Police prepare 'safe refuges' for foreigners

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta Police have prepared contingency plans to rescue foreigners in the capital should the situation take a turn for the worse amid the increasing anti-American sentiment in the country.

Speaking to reporters after receiving 20 diplomats at his office, Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Sofjan Jacoeb promised that the police would take all necessary action to safeguard foreigners in Jakarta, especially foreign diplomats.

He noted that currently he was prioritizing the safety of foreign ambassadors and their residences here.

Currently, he said, the police were deploying a total of 14 companies of policemen to safeguard foreign assets in the city.

One company consists of around 100 personnel.

"We have agreed to establish safe refuges where they can be evacuated to should something really happen," Sofjan told journalists after the meeting.

Sofjan refused to reveal the whereabouts of the refuges, but Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam said that one of the locations would be Jakarta Police headquarters.

Anton said that the police's contingency plan included ways of picking up expatriates from their embassies or homes and taking them to the refuges or escorting them to the airport.

Meanwhile, British Ambassador Richard Gozney, the only ambassador who attended Friday's meeting, said after it that the police had promised to crack down on those who were intimidating foreigners.

"We have received a promise from the Jakarta Police chief that they will act firmly against those who carry out acts of intimidation such as conducting sweeps, mass violence and the like. We appreciate the promise. And we hope that nothing will happen, but if something happens, we hope that the Jakarta Police will fulfill their promise," Gozney said in Indonesian.

U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia, Robert S. Gelbard, who on Thursday strongly criticized the police over their failure to act against those threatening Americans, skipped the meeting.

Instead, Gelbard went to the House of Representatives to meet with the members of House Commission I for defense and foreign policy.

Gelbard, however, declined to speak to the press either before or after the closed-door meeting.

Commission I chairman Ibrahim Ambong said that at the meeting, Gelbard had complained about the increasing threats against Americans.

Gelbard, according to Ambong, also warned that threats against foreigners would backfire on the country's investment climate.

"Eight American companies have threatened to relocate their operations overseas and many others will follow suit if the security situation remains uncertain," he quoted Gelbard as saying.

Anti-American sentiment has been on the rise in Indonesia following the U.S. government's threat to launch military strikes against Afghanistan, which has refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the recent devastating attacks on the United States.

Anti-American demonstrations against possible American retaliation have been coloring Jakarta and other cities across the country in recent days.

Not only that, a number of hard-line groups, including the Islam Defenders Front, have threatened to drive Americans out of the country should the U.S. attack Afghanistan. Some militant group members even conducted a search for Americans in a number of hotels in Surakarta, Central Java.

The U.S. consul general in Surabaya, Robert A. Pallard, met with Central Java Police chief Insp. Gen. MA Erwin in Semarang on Friday to seek police protection for around 200 Americans living in Central Java, including Surakarta.

"The Surakarta incident has made some Americans in Central Java nervous. A number of them have even moved from that town to other towns," Pallard said.

Vice President Hamzah Haz said here on Friday that "there is no serious threat to the security of U.S. interests here."

Meanwhile from Tokyo, foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda said that U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell called him on Friday morning to express concern over rising security threats against Americans in Indonesia.

"I explained to him the situation ... And we are serious in handling the situation," he said.

He added that President Megawati Soekarnoputri had instructed Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to take all necessary action to prevent nervousness among foreigners.

After chairing a ministerial meeting, Susilo said the government would not tolerate any threats against foreign citizens here, but he failed to identify what measures the government would take against the hard-line groups that had been threatening foreigners, particularly Americans. (team)