Fresh travel warnings are unwise: Official

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Jakarta considers the issuance of fresh travel advisories from the United States, Australia and Britain an unwise decision and regrets that the warnings were issued against Indonesia, an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said.

Since the country had made progress in the Bali bombing case and heightened security ahead of the holidays, the warnings would be counterproductive to the international cooperation against terrorism, the ministry spokesman, Marty Natalegawa, said on Sunday.

"In the absence of a specific threat that could be shared with our officials, these travel advisories are unwise," he said.

He further noted that his office had not yet received any information behind the new advisories.

"No country in the world can provide a 100 percent guarantee that there won't be any attacks made, but our security officers have done their best to secure the country," he told The Jakarta Post.

Similar criticism against the travel advisories also came from House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung.

Akbar said the reactions from the three countries were unnecessary as there was no reason to issue the advisories.

"The advisories are unnecessary as our security officers have been doing their best to stamp out terrorist organizations and improve security in the country," Akbar said in Surakarta, Central Java, as quoted by detik.com news portal on Sunday.

He said that terrorists could strike anywhere, even in the United States.

The U.S., Australia and Britain warned their citizens over the weekend to exercise extreme caution during the upcoming end-of- year festivities in Indonesia, and advised them to avoid the country if possible.

In the new advisories, the three countries referred to the string of bomb attacks in 2000 at churches in 11 major cities as one of the major reasons for issuing the warning.

The warning was made despite repeated calls from Indonesia that the call further crippled tourism, which slowed down dramatically after the Oct. 12 Bali blasts.

"We fully understand the obligations of each country to ensure the safety of their citizens, but we should not bow to pressure from terrorists and continue to live in fear," he said.

Marty said Indonesia had done a lot of things to clamp down on terrorists hiding in the country. The police, for instance, had arrested many suspects in the Bali bombings, as well as suspects in the church bombings in 2000, he said.

Nevertheless, in the travel advisories, foreign countries warned their citizens about a possible backlash from hard-line Muslims in Indonesia over the arrests of their leaders.

"It is unfair: If we don't arrest these perpetrators then these countries say terrorists are at large, but when we do arrest them, then they are afraid of a backlash," Marty said.

Whatever the response from foreign countries, Marty said that Indonesia would continue to search for suspects and ensure the country was secure against any possible terrorist attacks.