The Foreign Service Journal, February 2003

Service and Civil Service consular officers of the Department of State who are called upon to deal with mass casualty, crisis, and res- cue operations. Every year, approximately one thousand Foreign Service consular officers, along with their Civil Service and Foreign National counterparts, issue seven million passports, six million visas, and provide consular services for some four million Americans residing abroad, and for millions of American travelers. These same consular officers also cope with plane crashes, hijackings, natural disasters, civil disorders, and political unrest. They take disaster preparedness training, and participate in crisis management exercises, but nothing can prepare them for some of the things they will face, as these stories of consular officers at work dur- ing the recent crises in Indonesia and Cote d’Ivoire underline. Bali: 20 Days and a Lifetime The 20 days Tom Daniels, a first-tour consular officer assigned to the U.S. consulate in Surabaya, spent in Bali, Indonesia, changed his life forever. Shortly after midnight on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2002, powerful boms exploded at the popular Sari Club in Denpasar, Bali, killing 183 people and injuring 326 others. More would die from their injuries over the next few days. Among the dead were seven Americans. The Department of State immediately updated its Indonesia travel warning to include informa- tion about the terrorist attacks, warning Americans to depart Indonesia, and urging others to defer travel there. Within a few short hours, the department also set into motion a full-scale opera- tion inWashington D.C. to support rescue efforts, and to provide consular services to American citizen victims and their families. The Counsular Affairs Bureau activated the Office of Overseas Citizens Services Call Center to respond to general information calls from the public around the clock. The Call Center handled over 1,500 calls within the first few days of the crisis. As part of the crisis moni- toring group in the Ops Center, CA established Task Force 2 to deal with public inquiries from friends and rel- atives, public officials, media and other interested groups. The consular officers working round the clock in Washington provided a continuous lifeline to the officers in the field who were coping with the crisis. Meanwhile, Embassy Jakarta began to evacuate official Americans. Thousands of miles fromWashington and a lifetime of experience away, Tom Daniels confronted the after- effects of the bombing in the most direct way imaginable. He was searching for dead and injured Americans among the rubble and devastation, assisting relatives of American citizens presumed dead or missing, and deal- ing with Indonesian authorities, Congressional inquirers and the public. Early Sunday morning, Tom received a call from Phil Antweiler, the consul general in Surabaya, advising him of the bombing. Soon, Tom was in the office, coordinat- ing efforts to have the American casualties, who needed treatment, medically evacuated to Singapore or Australia. He returned home about 10 p.m. to work with Task Force 2 in Washington for most of the night, compiling missing persons lists and trying to find out which Americans had been injured but not yet evacuated. On Monday, Oct. 14, Tom left Surabaya for Bali on the first flight, accompanied by one consular assistant, to organize the search efforts for missing American citizens. Bali Consular Agent Andy Toth, three FSN employees, F O C U S 26 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 3 Barbara Ensslin is a consular officer in the Office of Overseas Citizens Services in Washington, who was sent on temporary duty to Abidjan to help deal with the crisis. She began her Foreign Service career in 1992, and has served overseas in Berlin, Toronto and Tunis. She has served as special assistant to the Director General and as consular desk officer for both the European and Near East and South Asia divisions in the Office of American Citizens Services and Crisis Management Support Unit in Washington. This article was written with contributions from Abidjan TDY consular officer Deborah Sisbarro; consular officer in Surabaya, Indonesia, TomDaniels; and consular officers in the Bureau of Consular Affairs; Overseas Citizens Services Office: Africa ACS Division Chief Jack Markey, staff members Stuart Denyer and Bonita Harris, and East Asia/Pacific ACS Division Chief Suzanne Lawrence. CA tapped specialized victim funding resources in DOJ to expand the scope of U.S. government assistance to American victims and their families.