Evacuees make plans to return to Jakarta

Evacuees make plans to return to Jakarta

SINGAPORE (Reuters): Sunday flights from Singapore to Jakarta
have been fully booked as Indonesians and expatriates make plans
to return to Indonesia, travel agents said yesterday.

Flights earlier than Sunday still had seats available, as many
of those who had fled violence in Indonesia this month waited
another day or two to see if the dust had really settled.

One ethnic Chinese Indonesian said he was returning to his
home in the Jakarta area because it seemed "quieter now and it
should be OK, but if not I'll cancel the flight".

Many of those returning have further hedged their bets and
will be carrying a return ticket to Singapore in their pockets in
the event violent demonstrations re-ignite in the post-Soeharto
era.

Indonesian President Soeharto stepped down on Thursday after
protests over his policies led to riots and more than 500 deaths,
but it remains to be seen if the opposition will remain quiet for
long under his successor, B.J. Habibie.

An Indonesia-based expatriate employee of Germany's Siemens,
staying at a Singapore hotel courtesy of his company, said he and
his family were headed back to Jakarta on Saturday.

"It is our decision. Jakarta has quieted down some and my wife
and children are Indonesian and want to go home," he said.

However, many of the families evacuated to Singapore from
Jakarta will be split as breadwinners, usually husbands, return
to the riot-torn capital, leaving spouses and children safely in
Singapore until there is more certainty that calm has returned
for good.

"My husband is going back this weekend, but we are staying for
another week or so until it is safe," said an Indonesian woman
staying at a Singapore hotel with her two small children.

Singapore hoteliers said because many men are going back to
Jakarta, leaving families behind, hotels were still quoting 100
percent occupancy rates for the foreseeable future.

Christina Quek, public relations manager at the four-star
Crown Prince hotel, said the ratio of refugees from Indonesia
staying at the hotel was divided equally between those staying on
a corporate account and those who would probably be paying out of
their own pockets.

"It's no secret that for the first three months of the year
the hotel industry was in a bit of a slump, and it's a bit of a
windfall to be running full in a month where full occupancy is
not expected," Quek said.