Government ups security for public, vital facilities

Budianto Hananto, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

In anticipation of further terrorist attacks, the government has tightened security in all vital and public facilities across the country while encouraging the public to be vigilant and inform the police of suspicious behavior.

Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Sunday that the National Police, backed up by the Indonesian Military (TNI), had taken the order to secure the energy plants in particular.

"We have some information that energy plants may be the next target of terrorists ... We have tightened security in many areas such as (oil and gas mining in Aceh) Arun, Kalimantan's Total and for Freeport in Irian Jaya, as well as buildings in major cities in the country."

Susilo was speaking to reporters before leaving for Jakarta to hold an official press conference over the bomb blast late on Saturday in Bali which killed some 200 people and injured more than 300 others, as well as another blast in Manado, North Sulawesi, that hit the Philippines consul general's office but left no fatalities.

The blasts should be a turning point for the people here to "change their ignorance" of the presence of terrorist groups in Indonesia, Susilo stated, while adding that the limited intelligence personnel would be unable to detect other attacks.

"I ask the people to cooperate by submitting any information on paramilitary-like training in remote places. Nothing is ordinary about such things. Don't take it as a democratic activity," Susilo remarked.

The government refused to reveal if it had any leads, and would wait until the conclusions from the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) on the bombings, as well as evidence from the sites of the blasts.

Susilo claimed that the terrorists could be Indonesians or foreigners, or possibly Indonesians cooperating with foreigners.

He did, however, seem to believe that the Bali blasts were connected to the 1999 Christmas Eve bombings, the explosions in Atrium shopping mall, Central Jakarta, the Jakarta Stock Exchange in Central Jakarta, as well as this year's bomb attack on the military-owned Graha Cijantung shopping center, but refused to reveal why he had made such a connection.

Susilo made it clear that the people of Indonesia should fight against terror out of self-interest and nationalism, while not necessarily aligning itself ideologically with countries it had had recent spats with. "We should take action (against terrorism), not to serve the interests of other countries, but ours ... to protect our own people from such incidents," he said.

In Bandung, the provincial police were planning to tighten security at 17 vital facilities, including the main office of state telecommunications firm PT Telkom, railway stations, bus terminals, shopping centers, the provincial office of Bank Indonesia, hotels, worship buildings and entertainment spots.

Bandung police chief Sr. Comr. Hendra Sukmana quoted by Antara as saying on Sunday that the police also would give special protection to several prominent facilities in West Java, such as the oil refinery in Indramayu and the power plants in Suralaya, Saguling and Cirata.

While in Surabaya, the police force had intensified intelligence operations in public facilities and the U.S. consular compound since Sunday night, East Java police's chief of operational control Adj. Sr. Comr. M. Kusnadi said.

"We also deployed reinforcements to secure public facilities such as bus terminals and entertainment spots but we will focus on covert operations for early detection on terrorist attacks as well as information from the people," he told Antara.