U.S. Embassy, Consulate to open on Monday

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta and the U.S. Consulate in Surabaya, East Java, will resume normal operations on Monday after they closed for four days in response to alleged terrorist threats.

However. U.S. authorities warned in a statement on Sunday that the threat remained and urged the public to refrain from visiting the embassy unless "absolutely necessary".

"The threat information remains serious and compelling and the public is urged to refrain from coming to the embassy or the consulate unless it is absolutely necessary.

"Americans are reminded once again to take prudent personal security precautions, particularly during this period of heightened security concerns," it said.

The embassy noted that the reopening of its missions here was made possible with the cooperation of Indonesian security authorities.

On Sunday, the police apparently increased its security presence at the U.S. Embassy on Jl. Merdeka Selatan, Central Jakarta, by deploying three truckloads of armed police.

An official at the scene said the increased security was demanded by the U.S. embassy, but he did not know how long the increased security arrangement would be maintained.

The U.S. missions in Jakarta and Surabaya had been closed since Tuesday, following an alleged al-Qaeda-linked terrorist threat on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, an official said.

The sudden closure irked many senior government and security officials. They expressed their disappointment over the closure, saying that the U.S. had failed to inform the government and security forces beforehand.

U.S. ambassador Ralph L. Boyce then held a string of meetings with Indonesian officials, including Vice President Hamzah Haz, who later ordered the police to increase security around the U.S. mission premises.

The closure of U.S. missions in Indonesia has once again raised concerns over the possible presence of al-Qaeda terrorist networks in Indonesia, a country with the largest Muslim population in the world. But so far there has been no hard proof about their presence in the country.

In addition to its missions in Jakarta and Surabaya, the U.S. government also closed about two dozen of its missions around the world, mostly in Asia. But the missions in Indonesia were the first to close, but not the first to reopen.

The U.S. Embassy in Malaysia was also scheduled to reopen Monday after closing for three working days amid security concerns.

"We plan on reopening Monday morning," embassy spokesman Frank Whitaker told the Associated Press on Sunday.

The closure in Malaysia came the same day the U.S. mission in Jakarta was closed over fears of possible terror attacks.

Malaysia, a mostly Muslim country of 23 million people, has become a focus of the investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks and has detained scores of Islamic militant suspects accused of belonging to extremist networks in Southeast Asia.

Among those detained is a former Malaysian army captain who officials say let senior al-Qaida operatives, including two of the Sept. 11 hijackers, use his apartment for a meeting in January 2000.

The United States considers Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad a key ally in the fight against terrorism, and Malaysians have generally decried the Sept. 11 attacks.