Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 21, 1993 TAG: 9302210337
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY ALFRED BORCOVER KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
STATE DEPARTMENT RETOOLS ITS WARNINGS FOR TRAVELING PUBLIC
When they travel in the U.S., Americans tend to take their personal safety for granted. But once they know they're going overseas, every criminal act or political incident abroad reported in the news becomes a major concern.Every day, the U.S. State Department's Citizens Emergency Center gets nearly 1,000 inquiries from travelers who want to know whether their destinations are "safe."
It's the duty of the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, of which the emergency center is a part, to keep the traveling public informed about the world's danger spots. The center does this through advisories distributed to news organizations, the travel industry, regional passport offices and embassies and consulates.
Most countries that depend on tourism are sensitive about being singled out by the State Department as a place to avoid. In recent years, the State Department has been accused of playing politics, casting shadows on some countries and not others, with most of the spotlight on the Third World. Several years ago, U.S. consular officers in Warsaw and Kracow thought travelers should be warned about the thugs mugging U.S. tourists at Warsaw's Central Station as they boarded the train to Kracow. The best the consular officers got from Washington was a general crime warning that alerted travelers to the fact they could be robbed abroad.
To better serve the public and lessen confusion, the State Department late last year streamlined its advisory system. It was urged to do so by the General Accounting Office, after the congressional investigative arm found the department's 15-year-old system ineffective.
The State Department's three general categories of advisories - warnings (don't go), cautions (unstable conditions, health problems) and notices (inconveniences such as crimes such as theft) - were reduced to one: Travel Warning.
Under the new system, a Travel Warning is issued when the State Department recommends that all travel to a country be deferred. Besides the warnings, there are Consular Information Sheets on 195 countries, with one more forthcoming since the division of Czechoslovakia.
"Warnings will be issued when the State Department decides, after reviewing all information, that Americans should avoid all travel to a certain country," a consular affairs spokeswoman said.
As of last week, warnings were in effect for 15 countries, with Zaire and Colombia the latest to make the list. The State Department also recommends deferral of all travel to Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, North Korea, Peru, Somalia, Sudan, Togo and Tadzhikistan.
There are several ways to access warnings and information sheets:
Anyone who wants to hear Travel Warnings and Consular Information Sheets can call the Citizens Emergency Center from a touch-tone phone, 202-647-5225.
Copies of warnings and specific information sheets are available by writing and sending a self-addressed, stamped business-size envelope with your request to the Citizens Emergency Center, Bureau of Consular Affairs, Room 4811, U.S. State Department, Washington, D.C. 20520.
Copies also are available at the 13 regional passport agencies (Suite 380, Kluczynski Federal Building, 230 S. Dearborn St., in Chicago), U.S. Department of Commerce field offices and U.S. embassies and consulates abroad.
If you have a personal computer, modem and communications software, you can access the Consular Affairs Bulletin Board, 202-647-9225. The modem number can accommodate modem speeds of 300, 1,200, 2,400, 9,600 or 14,400 baud. All callers have to do is sign on with their name and city. You can read and download warnings and information sheets.