Police are still in the dark about bomb threat callers

JAKARTA (JP): The city police are still in the dark as to the identities and whereabouts of the mysterious callers in a series of recent bomb threats to numerous public places in the capital, police chief Maj. Gen. Noegroho Djajoesman has said.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Noegroho said his men had already applied all standard procedures in pursuit of the callers. Among other things they had made a thorough examination of the sites in search of clues and had attempted to trace the callers' telephone numbers.

"I've told all Jakarta police detectives to intensify their work to arrest the bomb hoaxers," he said.

So far, the police have failed to come up with strong leads which could help the officers to pinpoint the callers. The identities of the callers' voices are still a mystery to the law enforcement officers.

Noegroho also urged people not to worry unduly about such threats delivered over the telephone.

Judging from recent experience in the capital, he said, such threatening calls always turned to be hoaxes.

"If the culprits really want to blow up a building, they will not let us know in advance," the two-star general said.

But, he added quickly, police have an obligation to comb a site that has received such threatening calls and make a complete check for any possible explosive devices.

More than a dozen shopping centers, office buildings and hospitals in the city have received such unpleasant anonymous messages, mostly from male callers.

Although all such calls have turned out to be hoaxes, the threats have been more than enough to further unsettle the nerves of many Jakartans.

Police have yet to come to any definite conclusion as to whether or not the calls have emanated from the same person.

In the first month of this year alone, many important buildings, such as the Wisma BNI tower and state-run Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI) were targeted.

The two latest bomb threats were recorded at two different times on Monday, at state-owned Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital (RSCM) in Central Jakarta and the privately-run Pondok Indah General Hospital in South Jakarta.

As was reported earlier, the threat at RSCM, which was received by its duty telephone operator at about 8:15 a.m., led to the hasty evacuation of patients, the cancellation of scheduled surgeries and the closing of public services.

The caller identified himself as one of former president Soeharto's men. It is unclear why he had to make such a call to the hospital, creating panic among patients and medical staff.

After three hours combing the area, the police bomb squad declared the oldest hospital in the city safe and dismissed the call as a hoax.

In the evening, the Pondok Indah hospital became the newest target of bomb hoaxers.

According to Jakarta Police spokesman, Lt. Col. Zainuri Lubis, the mysterious caller rang an on-duty physician named Hasan Basri at about 6 p.m. and informed the latter that a bomb planted in one of the hospital wards would go off in 45 minutes.

"The man told Hasan to leave the hospital immediately," Lubis quoted Hasan as saying.

There were no details on the situation as none of the medical staff of the hospital, known as one of the most expensive in the capital, could be reached for comment.

According to the police, this threat turned out to be a hoax as members of the National Police Gegana bomb squad found nothing after a search of the building lasting about two hours. (emf)