Inoculations for the Asian Flu
Pentagon planners are quietly reviewing their options for how to extricate
the 11,000 Americans living in Indonesia if turmoil in the South Pacific
archipelago continues to escalate. Fiscal problems have led to a $43
billion International Monetary Fund bailout, but the resulting austerity measures
have sent the cost of basic necessities in the world's fourth most populous
country soaring, and last week rioting broke out on several islands. The anger
comes from 90 percent of the 202 million Indonesians who are Muslims and is largely
directed against the nation's ethnic Chinese, who account for only 4 percent of the
population but control about 70 percent of the economy. So long as the unrest is
contained by Indonesian strongman Suharto, the Pentagon doesn't think an
emergency evacuation will be required. But his hold is shaky, and if increased
rioting turns into wholesale violence, the U.S. military might be called on to
ferry Americans to safety.