Bomb threats rattle two foreign offices

Bomb threats rattle two foreign offices

JAKARTA (JP): The Canadian embassy and the office of Singapore
Airlines received phoned-in bomb threats in the space of two
hours on Tuesday afternoon.

Although the threats turned out to be hoaxes, they were the
first to target foreign offices in the wave of terrorization
leveled at many properties across the city.

The embassy and airline office are located in office buildings
on a few hundred meters apart on Jl. Sudirman, a major city
thoroughfare.

A threat was conveyed at about 1 p.m. to the embassy on the
fifth floor of 18-story Wisma Metropolitan I, which is part of
the trio of buildings in the World Trade center complex.

Singapore Airlines, located on the second floor of 26-floor
Chase Plaza, received a threat at 2:30 p.m.

According to the embassy's political counselor Rene Cremonese,
a male caller made the threat to receptionist Yulia.

"The caller, speaking in Bahasa Indonesia, simply said that he
had placed a bomb in the embassy," Cremonese told The Jakarta
Post.

The embassy contacted the National Police's Gegana bomb squad
and conveyed the threat to the building's management, PT Jakarta
Land, he added.

A group of 10 security guards from the building management
inspected the embassy and several other suspect areas in the
building, one of the guards said.

Many employees in the building panicked after they heard the
arrival of the Gegana squad, heralded by loud sirens, recalled
the guard, who asked to remain anonymous.

"But we managed to calm down the people, saying there was no
bomb in the building."

He regretted the embassy's decision to report the threat to
the bomb squad.

"The security guards here have been trained to handle bombs,"
he said, without discussing the training or any bomb detection
devices at their disposal.

Cremonese said the embassy received a similar bomb hoax two
years ago.

Woman voice

The airline scare was different from previous bomb threats
because the caller was a woman.

"One of the airline's reservation staff, Sumi, said the woman
had a Chinese accent, telling her that she had placed a bomb on
the second floor where the airline office is located," the
officer, who requested anonymity, said.

After combing part of the floor and the building, Gegana squad
officers declared the property safe and that there was no bomb.

Several skyscrapers, shopping centers, private and state
offices and even a hospital in the capital have been victims of
bomb threats, all subsequently revealed to be hoaxes, in the past
three months.

Recent threats included a written message onboard a Garuda
Indonesia flight from Bali; a phoned-in threat to state-run Cipto
Mangunkusumo General Hospital; a scare at the city's tallest
building, Wisma BNI tower, and a threat made against state-run
Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI).

On Monday, similar threats terrified employees at the Bank
Dagang Negara (BDN) building on Jl. Samanhudi and privately run
Bank SGP's office on Jl. Sudirman, both in Central Jakarta.

On Friday, the Attorney General Office's in South Jakarta
received a threat.

Separately, the Central Jakarta police announced on Tuesday
the discovery of a "cookie tin" believed to contain explosives at
Cipto Mangunkusumo.

According to detective chief Maj. Budiono Sandi, the tin, with
a note stating "contains nitrogen", will be examined by the
Gegana squad at its laboratory. (jun/emf)