INDONESIA: JAKARTA HOTELS ON FULL ALERT

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INDONESIA: JAKARTA HOTELS ON FULL ALERT













Jakarta, 3 June (AKI) - All five star hotels in the Indonesian capital Jakarta have been put on full alert after the US embassy indicated in a statement released on Friday morning that they are among the targets of an imminent terrorist attack in the city. "We are in a state of maximum alert," Indaha Saddler, executive director of the Jakarta International Hotel Association, confirmed to Adnkronos International (AKI).

But Saddler, whose association counts most of the capital's luxury hotels among its members, wanted to reassure hotel guests, explaining that security is guaranteed by close cooperation between the police and various private security companies, and standards are kept uniformly high among the hotels by training programmes. However, security measures were stepped up even further on Friday morning.

"We have requested extra staff and we have told everyone to check the bags of anyone who enters the hotel - on foot or by car - and to carry out sporadic checks in the lobby as well," Saddler said.

The US embassy statement said: "The U.S. Embassy informs American citizens in Indonesia that the Embassy has learned that as of June 1, 2005, there were plans by extremists to conduct bomb attacks targeting the lobbies of hotels frequented by westerners in Jakarta. The attacks were to occur circa noon on an unspecified date. There is no additional information on the timing for the attack(s), or the method of attack."

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.173629318&par=0