The Jakarta Post, 3/5/2003 3:13:58 PM
Australia maintains travel warning on Bali
SYDNEY, Australia (JP) - Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said
Wednesday that he had rebuffed an Indonesia request that he ease a government
warning against travel to the resort island of Bali.
Nearly five months after 89 Australians and some 120 other people were killed by a
double bombing of two Bali nightclubs, Downer said it was too earlyto withdraw the
foreign ministry advisory urging Australians to avoid the island.
"At the end of the day, we do have an overwhelming responsibility to the Australian
people and their security," Downer was quoted by AFP as saying.
Indonesia's tourism minister met Downer last month and urged him to drop the
warnings, because they were harming Indonesia's economy.
Indonesian police have arrested several suspects in the bombing, believed carried out
by members of Jemaah Islamiyah, a radical Islamic group linked to Osama bin
Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network.
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