Australia warns on Jakarta travel
SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Australia has again advised its citizens to stay away from Indonesia after Jakarta police warned of possible suicide bombings in the Indonesian capital.
The warning by the Jakarta Metropolitan Police (POLRI), issued on Tuesday, identified embassies, international schools, office buildings and shopping malls as potential targets.
Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade issued a travel advisory on Wednesday morning, urging Australians to defer non-essential travel to Indonesia, including to the tourist island of Bali.
Australia's heavily fortified embassy in Jakarta was targeted by a suicide truck bomber on September 9 last year.
That attack claimed 10 lives and wounded more than 180 people.
A bombing attack on the nightclub area of Bali in October 2002 killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
On Wednesday, the Australian government said the latest warning by Jakarta police did not give a time frame, but its assessment was that "attacks could occur at any time".
In December last year, Australia issued a similar advisory, urging its citizens to stay away from international hotels in Indonesia during the Christmas period for fear of a terrorist attack.
"We have received credible new information suggesting terrorists are ready to carry out an attack shortly in Indonesia, possibly targeting a Hilton Hotel," the government's travel warning said on December 15.
The Christmas period passed peacefully, with the terrorism threat immediately overshadowed by the devastating tsunami that struck Indonesia and other Indian Ocean rim countries on December 26.
Indonesia's Aceh region bore the brunt of that natural disaster, with about 220,000 people there left dead or missing.
Australia was an early contributor to the international rescue and relief effort undertaken in the wake of the tsunami.
Last month, Australia and Indonesia signed off on a "comprehensive partnership" that is designed to be the framework for bilateral ties.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signed the deal in Canberra on April 4, during Yudhoyono's first visit to Australia since his election last October.
The two leaders called the partnership the "most significant landmark" in the two nations' sometimes-troubled relationship.
Australia has committed Aust. $1 billion ($770 million) to the Aceh rebuilding effort.
At the time, Howard said the two leaders discussed "all the most important issues", including an emphasis on fighting terrorism.
Yudhoyono said the two leaders agreed that in strengthening their cooperation on combating terrorism, they needed to address the root causes of terrorism, and to promote "inter-faith dialogue."
Australia and Indonesian police worked closely after the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings and again after a bomb exploded outside Australia's Jakarta embassy last September, killing 10 Indonesians.
