Da'i rues failure to catch terrorists
Da'i rues failure to catch terrorists
Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar apologized on Thursday
for his failure to capture the country's two top fugitive terrorist
suspects as he bid farewell in advance of his replacement by
Comr. Gen. Sutanto.
The two fugitives, Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohd. Top,
both Malaysians, have been blamed for masterminding a series of
terrorist attacks in Indonesia, including the 2002 Bali bombings
and the 2003 blast at Jakarta's JW Marriott Hotel.
"We're still trying to track them down and ascertain their
whereabouts so that we can find out what they are planning next,"
Da'i told a news conference ahead of the National Police's 59th
anniversary, which falls on Friday.
He said that a special team formed to hunt the two fugitives
continued the search for them and other members of terror group
Jamaah Islamiyah, which has been linked to Osama bin Laden's Al-
Qaeda network.
He claimed that the police had come close to catching them on
a number of occasions, but they always managed to escape in time,
and managed to launch further attacks, such as that on the
Australian Embassy last year.
"We once managed to track them down to a rented house in
Cengkareng (western Jakarta). As we got within spitting range of
their hideout, a blast suddenly went off and they made good their
escape."
The police chief said that some Indonesians might be harboring
Azahari and Noordin given that it was proving so difficult to
capture them.
"We know they have often gone to the southern Philippines to
communicate with groups there. They normally went by sea through
North Sulawesi, but when we posted our men at the port, they
switched to Nunukan (East Kalimantan), and traveled to Sabang
before arriving in the Philippines," Da'i said.
He stressed that capturing Noordin and Azahari was not an easy
task. A lot of time and effort had gone into tracking them down
so that if the two fugitives are caught sometime in the future,
this would represent the culmination of a long process.
In his farewell address, Da'i referred to the police's
achievements under his four-year leadership, including what he
claimed was a successful operation against illegal logging in
Papua, in which a number of senior police and government
officials were arrested.
"We know that we are lagging far behind the expectations of
the public. But we have tried to do our best with the 305,456
police officers that we have," he said.
Da'i is to be replaced soon by Comr. Gen. Sutanto, the current
National Narcotics Agency (BNN) director, who has been nominated
by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
However, Sutanto has yet to pass the screening process in the
House of Representatives, with a selection hearing being
scheduled for Monday. However, it is likely that the House will
endorse the President's choice.
Under Da'i's leadership, the National Police have completed the
construction of a new police training center in Cikeas, Bogor,
West Java, which will host a ceremony marking the anniversary of
the founding of the National Police on Friday.
Da'i said the new facility, covering a total area of around 50
hectares, would serve as a multifunction training center for
detectives, traffic police and intelligence personnel.