Fri, 14 Sep 2001

Nine Indonesians safe after WTC attack

JAKARTA (JP): Nine out of the ten Indonesians who were serving as interns in the World Trade Center are safe while the fate of the tenth is as yet uncertain.

Acting spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Wahid Supriyadi told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday night that the information he had received from New York was only preliminary and that some names were still unaccounted for.

He listed those reported safe as Ucok Saidan, Sihombing, Frans Samosir, Bambang Supriyatno, Reynaldi, Anton Hartanto, Iwan Hendrawan, Donny Purnomo and Nani.

The fate of the tenth Indonesian, Fur'qon, was not clear as yet, he said, while expressing the hope that more information about the ten's background would be forthcoming.

One Indonesian, Eric Samadikun Hartono, 20, was killed in the horrific incident. He was a passenger on United Airlines flight 175, not American Airlines flight 11 as reported in this paper on Wednesday, which slammed into one of the twin 110-story towers.

Antara news agency met another Indonesian in New York who survived the catastrophe.

Bambang Priyatno happened to be in one of the twin towers when the disaster occurred.

"I didn't think about anything else. I just ran and ran leaving all my belongings behind. I am still traumatized, though, by the event," Bambang said on Thursday.

Bambang, who is married to an American, was just arriving at the Hotel Marriott, the place where he worked and which was located on the ground floor of the World Trade Center building, when the jet airliner slammed into it.

Mahendra Siregar, head of the information unit of the Indonesian embassy in Washington D.C. said he had also met with some other survivors who preferred to remain anonymous, although they had promised to call their families in Indonesia.

"They were in the twin towers when the incident took place. Some of them worked in the south tower of the WTC and others in the north," Mahendra told The Jakarta Post from Washington D.C.

He said the survivors worked in financial services companies, hotels, restaurants and other businesses. (08)