Int'l schools stay shut over fear of possible attack

Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Several international schools in Jakarta remained closed on Monday, citing security reasons, while police said there had been no substantial threats made to schools to justify increased security.

Among the schools that are closed are the Australian International School (AIS), the British International School (BIS) and Jakarta International School (JIS), which have been closed since Friday due to a security advisory issued by the Australian Embassy.

Meanwhile, the North Jakarta International School was open due to a lack of any direct threat that may put its students, faculty or facilities at risk, the principal, Allan Forslund, said on its website.

The advisory was based on "reliable information" about a new threat to Westerners in Indonesia.

Separately, The New York Times reported on its website www.nytimes.com on Sunday that the planners of the Bali blasts are eying the three Western international schools, especially JIS.

The school has about 2,500 students, of which one-third are Americans, with classes ranging from kindergarten to Grade 12.

"All JIS campuses will remain closed on Monday and Tuesday. A decision as to whether to reopen on Wednesday will be made on Tuesday evening," the principal, Niall CW Nelson, said on the school's website www.jisedu.org.

"Central to that decision will be the response of the government of Indonesia to embassy requests for a higher security presence at the various international schools in Jakarta."

Representatives of the three schools reportedly held a meeting with city police chief Insp. Gen. Makbul Padmanegara to request additional security.

However, city police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam said no meeting took place on Monday.

"It is normal for the schools to close their campuses for security reasons after the Bali blast.

"They don't want a blast to happen at their schools. It is normal if they are afraid," he said.

Anton said the city police, in cooperation with the City Military Command, had deployed officers to the schools after the Bali bombing.

"We assigned a joint team of 10 to 20 security officers to each school. The size of each team depends on the school's location," he said without further elaboration.

Anton said that the soldiers outnumbered the police officers.

Peter Hoggins, the principal of the British International School, however, told AFP that only four police officers with sidearms had been posted at his school's Bintaro campus since just after the Bali bombing on October 12. They stayed from early morning until after the children went home.

The British school's Pondok Indah campus was guarded during the day by Indonesian Marines who did not carry guns, after attempts to secure a police guard failed. The school also has a private unarmed 24-hour security force.

Regarding the reported threats, Anton said the police had yet to find any possible threats to the international schools despite the information from reliable sources.

"We learned about the threats from media reports, and we will take them into account when we consider security preparations."

A grenade was thrown into the grounds of the Australian International School in November of last year but damage was minimal.

Anton said the South Jakarta Police were still investigating the case and had not found any leads yet.

He said that there were four groups suspected of perpetrating the blasts in the bombing cases handled by police.

"The first is Islamic militants and radicals led by Imam Samudra, while the second is the Acehnese separatist movement GAM.

"There used to be Tommy's group, but that was before he was put behind bars, while the fourth is a group of unrelated individuals."