RI not a terrorist country: U.S. Embassy

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The U.S. Embassy denied on Friday labeling Indonesia a terrorist country but stressed that Indonesia, like other countries, could become a terrorist target.

The U.S. government also denied having prior knowledge of last week's attack in Bali but admitted it had issued warnings to American citizens to stay out of several holiday sites in certain countries before the deadly incident occurred, Greta N. Morris, a counselor at the U.S. Embassy, was quoted by Antara as saying on Friday.

"We had no knowledge that there would be an incident like this," said Morris.

"We (the U.S. government) did give warnings to our citizens of terrorist threats in some tourist destinations, not just in Indonesia. We'd given them (the warnings) to our citizens all over the world, but we did not know anything whatsoever about the Bali attacks."

The statement contradicted earlier remarks by other U.S. officials who said they had given strong warnings to Indonesia of the possibility of terrorist attacks if the country refused to take sterner actions against terrorism.

Morris suggested, however, that such a warning to the Indonesian government came only because the U.S. Embassy had been the target of several threats.

Morris' statement also came at a time when the U.S. Embassy began the evacuation of 350 non-emergency staff and their families in Indonesia in the aftermath of the Bali attack and several terrorists threats received by its embassy in recent weeks.

On Sept. 23, an embassy warehouse in Central Jakarta was targeted by grenade-wielding assailants, who accidentally blew up their own car. The embassy was closed for a week last month after receiving terrorist threats days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Morris added the U.S. had so far lost two of its citizens in last week's blast and the number was likely to increase.

"There could be more (than two), because there are victims that were injured badly, not to mention those who went missing," Morris said, adding that the U.S. has also sent five medical doctors to give assistance to the local hospitals.

The U.S. government also denied labeling Indonesia a terrorist country, said Morris.

"It is our commitment to fight against terrorism," Morris said as quoted by Indonesian diplomat Dino Patti Djalal following a meeting with leaders of various youth organizations.

Present at the meeting here were leaders of Muhammadiyah Muslim youth organization, Ansor, a youth organization under Nahdlatul Ulama and a Catholic youth organization.

U.S. Ambassador Ralph Boyce was scheduled to attend the meting but failed to show up and sent Morris and political counselor Brian Nichols instead, Antara said.

The Indonesian youth leaders repeated an earlier call for the U.S. to avoid linking terrorism with a certain religion, said Dino.