2003: A year of living in fear of terror

2003: A year of living in fear of terror

Kanis Dursin, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Ever since his wife told him in early November that she had to go
home to Hong Kong to attend her younger sister's wedding, James
had been restless.

Fears of terrorist attacks similar to that of Sept. 11, 2001,
when a band of cold-blooded killers hijacked commercial airlines
in the United States and plunged them into the twin towers of the
World Trade Center (WTC) in New York and the Pentagon in
Washington, taking over 3,000 innocent lives with them,
overwhelmed James, a researcher working as a consultant here.

"I have spent many sleepless nights, thinking what might
happen to my wife's plane. I shared my feelings and fears with
her, but she told me to leave it all to God," he said.

Putting faith aside, James booked three return tickets with
one of Asia's arguably safest airlines -- one for his wife and
two for his daughters, a three-and-a-half-year-old and an infant
of 21 months.

"I don't mind paying more if it means safety for my wife and
daughters," said James, who had put up with the relatively high
ticket prices just to ease a little of his fears.

Come Dec. 14, the date of their departure, James drove his
wife and daughters to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport,
checked in for them and obtained fiscal-free clearance for his
two daughters while paying the whopping Rp 1 million (US$115)
fiscal for his wife.

When it was time for his wife and daughters to go to the
boarding gate, James tried hard to hold his composure, waving
good-bye to his family with teary eyes until they disappeared
into the immigration hall.

But James did not leave the airport immediately. Telling his
two nephews and maids -- who accompanied him to the airport -- to
wait, James stayed until his family's connecting flight to
Singapore took off.

For the next one-and-a-half hours, James anxiously waited for
the departure of the flight scheduled for 12:25 p.m. Although
there were many vacant seats in the departure terminal, James did
not want to sit down. He paced to and fro, his right hand
grasping a cellular phone. When the plane carrying his family to
Singapore finally took off, James, his nephews and maids rushed
to the car in the parking lot. There, before driving home, he
called a sister-in-law to let her know that his wife and
daughters had taken off for Singapore en route to Hong Kong,
instructing her to fetch them at the Hong Kong airport.

James went home anxious about what might happen to his wife
and daughters, and felt relief only later that evening when he
talked to his wife, who told him that they had arrived safe and
sound in Hong Kong.

Such is the impact of the series of terrorist attacks that
have continued to plague the world in the past three years. Call
it cowardice or paranoia if you want, but terrorist attacks have
changed the way people around the globe interact with each other.

Trust has been replaced by suspicion, as fear takes control of
mankind.

The New York and Washington terrorist attacks, the Bali
bombings, the JW Marriott Hotel attack, the residential bomb
explosions in Saudi Arabia and the recent terrorist attacks in
Turkey have one and the same message -- there is no place on
earth that can still be considered safe.

The World Trade Center was a symbol of America's economic
power and the Pentagon, its military might. Both, however, were
helpless in the face of a group of poorly equipped terrorists out
to create maximum damage with minimum means. Over 3,000 people
perished, most without a trace, when the criminals turned
commercial planes into deadly missiles and plunged them into the
twin towers and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

Bali, the country's prime tourist destination, was considered
the safest place in Indonesia and even in Asia until powerful
explosions ripped through two popular nightclubs in Kuta,
Denpasar, killing over 200 innocent vacationers and injuring some
300 others, mostly foreigners.

Air travel, even short-distance flights, is now becoming a
nightmare not because of below-par services but because of fears
that the Sept. 11 attacks have inspired other zealots to follow
in the footsteps of the bloody killers.

Shopping is no longer as leisurely as it used to be, hanging
out in cafes and restaurants has become a risky venture and going
to a bank has become a risky business. Even sleeping in a heavily
guarded residence now implies resignation to a bloody, violent
death. Fears of terrorist attacks have overwhelmed the universe,
with world leaders struggling to find the solution.

The fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the invasion and
occupation of Iraq, the trials and death sentences handed down to
masterminds of the Bali bombings, the arrest of dozens of
suspects in the Marriott attack, as well as the confiscation in
September of a huge amount of explosives in Central Java are
welcome developments, but are inadequate to assuage fears among
hundreds of millions -- or perhaps billions -- of people in
Indonesia and around the globe of possible terrorist attacks.

Much of the terror-related fears among Indonesians find their
roots in the fact that authorities -- the government, police, the
Indonesian Military (TNI) and even the country's National
Intelligence Agency (BIN) -- are not prepared to face, or are
simply incapable of tracking and cracking down on terrorists.

One disturbing question often raised by the people after the
Bali bombings and especially after the Marriott attack is this:
Why did the police and military fail to detect and anticipate the
attacks? Are those crooked bloody killers such geniuses that even
the sharpest and most well-trained intelligence officers cannot
foresee their movements?

The Bali bombings took place after series of warnings from
neighboring and friendly countries like Singapore, the
Philippines, Australia and even the United States that terrorists
were imminent in Indonesia.

The attack on the Marriott hotel in South Jakarta on Aug. 5,
2003, also came after reports that terrorists were about to
strike again in the country, including in the capital, Jakarta.

Kudos to the National Police, who have successfully tracked
down some of the killers of the Bali bombings. Over 30 people,
including key masterminds Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Mukhlas were
arrested in East Java, West Java and East Kalimantan,
respectively. Most have been tried and three have been sentenced
to death, while others received long jail sentences, including
life imprisonment.

Praise must also go to the National Police for their arrest of
suspected masterminds of the JW Marriott Hotel attack that killed
at least 14 people, including the suicide bomber. The dossiers of
these suspects are mostly complete and ready for trial. Police
also uncovered in July tons of explosives in Central Java and
arrested their alleged owners.

Despite these unprecedented successes, the government's
antiterrorism campaign has failed to allay the fears among the
people, who have come to believe that the country has become a
haven for terrorists, especially for regional terrorist network
Jamaah Islamiyah (JI).

Founded by two Indonesian clerics -- the late Abdullah Sungkar
and Abu Bakar Ba'asyir -- JI has been campaigning for a pan-Asia
Muslim country encompassing Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines
and southern Thailand. JI has been blamed for a series of
terrorist attacks in the country, including the church bombings
on Christmas Eve in 2000, the Bali bombings and the JW Marriott
Hotel attack.

Ba'asyir was tried for his alleged roles in a number of
terrorist attacks, treason, immigration offenses and document
fraud, but was sentenced only to four years' imprisonment for
aiding terrorist attacks and immigration and document fraud. He
was later exonerated by the Jakarta High Court of his terrorist
links, and his sentence was reduced to three years for document
fraud only.

Almost immediately after the Bali bombings, the government set
up an anti-terror desk under the auspices of the coordinating
ministry for political and security affairs. But the desk has yet
to deliver. Few people, even now, are aware that such a desk
exists.

In the meantime, moves are underway to amend the Antiterrorism
Law to allow the national intelligence force to play a greater
role in fighting terrorism. But for a country still haunted by
the bitter and traumatic experiences under former president
Soeharto's 32-year leadership, when intelligence kept tight
control over people's movements, such moves demand a thorough
evaluation.

The existing law already gives enough of a headache to the
people, as it allows police to detain, without questioning, a
suspected terrorist for as long as seven days. It also gives
police the leeway to arbitrarily arrest and detain suspected
terrorists -- as already seen in the arrest of some Muslim
activists in Central Java.

All in all, police have arrested over 100 or so suspected
terrorists, but these still fail to reveal the actually number
and strength of terrorist networks operating in the country, much
less the danger they pose. As the people's call grows in volume,
the government and its security elements must enhance their
capability to fight terrorism.

A failure to exterminate terrorism may turn foreign tourists
off and keep the much-needed foreign investment at bay -- a
situation that would not only delay the country's economic
recovery, but could also plunge the country into a fresh round of
economic crisis.

The people and the government must join hands in fighting this
evil.

Back to James and his family -- as it turned out on Dec. 14,
no airline was downed or turned into deadly missiles. Except for
several explosions in Iraq following the arrest of former tyrant
Saddam Hussein, the world was relatively peaceful on that day.

But the fears are real and pervasive.