Int'l schools stay shut over fear of possible attack

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."