Govt to boost security in vital projects
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government plans to put into place special security arrangements to boost security in vital energy and mining projects in the country after the terrorist bomb attack at a five-star Jakarta hotel last week.
Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said the government was formulating a presidential decree to augment security in oil, gas, mining and electricity projects around the country.
"We are going to make a list of what projects are considered vital," Purnomo told reporters on Wednesday.
"Projects in our sector (energy and mining) have a significant contribution to the country's economy. Therefore it needs better security measures," he said.
Purnomo did not give details or a timetable for the decree but said his office had discussed the issue with the Office of the Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security Affairs.
A terrorist attack at JW Marriott Hotel in the heart of Jakarta last week has alerted the government over the security of mining and energy companies, mostly run by foreign investors.
The companies are feared to be the next terrorist target.
On Tuesday, top executives of energy companies operating in the country met with President Megawati Soekarnoputri at the State Palace.
The bombing of the JW Marriott Hotel killed 12 people and injured 147 others. An Islamic militant group Jamaah Islamiyah is allegedly behind the bombing. JI has also been touted to have links with a string of bombings in Southeast Asia and the Bali bombing incident in 2002 which killed more than 200 people, mostly western vacationers.
Dow Jones quoted the Los Angeles Times as saying Indonesian police officials warned at least seven U.S. companies last month that their names were found in papers uncovered during a raid of the house of suspected JI members in Semarang, Central Java on Monday.
Among the potential targets are the Jakarta offices of Halliburton Co., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Unocal Corp. (UCL), the Times said. These are all oil and gas companies.
Energy companies like Exxon Mobil and New Orleans-based Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc. already pay Indonesia's armed forces millions of dollars annually to defend their facilities, Dow Jones said.
Exxon Mobil's gas operations in the westernmost Aceh province, and Freeport's gold mine in West Papua on the eastern tip of Indonesia, are both situated in areas where the army is fighting separatists.
Newly appointed president of ExxonMobil Production Company Stuart McGill met with Purnomo on Wednesday as part of his tour of the company's operations in the Asia-Pacific region.
ExxonMobil Indonesia's (EMOI) spokeswoman Deva Rachman said McGill also discussed EMOI's operations in Indonesia, particularly in Aceh.
"They discussed every aspect of ExxonMobil operation in Aceh," Deva said, while declining to reveal whether the company was asking for additional security around its plant in Lhokseumawe, Aceh province.
"It is purely a courtesy visit to introduce McGill as the new president of ExxonMobil Production Company," she stressed.
In 2001, ExxonMobil halted its operations for five months as fighting between the army and rebels near its plant increased.