Bomb attacks could be done by anybody, aim at anyone, anywhere<\/p>\n
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Following the Sept. 9 bombing outside the Australian Embassy in
\nKuningan, South Jakarta, John Douglas, 40, who worked for a U.S.-
\nbased multinational consultancy here, decided to return to Canada
\ndespite unfinished business.<\/p>\n
\"I was scheduled to stay here for at least three months but I
\ndecided to leave, although I had been here for three weeks only.
\nThe bomb attack terrifies me. From what I read, the terrorists
\ncan attack any place in the country,\" he told The Jakarta Post a
\nweek after the bombing, which claimed 11 lives, including the
\nbomber, and injured more than 180 others.<\/p>\n
Douglas, who consulted for a mining firm with several
\noperations across the archipelago, recalled his condition after
\nthe blast. Every night, he was afraid a bomb could explode in
\nfront of him while he was hanging out with colleagues or friends
\nat a cafe or hotel, even his office.<\/p>\n
He said many friends had left the country soon after the bomb
\nwent off.<\/p>\n
\"Let alone working, I couldn't focus even when I was talking
\nwith my friends. I used to hang out in a place where many other
\nexpatriates gathered because I enjoyed that. I know that the
\nbombers target places like this,\" he added.<\/p>\n
From conversations with other expatriates, Douglas learned
\nmost of them felt insecure in the city after the Kuningan attack.<\/p>\n
The Australian Embassy was the second Western interest in
\nJakarta to be targeted by terrorists after the U.S.-run J.W.
\nMarriott Hotel in the adjacent business district of Mega
\nKuningan. The hotel bombing on Aug. 5, 2003, left 12 dead,
\nincluding the suicide bomber.<\/p>\n
Kusno, 34, who works at a five-star hotel in Jakarta, was also
\napprehensive that if the hotel was attacked, low-level employees
\nlike him would suffer the most.<\/p>\n
\"The hotel I work at can be a target of attack at any time, as
\nmany foreigners stay there. But it is always us who suffer. Look
\nat the Marriott or the Australian Embassy bombings. Who were the
\nvictims? Who died in the blasts? We, the innocent and ordinary
\npeople,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The prevailing atmosphere of fear and anger did not abate in
\nthe weeks following the Kuningan blast, during which a number of
\nbomb threats were recorded on a daily basis, although they turned
\nout to be hoaxes. Meanwhile, the police acknowledged they could
\ndo nothing to stop bomb attacks despite preventive measures,
\nincluding the deployment of reinforcements at several potential
\ntargets, including the embassy.<\/p>\n
After a quick glance at ground zero in Kuningan, National
\nPolice chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar concluded that the blast was the
\nwork of terror network Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), known to have links
\nto Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda, and Malaysian bomb makers Azahari
\nbin Husin and Noordin M. Top.<\/p>\n
Azahari and Noordin are also believed to have masterminded the
\nMarriott attack, as well as the 2002 Bali bombing that killed at
\nleast 202 people.<\/p>\n
The police hunted down those responsible over the next few
\nweeks, making arrests almost every day to discover that Azahari
\nand Noordin had recruited over 100 people across East, West and
\nCentral Java.<\/p>\n
In the frenzy to capture the perpetrators, however --
\npressured by public demand for justice and in some cases,
\nvengeance -- several innocent civilians were detained for
\nquestioning and released, only to return to their neighborhood
\ncommunities to find that they had been stigmatized by the
\nterrorist label.<\/p>\n
The Kuningan bombing could be said to be different from all
\nothers since 2000 in that it enraged the public and turned them
\ncompletely against the terrorists. While Osama bin Laden T-shirts
\nhit the streets of the capital after Sept. 11, 2001, those that
\nemerged after the Kuningan blast were emblazoned with \"F***
\nterrorists!\"<\/p>\n
The police were able to identify the car used in the suicide
\nbombing as a Daihatsu through the chassis number, and traced the
\nlast owner of the car -- some trails led police back to the
\nconvicted Bali bombers.<\/p>\n
Three weeks later, the police arrested Agus Achmad Hidyat and
\nMustakin, two close aides of Azahari who had played key roles in
\nthe Kuningan bombing. From the two men, the police extracted much
\nvaluable information, but Azahari and Noordin were still out of
\nreach.<\/p>\n
In mid-October, the police concluded via DNA testing that Heri
\nGolun, a new recruit of Azahari and Noordin, was the sole suicide
\nbomber in the case.<\/p>\n
After a lull of a couple of weeks, the police raided a rented
\nhouse in Cicurug village, Sukabumi, West Java, after a small
\nexplosive device went off and injured one of its tenants.<\/p>\n
The incident, however, was an indication as to the slowness of
\nthe police, as well as to the locals' neglect in keeping an eye
\nout for suspicious characters and activities, particularly terror
\nsuspects.<\/p>\n
To their embarrassment, the police discovered that all the
\nwanted terror suspects, including Azahari and Noordin, had used
\nthe house as a meeting point for several months without
\ndisturbing their neighbors.<\/p>\n
Da'i admitted to the sluggish work of his investigators and
\nvowed that it would not happen again.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen.
\nSuyitno Landung Sudjono, who led the Kuningan investigation,
\nconceded that the terrorists on the run possessed the capability
\nto launch more attacks.<\/p>\n
\"Our investigation has found that many suicide bombers were
\nrecruited by the two bomb experts, and that they are scattered
\n(throughout the country). At the very least, they have a large
\nbox full of explosives,\" Suyitno said.<\/p>\n
He explained that most of the explosive materials used in the
\nKuningan bombing, such as potassium chlorate, could be procured
\neasily at markets, while the TNT used in the Kuningan and
\nMarriott blasts were either imported or procured through the
\nmilitary.<\/p>\n
\"Considering the availability of the materials, anybody with
\nminimal training can assemble bombs or at least detonate them.
\nAzahari is the key to their training,\" he said.<\/p>\n
At the end of November, the police announced they had captured
\nfour key members of Azahari's inner circle: Ansori, alias Hasan,
\nalias Agung, alias Purnomo; Ansori, alias Sogir; Syaiful Bahri,
\nalias Apuy; and Rois, alias Iwan Darmawan.<\/p>\n
Da'i said Rois was closest to the Malaysians and knew their
\nwhereabouts, and was optimistic that Azahari and Noordin could be
\ncaptured within the first 100 days of the new government.<\/p>\n
However, the readiness and capability of the police to arrest
\nthe two are doubted.<\/p>\n
A policeman cited one of the detained suspects, who said
\nAzahari and Noordin were on a motorbike within the vicinity of
\nthe embassy at the time of the explosion, and were stopped by the
\npolice for a minor traffic violation.<\/p>\n
\"But the traffic police let them go for a few thousand rupiah
\nbecause they didn't recognize the terrorist suspects. How can we
\nexpect citizens to recognize the suspects if the police officers
\nthemselves can't,\" the policeman told the Post.<\/p>\n
A sociologist from the University of Indonesia and a former
\npolice officer, Bambang Widodo, said the recurring bomb attacks
\nproved that the authorities lacked the intelligence, capability
\nand coordination to prevent them.<\/p>\n
\"New suicide bombers can always be recruited because it is
\nbased on faith, economic disparities and injustices. And
\neradicating these is the government's job, not the police's.
\nHowever, the large number of intelligence bodies has hampered the
\nearly warning system for terror attacks,\" Bambang told the Post.<\/p>\n
He said each institution, including the National Intelligence
\nAgency (BIN), three military branches and the police, are
\nauthorized to conduct intelligence activities, but did not share
\ncrucial information with each other.<\/p>\n
Bambang suggested that intelligence bodies be coordinated, as
\nterror threats continued.<\/p>\n
Prior to the Kuningan bombing, BIN, or the antiterror desk at
\nthe Office of the Coordinating Minister for Political and
\nSecurity Affairs, talked to the press about the possibility of a
\nfresh attack, but which the police were unable to confirm nor
\ndeny.<\/p>\n
A week or two before the bombing, at least three countries,
\nincluding the U.S. and Australia warned their citizens of
\npossible attacks on their interests throughout the country.<\/p>\n
Although BIN seems to agree with the early warning, on several
\noccasions, the police has looked surprised in response to the
\ninformation.<\/p>\n
Given the possibilities of terror threats and institutional
\nproblems within the police, expatriates like Douglas and local
\nresidents like Kusno have reason to feel insecure about living in
\nIndonesia.<\/p>",
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