Warning to Tourists: Foreigners forced to flee as anti-Chinese riot spreads to hotel
Xela...@my-dejanews.com
rampant with savage riotings. Special warning to travelers with Chinese look
( such as Taiwanese, Singaporean, even Korean, Japanese as the riots can not
easily identify you from the Chinese) as in the past riotings Taiwanese women
whose parents are doing business in Jakarta were also savagely gang-raped.
For western travelers, it is wise to cancel your trip to Indonesia until the
situation is totally under control as you might be trapped in the unexpected
swarm of riots. Please read the article below.
Thank you
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SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
Thursday July 9 1998
Indonesia
Foreigners forced to flee as anti-Chinese riot spreads to hotel
JENNY GRANT in Jakarta
Dozens of foreigners have been caught up in an anti-Chinese riot in central
Java.
The rioters attacked and looted the hotel where they were staying in the town
of Jepara on Tuesday night.
Widjanarko, a member of staff at the Kalingga Hotel, said many of the foreign
guests were eating in the
hotel restaurant when about 50 rioters stormed in.
"We had to evacuate the guests out the back fire escape during the attack," he
said from Jepara, 75km
east of the provincial capital, Semarang.
The 38 foreign guests - including 16 Taiwanese, 10 Malaysians, four Japanese,
two Singaporeans and an
American - were taken to a staff boarding house behind the hotel.
No one was injured during the 20-minute incident at the hotel, which is owned
by an ethnic Chinese Indonesian businessman.
"The looters smashed the windows of the hotel restaurant and stole cigarettes,
bottles of liquor and soft
drinks," Mr Widjanarko said.
The foreign guests were mostly tourists buying wooden carvings, for which
Jepara is famous, and furniture traders.
Jepara was calm but tense yesterday. Chinese-owned shops in the town of
200,000 were boarded up.
None of the hotel's guests could be reached for comment. Staff said they were
all "out on business".
The mob set fire to motorbikes and stoned and looted Chinese-owned shops and
banks during Tuesday's
disturbance, witnesses said.
Police made no arrests, and Chinese residents said soldiers only arrived in
the town at nightfall.
Jepara police chief Lieutenant-Colonel Manullang said the riot was triggered
by a youth group protesting over the cancelling of a visit by a popular
Muslim preacher, Kyai Afiffudin.
Local authorities banned the trip, saying he had made inflammatory comments in
the past against Chinese
Indonesians.
Muslim leaders said the riot was initiated by troublemakers from out of town
who wanted to discredit Islam.
Western diplomats said they were deeply concerned that foreigners had been
trapped in the riot.
"We have a tinderbox now in Indonesia, with a painful economic situation and
latent anti-Chinese sentiment.
These sparks can be turned into a fire at any time," one diplomat said.
He said foreign embassies might upgrade travel warnings to their nationals as
a result of the attack.
"When there are this many foreign tourists involved, word will get out and it
will not send a good signal," he
said.
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