'Elang' team to battle bombs, terror

JAKARTA (JP): The city police's anti-terror and bomb squad completed a six-day training program on Monday aimed at sharpening their skills in dealing with bomb and terrorist related crimes.

Squad instructor Adj. Sr. Comr. Amri Kamil of the National Police Headquarters said the team, code named Elang (eagle), was tasked with responding to bomb incidents and launching investigations into suspects and motives behind such crimes.

"The team members have to be able to secure the blast sites so as to allow other officers to collect as much evidence as possible from the crime scene," Amri said, adding that in most bombings police were slow in securing the locations, resulting in a lot of important evidence being damaged.

Amri has just finished a similar training program with the Louisiana State Police in the United States.

The 135-member team includes members of the Sabhara unit, the intelligence unit, the detective unit and the Gegana bomb squad.

Amri spoke to the media during a ceremony held to mark the end of the training program at Jakarta Police Headquarters.

During the ceremony, the team demonstrated their skills in securing a blast site and collecting evidence after a bomb was detonated in a car.

"We use power-gel explosives. It is a commercial explosive product and very expensive," said Amri who was accompanied by Gegana commander Adj. Sr. Comr. Boni Tampoi.

Besides destroying the blue sedan, the blast also broke the glass in several windows of a building adjacent to the field.

The powerful blast, however, was mistakenly thought by motorists passing police headquarters to be a real bomb explosion. Heavy traffic jams occurred along Jl. Sudirman shortly after the blast at around 10:20 a.m. after motorists stopped and looked into the police headquarters grounds.

Personnel from the traffic police unit were immediately deployed to handle the congestion, encouraging motorists to continue their journey because the blast was merely a training exercise.

"I never thought the bomb could be so convincing," a police traffic officer said, admitting that she was the first to panic upon hearing the blast. (emf)