The United States abruptly cancelled a high-level military mission to Jakarta yesterday and said it was making arrangements to evacuate up to 15,000 Americans.
Admiral Joseph Prueher, commander of US forces in the Pacific, was to have headed to Indonesia yesterday to reiterate a US message of restraint, the assistant Secretary of State, Mr Stanley Roth, told a Senate panel.
But escalating violence had prompted US officials against such a mission. "The military delegation is not going," he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Mr Roth described the situation in Indonesia as "very dicey" and said neither US nor Indonesian authorities could guarantee the safety of some 15,000 Americans in the country, up to 3,000 of them in Jakarta.
"We are spending most of today making arrangements to do what's necessary to get them out," he said.
The aim of Admiral Prueher's mission was to urge Gen Wiranto, commander of the Indonesia armed forces, in blunt terms that the country could face collapse unless the military exercises restraint.
But the rising unrest and uncertainty there, which sent planeloads of terrified locals and foreigners fleeing yesterday, posed a host of practical difficulties, Mr Roth said.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has advised Irish people travelling to Indonesia to "be aware of what is happening and the danger in going" to the country. The governments of France and Germany, among other countries, yesterday advised their citizens against travelling to Indonesia.
An Indonesian human rights lawyer, Mr Helmy Fauzi, has called on the European Union to stop all weapons sales to the Indonesian armed forces.
Speaking at a meeting organised by Amnesty International in Trinity College, Dublin, Mr Fauzi said such an embargo would send a clear signal to the Indonesian armed forces that their role is inconsistent with the democratic reforms for which the Indonesian people are calling.