Bomb threats hit Jakarta again
JAKARTA (JP): Acts of terror returned to the capital on Tuesday as four bomb threats, which later turned out to be hoaxes, were telephoned to two separate offices in South Jakarta.
The first of two bomb threats hit the office of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare on Jl. Rasuna Said on Monday morning, causing panic among the employees.
The first threat was received about 8:45 a.m. by the building management, while the second came about 9:25 a.m., said Adi, an employee at the ministry.
"The operator said the caller had a male voice and sounded funny, like he was trying to change his tone. In the second call, he said the building would be blasted at 12 p.m.," Adi said.
Soon after the first call, staff at the ministry called the police and started to evacuate people from the building.
The bomb squad arrived only about one and a half hours after the last threat, about 11 a.m., and began to search the place until 3 p.m. But they found nothing.
Most employees, however, were afraid to stay in the building and the ministry was eventually deserted about noon.
The bomb threats came after an overnight meeting on the formation of a new team of doctors to access the health of former president Soeharto in relation to his alleged graft case.
Doctors from the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI), the health and social welfare ministry as well as from several prominent universities are expected to make up the team.
"We fear the bomb threats at the ministry have something to do with the fact that their doctors are involved (in the Soeharto case). We hope that in the future nothing like this will happen again.
"Like other people, doctors must be free from fear or pressure in performing their duties," Herkutanto, IDI legal advisor and chief of the counseling and defense board told The Jakarta Post later in the day.
Meanwhile, the second two bomb threats were made at the office of PT Medco Energi Corporation at the 21-story Graha Niaga building on Jl. Sudirman at 2:30 p.m. and about 4:20 p.m.
The caller also had a male voice.
The office management did not respond to the first call, but after receiving the second one, the office's security authority immediately called the police and started to evacuate people.
South Jakarta Police chief Sr. Supt. Edward Aritonang confirmed that the first two bomb threats were hoaxes.
"No bomb was found at the Ministry of Health ... in the case of Pak Arifin Panigoro's office building, we're still checking," he told the Post, referring to the businessman and Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) legislator.
Earlier on Monday, a similar bomb threat was delivered to City Hall, the office building of Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso.
C4 type
Separately, a senior officer at the National Police central forensic laboratory (Puslabfor) confirmed on Tuesday that the bomb which exploded at the JSX building on Wednesday last week was of C4 type, a high velocity plastic explosive used by the military.
"We found out on Monday afternoon that it was C4 ... it's just sadistic. A detector of the latest design was brought into Puslabfor (on Monday) and showed that the bomb contained at least 70 percent RDX," the officer, requesting anonymity, told the Post. (edt/ylt)