US lifts Indonesia travel warning
CANBERRA – Australia is under pressure to lift its travel warning to Indonesia after the United States cancelled a similar alert.
The US cancelled its travel warning last weekend, saying the security climate no longer warranted it.
The alert had been in place since November 2000, following a series of bombings in Jakarta, and later in Bali.
“The US has lifted the warning due to objective improvements made by Indonesia in its current security situation,” the US Embassy said in a statement.
“Indonesia had not experienced a major terrorist attack since 2005, and the government of Indonesia has disrupted, arrested and prosecuted numerous terrorist elements.”
Australia – which lost 88 citizens in the 2002 Bali bombings – still has a strong travel warning in place for Indonesia, urging citizens to reconsider their need to travel to the country “due to the very high threat of terrorist attack”.
It says the attacks could take place at any time and could be imminent, and urges citizens in the country to “exercise extreme caution”.
A spokesman for Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono hoped the US move would lead other countries to reconsider their warnings.
Australia’s travel warning has long been a bone of contention with Indonesia.
Indonesia has repeatedly raised concerns with Australia that the warning was hurting Indonesia’s struggling tourism industry, and potentially trade.
By The Age
Ian Jarrett
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