Foreign mining workers have no plan to leave Indonesia following Bali attack

Expatriates working at mining companies in Indonesia will not leave the country following Saturday?s bomb attack on Bali Island which claimed at least 180 lives, most of whom were foreign tourists, according to a government spokesman.

?So far foreign workers in the mining sectors have not informed us that they are planning to leave the country,? the spokesperson of Oil and Gas Implementing Body (BP-Migas), Sidick Nitikusumah, told Suara Pembaruan daily on Tuesday.

Sidick said what the foreigners urgently needed was information about the development of security Indonesia.

Government officials suspected that al-Qaeda-linked terrorists had been behind the Bali incident.

Sidick said Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro had planned to hold a meeting on Tuesday with executives of production sharing contractors (PSC) from the mining sector. The minister would discuss with them about the current situation in the country in relation to the Bali bomb blast.

Sidick said on Monday none of the 180 people killed in the Bali bomb blast was from PSCs. Some 300 people were injured in the incident which occurred at Kuta Beach, a haunt for surfers and young vacationers.

Suara Pembaruan quoted official data as saying that at least 837 expatriates worked at the oil and gas sector alone in Indonesia by May 2002. They accounted for four percent of the total number of mining sector employees.

The government said that it would increase security control at mining projects throughout Indonesia. (*)