Living in terror

Living in terror

The bomb attacks in and outside churches in Indonesia on
Christmas Eve must go down as the most heinous mass crime ever
committed in this country. This was clearly a concerted and
carefully planned campaign designed to kill as well as to instill
terror among the population of this country.

The timing and the targets were chosen to create the
impression of a religiously motivated campaign. With Idul Fitri,
the Muslim holiday, coming only two days after Christmas, the
perpetrators were clearly trying to antagonize relations between
the Christians, the country's largest minority religious group,
and Muslims, who make up more than 80 percent of Indonesia's
population.

We have seen this type of campaign work with such devastating
effect in Maluku, North Maluku and in Central Sulawesi, where
Muslims and Christians have been fighting each other. Now the
perpetrators are trying to expand their war theater to the rest
of the country, including Jakarta. Let us hope that enough cool
heads prevail in Jakarta and the rest of the country to prevent a
religious conflict from erupting.

This is a campaign clearly designed to terrorize and to
provoke a bigger conflict, rather than to commit mass murders.
Most of the bombs that exploded on Sunday night were placed in
car parks, away from the church crowd although they were
detonated as Christmas services were going on inside. But other
bombs, like those inside parcels sent to churches in Medan and in
Mojokerto, were clearly intended to maximize the number of
casualties. Fortunately in Medan, church officials were more
alert and quickly informed the police about the suspicious
looking parcels. Otherwise, we would be looking at even far
higher death toll.

But the 15 deaths and the dozens who were injured by the
blasts are still unacceptable casualties of this mad and
senseless campaign. Our hearts go out to all the victims and the
grieving relatives who must be devastated by this tragedy.
It is of course no consolation to them that most of the rest of
the nation will have to live in terror, with the knowledge that
whoever carried out the bombing campaign on Sunday night are
still out there and can strike again, any time and any where.

Coordinating Minister for Political, Security and Social
Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono disclosed on Monday intelligence
reports suggesting that the perpetrators would continue the
bombing campaign on the day of Idul Fitri to further their
objective of setting Christians against Muslims. It is not
necessarily heartening that on the rare occasion that the
government shared official intelligence reports with public, they
proved to be wrong. While it has kept the people alert and vigil
as they celebrated Idul Fitri on Wednesday, such a rare
disclosure, if anything, further exposes the weakness of the
government's intelligence capability. Either the government is
completely inept, or the perpetrators are truly professional in
their work, or, God forbid, both.

To be able to mount such a concerted bombing campaign of the
scale we saw on Sunday must have taken quite a lot of
preparation. It must have involved an organization with a large
nationwide network to be able to operate in several cities at the
same time. And the organization must have had easy access to
explosives. For them to leave few trails behind after such a
campaign, suggests they have a high level of professionalism.

But surely, somewhere along the line, the police's and the
government's intelligence apparatus must have smelt something
amiss. Is that not supposed to be their job in the first place?
Even if they had failed to anticipate the bombing campaign, they
must surely be able to investigate the incidents thoroughly and
catch the perpetrators, which is again their job. Surely, the
perpetrators must have left clues somewhere for police
investigators to pursue. And surely, it should not be that
difficult to track down an organization in this country that has
this huge network, the skills to organize such a clandestine
operation, as well as the money to finance such a campaign.

Sadly, the record of the National Police in handling such
cases is simply appalling. In almost all previous bomb attacks,
in Jakarta and Medan, the police not only failed to anticipate,
but they also failed to come up with credible explanations about
who the perpetrators were and what were their motives. The
explosion which crippled the Philippine ambassador in Jakarta,
the grenade thrown into the Malaysian embassy compound, and the
massive explosion in the car park of the Jakarta Stock Exchange
building are cases that have not been resolved satisfactorily to
this day. Nor have they cracked the mystery behind previous bomb
attacks in churches in Medan.

It would not be surprising that these previous attacks were
carried out by the same people who launched Sunday's bombing
campaign. They certainly have had the same effect: To instill
terror. If they were indeed carried out by one and the same
organization, solving just one mystery would surely lead to
explanations for all the other bomb attacks.

Until the police catch the perpetrators, or at least come up
with a credible explanation for the latest bombing campaign, this
country will continue to live in terror and the entire nation
will forever be held hostage by the perpetrators. We do not know
who they are and what they really want. We only know what they
are capable of. And we know they can strike again, any time, any
where.