Jakarta Thai and UK Embassies closed - bomb threat

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Thai and UK Embassies closed after bomb threat

Published on Jan 14 , 2005

 

 

 

Thai embassy temporarily closed its embassy in Jakarta Friday after Indonesia warned of a possible bomb threat overnight.

 

 

"Our staff did not enter the building and will not work at the embassy, at leastfor today. We will re-assess the situation later," foreign ministry

 

 

 

spokesman, Sihasak Phuangketkeow said.

 

 

However, he said the embassy's work would not be disrupted by the threat because a contingency plan was in place for the staff to work at an undisclosed satellite location.

 

 

Sihasak said Thailand would not send additional guards to protect the embassy because the Indonesian government had addressed the security concerns.

 

 

Indonesian police on Thursday mobilised bomb squads and anti-terror personnelafter reported threats of a possible attack near the British and Thai embassies in Jakarta.

 

The Nation

[Torneyboy]

A large number of OZ staff have been rotated home after the bomb outside ours!.

 

The staff at any of them must worry about safety while trying to do their jobs?

 

Indonesia is a no go zone ..imo

 

 

The government telling all foreign military to drop off the aid and get out in three months..I would send them a bill for the cost of sending our troops and machines to *help* them!!!!

[carlton68]

Hi,

 

well, see what I found in The Jakarta Post today. As the articles in the Jakarta Post are replaced very quickly no direct link to it, but rather I post the complete article here:

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Woman sparked Indonesian security alert with embassy bomb hoax

 

JAKARTA (Agencies): A bomb threat that closed the Thai and British embassies in Jakarta was a hoax by a woman trying to prevent her policeman boyfriend from taking leave, security officials said on Saturday.

 

The threat, sent late Thursday by mobile phone text message to police, generated a major security operation in a country still reeling from a string of deadly bombings blamed on al-Qaeda-linked Islamic militants.

 

On Friday, National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said the threat may have been the work of a person linked to Indonesia's most wanted men - Malaysian terror suspects Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top.

 

But, Jakarta police spokesman Sr. Comr. Ciptono said on Saturday the woman, identified as Zulfah, 22, hoped the threat would force he boyfriend, a security guard at the Thai embassy in Jakarta, to remain on duty and cancel his plan to visit his hometown elsewhere on Java island.

 

"She tried to prevent him from leaving because he would not take her with him," Ciptono said.

 

The woman was arrested in Jakarta hours after she sent the text message, but was now being treated in hospital for shock, Ciptono said. He added that she could face on year on prison for the hoax.

 

The spokesman said the police had traced the woman through the pre-paid cellphone number used to make the hoax. "Police have sophisticated equipment capable of tracking her location," he said. (**)

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[gobbledonk]

Indonesia is a no go zone ..imo

 

Cmon TB - you work in an industry which can sway public opinion - dont allow yourself to be so easily swayed on the merits of a destination purely on the basis of a few sensationalist media reports and, admittedly, several bombings. Did your industry warn people against travelling to England when the IRA were conducting bombing campaigns in London, or Spain when ETA started blowing up cafes ? Life goes on - people take more care, but they dont pack up their belongings and buy a shack in the mountains.