More foreign head for Singapore and Bangkok

More foreign head for Singapore and Bangkok

JAKARTA (Agencies): Hundreds of U.S. and Canadian nationals
were flying out of Jakarta in the early hours of Saturday in the
first mass organized evacuation of foreigners.

About 800 evacuees were headed for Singapore and Bangkok
aboard two chartered Cathay Pacific Boeing 747s. The evacuation was
ordered after Jakarta was rocked by several days of rioting,
looting and burning.

They included dependents of U.S. and Canadian embassy and
government officials working in Jakarta, non-essential staff and
families from the business community. Essential embassy staff were
remaining.

U.S. ambassador J. Stapleton Roy said the evacuation had been
ordered because the situation in Jakarta had "rapidly deteriorated
over a two-day period", Reuters reported.

"On Thursday, as the rioting and looting got worse, we
encountered a situation where the police were no longer able to
provide any protection, where Americans were reporting that they
were encountering dangerous situations, including in their
residences," he said.

The Indonesian government "was no longer in a position to
guarantee the security of Americans, where we couldn't predict what
was going to happen," he added. He said: "We felt that the only
safe course was to ask Americans to leave until the situation had
stabilized".

The evacuees were flown out of the civilian part of Jakarta's
Halim Perdanakusuma airbase. They had gathered at three points in
the city and been driven in buses under police escort to the air
base where they were processed through a hall normally used for
Indonesian Moslems making the pilgrimage to Mecca.

About 2,300 Americans asked to be included in the evacuations,
leaving many stranded, though more flights were to follow,
according to an employee of the U.S. Agency for International
Development who was obliged to evacuate.

Embassy officials said there would be more flights over the
weekend to evacuate those who were unable to get seats on the first
two flights and others who wanted to leave.

Canadian Ambassador Gary Smith said priority had gone to
children, the elderly and the infirm.

"The situation is unpredictable at this time, and given the
events of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, we thought it was safer
to recommend (the evacuation) at this time," he said.

The evacuees had been given about 12 hours notice and were
allowed one bag each.

"The (U.S.) government said we should go, but we'll be back,"
Ernie Olson, a telephone company employee from Boston, said outside
one assembly point at the ambassador's residence.

Ken Tiemann, a 46-year-old scuba diving instructor from St
Louis, said he was going "because all my customers are leaving".

"I'm going to come back as soon as it all calms down," he
added before taking the Bangkok flight.

Pets were banned, and 30-year-old Holly Ferrette from New
Jersey said leaving her terrier Indah, rescued from a dog pound two
years ago, had been a wrench.

"The dog's staying with our guard. We left money with
Indonesian friends and they'll start processing papers to get her
out of the country if necessary," she added.

She said she worked for the U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID) and she and her husband, Fernando Gonzalez, 35,
from Costa Rica, had had no option when told to leave.

"We'd rather stay and see how things go. It's hard leaving
behind our Indonesian friends," she added.

The scene was the same at the Soekarno-Hatta airport where
thousands of foreigners were making their own arrangement to leave
the country.

"I'll go anywhere," said David Bradley of Sydney as he waited
at the ticket counter. "Kids with sticks and rocks were jumping on
my car demanding money. It was pretty harrowing."

In Singapore, some of the Americans evacuated expressed relief
over their escape and regrets for those left behind.

"We made it alive out of Jakarta," Danielle Townshend, 16, a
U.S. citizen who has lived most of her life in the Indonesian
capital, told The Associated Press.

"On the way to the airport we saw tanks on every corner and
burned out buildings everywhere," said Danielle, who fled with her
two younger sisters. Their Indonesian mother wished to remain,
while their American father was traveling in Africa.

"We didn't want to leave Jakarta this way," said Bill Haddock,
49, of Dallas, who works for the Price Waterhouse accounting firm.
"We left our belongings, pets, servants and friends. This hit
quick."

"I felt miserable leaving, just rotten," U.S. AID's Laura
Bailey, 35, of Billings, Montana said. "I have lots of friends
there. You just know that everybody who's staying is in for a rough
time."