Living in terror<\/p>\n
The bomb attacks in and outside churches in Indonesia on
\nChristmas Eve must go down as the most heinous mass crime ever
\ncommitted in this country. This was clearly a concerted and
\ncarefully planned campaign designed to kill as well as to instill
\nterror among the population of this country.<\/p>\n
The timing and the targets were chosen to create the
\nimpression of a religiously motivated campaign. With Idul Fitri,
\nthe Muslim holiday, coming only two days after Christmas, the
\nperpetrators were clearly trying to antagonize relations between
\nthe Christians, the country's largest minority religious group,
\nand Muslims, who make up more than 80 percent of Indonesia's
\npopulation.<\/p>\n
We have seen this type of campaign work with such devastating
\neffect in Maluku, North Maluku and in Central Sulawesi, where
\nMuslims and Christians have been fighting each other. Now the
\nperpetrators are trying to expand their war theater to the rest
\nof the country, including Jakarta. Let us hope that enough cool
\nheads prevail in Jakarta and the rest of the country to prevent a
\nreligious conflict from erupting.<\/p>\n
This is a campaign clearly designed to terrorize and to
\nprovoke a bigger conflict, rather than to commit mass murders.
\nMost of the bombs that exploded on Sunday night were placed in
\ncar parks, away from the church crowd although they were
\ndetonated as Christmas services were going on inside. But other
\nbombs, like those inside parcels sent to churches in Medan and in
\nMojokerto, were clearly intended to maximize the number of
\ncasualties. Fortunately in Medan, church officials were more
\nalert and quickly informed the police about the suspicious
\nlooking parcels. Otherwise, we would be looking at even far
\nhigher death toll.<\/p>\n
But the 15 deaths and the dozens who were injured by the
\nblasts are still unacceptable casualties of this mad and
\nsenseless campaign. Our hearts go out to all the victims and the
\ngrieving relatives who must be devastated by this tragedy.
\nIt is of course no consolation to them that most of the rest of
\nthe nation will have to live in terror, with the knowledge that
\nwhoever carried out the bombing campaign on Sunday night are
\nstill out there and can strike again, any time and any where.<\/p>\n
Coordinating Minister for Political, Security and Social
\nAffairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono disclosed on Monday intelligence
\nreports suggesting that the perpetrators would continue the
\nbombing campaign on the day of Idul Fitri to further their
\nobjective of setting Christians against Muslims. It is not
\nnecessarily heartening that on the rare occasion that the
\ngovernment shared official intelligence reports with public, they
\nproved to be wrong. While it has kept the people alert and vigil
\nas they celebrated Idul Fitri on Wednesday, such a rare
\ndisclosure, if anything, further exposes the weakness of the
\ngovernment's intelligence capability. Either the government is
\ncompletely inept, or the perpetrators are truly professional in
\ntheir work, or, God forbid, both.<\/p>\n
To be able to mount such a concerted bombing campaign of the
\nscale we saw on Sunday must have taken quite a lot of
\npreparation. It must have involved an organization with a large
\nnationwide network to be able to operate in several cities at the
\nsame time. And the organization must have had easy access to
\nexplosives. For them to leave few trails behind after such a
\ncampaign, suggests they have a high level of professionalism.<\/p>\n
But surely, somewhere along the line, the police's and the
\ngovernment's intelligence apparatus must have smelt something
\namiss. Is that not supposed to be their job in the first place?
\nEven if they had failed to anticipate the bombing campaign, they
\nmust surely be able to investigate the incidents thoroughly and
\ncatch the perpetrators, which is again their job. Surely, the
\nperpetrators must have left clues somewhere for police
\ninvestigators to pursue. And surely, it should not be that
\ndifficult to track down an organization in this country that has
\nthis huge network, the skills to organize such a clandestine
\noperation, as well as the money to finance such a campaign.<\/p>\n
Sadly, the record of the National Police in handling such
\ncases is simply appalling. In almost all previous bomb attacks,
\nin Jakarta and Medan, the police not only failed to anticipate,
\nbut they also failed to come up with credible explanations about
\nwho the perpetrators were and what were their motives. The
\nexplosion which crippled the Philippine ambassador in Jakarta,
\nthe grenade thrown into the Malaysian embassy compound, and the
\nmassive explosion in the car park of the Jakarta Stock Exchange
\nbuilding are cases that have not been resolved satisfactorily to
\nthis day. Nor have they cracked the mystery behind previous bomb
\nattacks in churches in Medan.<\/p>\n
It would not be surprising that these previous attacks were
\ncarried out by the same people who launched Sunday's bombing
\ncampaign. They certainly have had the same effect: To instill
\nterror. If they were indeed carried out by one and the same
\norganization, solving just one mystery would surely lead to
\nexplanations for all the other bomb attacks.<\/p>\n
Until the police catch the perpetrators, or at least come up
\nwith a credible explanation for the latest bombing campaign, this
\ncountry will continue to live in terror and the entire nation
\nwill forever be held hostage by the perpetrators. We do not know
\nwho they are and what they really want. We only know what they
\nare capable of. And we know they can strike again, any time, any
\nwhere.<\/p>",
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