Vaudine England, Jakarta – Chinese sports officials have decided to withdraw their badminton team from next week's Indonesian Open Championship, citing the unstable political situation in the capital.

But staff at the international airport's Singapore Airlines counter, where almost hourly flights to Singapore are available, said their passenger load was the same as usual yesterday and there were no signs of panic.

The Indonesia Badminton Association insisted there was no need to fear coming to Jakarta, and guaranteed all participants would be safe.

At the Bendungan Hilir market, dominated by Chinese traders selling electronics and washing machines, the afternoon crowds shopped as usual and extra security, if planned, was not in evidence.

Chinese in Indonesia have good reason to fear political chaos, as they have often been the butt of violence in the past. In 1998, gangs of soldiers and plain-clothes operatives encouraged the looting and destruction of ethnic Chinese businesses across the capital. Scores of Chinese women were raped. For many, the trauma of that time has not gone away.

State news agency Antara reported that most people leaving on flights from the Soekarno-Hatta airport near Jakarta were Indonesian Chinese. They were heading to Singapore, Taiwan, Australia and the United States, or choosing to stay in the country but flying to Bali, Sulawesi or Sumatra.

"It's better to leave town rather than be in Jakarta during the special session. I feel more secure [outside the capital] and at the same time can do some business," 47-year-old Lim Han Juan, an electronics trader at Glodok, central Jakarta, told Antara.

The agency found others who had chosen to bring forward holiday plans because of the special session of the People's Consultative Assembly. Cahyanto Halim, 46, and Santoso, 39, both said they and their families were still traumatised by the bloody riots of mid-May 1998. The pair said they were planning to head to Hong Kong for a break.

But while some residents thought it was time to leave town, many more are clearly confident enough not to bother. Airport officials confirmed there was no rush on flights and the situation at the airport was normal. One official said proudly that flights were always normal, and had stayed on schedule even during the height of the 1998 crisis. "It's different now, no problem," the official said.