The school became a target of attack in 2001, when two people
riding a motorcycle threw a grenade into the schoolyard. There
were no casualties. The case remains unsolved.

Robertson said there was no worry of possible security
problems in the school's neighborhood.

All international schools here have Indonesian students, staff
members and employees, who, according to Robertson, are making a
great contribution in keeping the campuses secure.

Headmaster of the Jakarta International School, Niall Nelson,
wrote on the school's website at www.jisedu.org on Thursday that
all school campuses would be open as usual "unless security
advice received in the interim causes us to change this posture".

The school's management could be reached for comment.

However, according to a secretary at the headmaster's office,
since the school is closed on weekends, any policy regarding
security could only be decided on Monday.