NZ, Australia warn of attacks on tsunami aid workers in RI
NZ, Australia warn of attacks on tsunami aid workers in RI
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. .
FPI and MMI first deployed their volunteers Aceh in the first days after the tsunami hit the province, gaining praise for their work in finding and burying bodies.
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.