Government ready to evacuate Indonesians in Cambodia

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia remains one of the last Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries not to have evacuated its nationals in strife-hit Cambodia, but said yesterday that a Hercules military transport plane was on stand-by should the need arise.

Minister of Defense and Security Edi Sudradjat insisted that despite remaining calm the government had a plan ready to evacuate its citizens.

"We have a plan to evacuate our people currently staying in Cambodia by sending a Hercules military airplane there," he said.

The minister said the government would continue its preparative measures despite positive reports from Phnom Penh that the situation was slowly returning to normal.

He said the government would send the airplane the very moment Indonesia's Embassy there "signaled" the need.

There are at least 40 Indonesians working throughout Cambodia. Apart those at the embassy, Indonesians work on bilateral projects such as the Cambodia-Indonesia telephone cooperation project, for companies like Lippo Bank and experts restoring the Angkor Wat temple.

Foreign minister Ali Alatas said Indonesia was continuing to watch the situation carefully.

"We are keeping our eyes on it and at any time we are ready to conduct the evacuation," he said.

"We're waiting for reports from our embassy if it is necessary to make one, and if it is when it should be done," he added.

The vice-governor of the National Resiliency Institute, Juwono Sudarsono, said an evacuation was currently unnecessary.

"The situation in Cambodia is not as vile as reported in the mass media. Even, the U.S. government has not decided to land its Marine corps to bring home the 1,200 Americans there," he said.

Speaking of today's special meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers to discuss the Cambodian issue, Juwono said the ministers should come up with a joint resolution to help end the crisis.

Juwono added that the plan to admit Cambodia as an ASEAN member later this month should not be delayed.

"ASEAN countries should not withhold granting membership only because of the internal crisis," he said. (imn)