'Foreign help may expose police inadequacies'
'Foreign help may expose police inadequacies'
M. Taufiqurrahman and Muninggar Sri Saraswati,
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The presence of foreign police in the ongoing investigation of
two high-profile bombing cases is necessary, if not desirable,
given the shortcomings by the local police to deal with the
crimes, says an analyst.
Adrianus Meliala, a criminologist with the state-run
University of Indonesia in Jakarta said on Monday that foreign
police assistance in the investigations into the Bali blasts and
the latest Marriot bombing was necessary given the lack of
experience on the part of the National Police to deal with such
complex cases.
He added that foreign investigators had to be approved by the
National Police.
"The foreign assistance is allowed only if it is done under
the scheme of government-to-government cooperation, and is merely
part of a technical assistance agreement from other governments,"
he told The Jakarta Post by telephone.
However, the National Police can only request overseas
assistance as a last resort. "I am afraid if the police
frequently ask for foreign help, it will only expose their own
inability in fighting against terrorism," he said.
Meliala said the investigators from several countries were
only allowed to take part in technical aspects of the probe.
He dismissed speculation that the presence of foreign
investigators was in some way part of a grand foreign scheme to
steer the investigation in a direction that may be beneficial to
them. "I don't think such speculation can be proven true, because
police, in general, investigate based on evidence gathered from
the field," he said.
Earlier, a member of the National Commission for Human Rights,
Salahuddin Wahid, voiced his concern over the presence of foreign
investigators in the Marriott probe. He said he feared that
foreign intelligence agents would have a hand in deciding where
the investigation should go.
In the wake of the Bali blasts that claimed 202 lives, mostly
foreigners, the National Police successfully investigated the
bombing with financial and technical assistance from many
countries, especially Australia. Over 30 suspected members of
terror group Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) have been captured and most
are currently on trial in Bali.
In the Marriott investigation, U.S. Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) agents have arrived in the city to help the
police.
Police officers from Germany, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia
and Japan have also arrived to assist the police, mostly with
forensic work.
There are no official figures on how many foreign
investigators are here or soon to be.
Brig. Gen. Nanan Soekarna, the deputy chief of the Jakarta
Police, confirmed that his investigators were being assisted by
police from many countries.
"They came here to examine the crime scene and the case," he
said on Monday.
According to Nanan, the international investigators would
"study the bombing" and compare their findings with that of the
Indonesian police.
Separately, National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Zainuri Lubis
said that the presence of the officers from other countries would
be beneficial for the investigation as "they have more
sophisticated technology".
"They will not become team members of the investigation, they
will only help with forensics. The investigation is being handled
by local police," he made clear.