Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia is temporarily moving its embassy in Tripoli (Libya) to Tunis, Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa said here on Tuesday.

"The moving process started yesterday but four of the embassy staff remain in Tripoli to ensure the safety of Indonesians who choose to stay," the minister said, adding that all of the embassy`s diplomatic activities would be temporarily conducted from Tunis.

Earlier, Indonesian ambassador to Libya Sanusi, according to Marty, had reported that 20 out of the 24 Indonesians at the embassy in Tripoli had left for Tunisia on Monday.

"They included nine embassy staff members and 11 migrant workers leaving only four people at the embassy to run it, including giving protection to Indonesians," he said.

The four remaining staff members consisted of two diplomats, including the ambassador, and two local staffers.

"We will continue evaluating. Our staff are authorized to immediately close the embassy if conditions worsen as they are the ones able to make an evaluation of the situation," he said.

Minister Marty said several other countries had already closed their embassies in Tripoli or stopped their activities as tensions in the North African country were rising.

"Today, staff members of the Vietnamese and Indian embassies had also left. Most other foreign embassies in Tripoli have been closed. To my knowledge, only the Philippine and Indonesian embassies are still open, although the number of their their staff members have been substantially reduced," he said.

Overall, Marty said, a total of 839 Indonesians in Libya had already been evacuated to Tunisia. (*)

Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
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