Bali need 3,000 police for terror trials

Wahyoe Boediwardhana and Ainur R. Sophiaan, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya/Denpasar

Police authorities are now preparing a special team involving some 3,000 police officers to secure the buildings where the series of trials for the suspects in the Bali terror attacks will be held.

Bali police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Y. Suyatmo said Thursday that the team would be backed up by military personnel and traditional Balinese security guards.

"The manner in which we'll guard the trials will be similar to when we provide security for very, very important persons like the president and state guests," Suyatmo said.

The first trials of the suspects, most of whom are radical Muslims from Java, in the Oct. 12 Bali bombing, which killed at least 202 people and injured over 350 others, are expected to start in early March.

Suyatmo said the people guarding the trials would receive special training, including training on when and how to act if a group tries to disrupt the trials. There has been tension in predominantly Hindu Bali toward the suspects and their lawyers, as most blame the bombing, which has crippled the economy, on Javanese Muslims.

Also, it is feared that certain radical Islamic groups could use the trials as a platform to provoke ethnic and religious tension.

Bali police chief Ins. Gen. Budi Setyawan, according to Suyatmo, had issued an instruction to set up a special team to anticipate any eventuality in the trials of suspected terrorists responsible for the Bali bombing.

The 3,000 strong team will be headed by the director of Bali police patrol unit Sr. Comr. H. Ismail.

The 3,000 police officers would be split into three security layers - the first, second and third rings.

Suyatmo said all doors leading to court rooms would be equipped with a metal detector.

The trial venue will be decided in a meeting attended by representatives from the Bali administration, military, police, Bali provincial council and leaders of other official institutions, Suyatmo said.

He said the Nari Graha building is one possibility

Suyatmo said the Bali police chief had also stressed the need to strengthen security at all entrances to Bali, especially Gilimanuk and Padangbai, ports with ferries to and from Java and Lombok respectively, to prevent non-Balinese from entering the island.

Despite the security measures, he made it cleat that the Bali police intelligence units had so far not had any information about any plan to disrupt the trial.

Meanwhile, a prosecutor in the trial of Silverster Tendean, the owner of the Tidar Chemical shop in Surabaya, East Java where key suspect Amrozi purchased chemicals for the bombs, said Thursday that he bring Amrozi in as a witness.

Silverster is currently being tried at the Surabaya District Court with on terrorism charges, which carries a maximum sentence of death.

"We will present a number of witnesses, one of them is Amrozi," prosecutor Donny Kanedzar Irdan said.