Dentist arrested in wake of Inco terror threats

Police have arrested a dentist working at an Indonesian nickel mine for allegedly sending terror threats to Western colleagues to scare them away, police and company officials said Friday.

The Indonesian dentist sent hundreds of threats via mobile phone text messages and anonymous letters to expatriates at the Australian-owned mine because he feared he was about to be replaced by a foreigner, Police Col. Nurman Tahir said.

In the messages, he threatened to bomb the mine and kill Western workers there, Tahir said.

"He's not linked to any Muslim militants," Tahir told The Associated Press. "He was just scared that his job would be taken over by an expatriate as part of a program to upgrade hospital services (at the mine) to international standards."

The man was detained Thursday and is being questioned at police headquarters in Makassar, the south Sulawesi provincial capital.

Last month, the company - PT International Nickel Indonesia - sent 35 foreign workers and their families home from the Soroako mine in response to what it called a "possible terrorist threat."

Shortly afterward, Australia urged its nationals living in Soroako to leave the area in a warning posted on its Web site about the dangers posed by the al-Qaida-linked Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) terror group in Indonesia.

The dentist was employed at a hospital attached to the mine in central Sulawesi, 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) northeast of Jakarta.

PT Inco spokesman Sri Kuncoro confirmed that a dentist suspected of threatening employees had been arrested, and that expatriate employees who left the mine would return soon.(*)