New Zealand, Australia warn of attacks on tsunami aid workers in

New Zealand, Australia warn of attacks on tsunami aid workers in
Indonesia

Agencies
Auckland/ Jakarta

New Zealand and Australia warned on Sunday they had information
of possible terrorist attacks on Western aid workers involved in
tsunami relief efforts in Indonesia.

"The information we have, which is the same I understand as
what the Australian's have received, does point to some quite
specific and credible threats in terms of possible terrorist
risks," New Zealand Foreign Ministry spokesman Brad Tattersfield
told Radio New Zealand.

But in Aceh, Free Aceh Movement (GAM) spokesman Teungku
Mucksalmina said that the guerrillas had no intention of
attacking either local or foreign humanitarian workers. Instead,
they hoped the volunteers, especially the foreigners, would
continue working in Aceh.

Mucksalmina, who oversees Aceh's Rayeuk area, said that GAM
had already deployed its intelligence officers at various
refugees camps and had found out that some members of Muslim
militant Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and the Indonesian
Mujahidin Council (MMI) were trying to provoke the refugees to
attack the foreigners.

"Therefore, the Indonesian security authorities must
immediately withdraw the volunteers of these two hardline
organizations from Aceh," he told The Jakarta Post. .

"They are also part of the military's a so-called proxy
strategy that plans to create hatred among Acehnese toward the
foreigners. However, they (FPI and MMI members) will not be able
to do so," he said.

FPI and MMI first deployed their volunteers Aceh in the first
days after the tsunami hit the province.

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and her Australian
counterpart John Howard discussed the threat to relief workers at
their annual bilateral talks here on Sunday. Both leaders said
the warning would not affect their military aid to the region.

Howard said it was "immensely distressing" that terrorists
were threatening aid workers.

"Given the absolute horror the people of Aceh have been
through, the idea, the very thought the terrorists would be
flexing their muscles at a time like this, is just a reminder of
the depraved human beings that they are," he said in Auckland.

New Zealand's foreign ministry has also upgraded its travel
warning for Indonesia, saying non-essential travel to the
country, even to the resort island of Bali, should be deferred.
All travel to tsunami-devastated Aceh and northern Sumatra
province should be canceled.

"Recent information suggests that terrorists may be planning
attacks against foreigners involved in tsunami-relief efforts in
Aceh and other parts of northern Sumatra," the ministry said.

New Zealanders should not travel to Banda Aceh or other parts
of Aceh to work on humanitarian relief efforts unless "the aid
organization they work for has a robust security plan approved by
the Indonesian authorities."

"We recommend that New Zealanders not covered by such
arrangements, or more generally concerned for their security,
leave the area immediately."

The foreign ministry said there was an ongoing risk of
terrorist attacks in Indonesia, and recent reports suggested
attacks on a range of targets could happen at any time.