Police hang up on text terror messages
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
"Sources with National Police Headquarters suspect that three vehicles loaded with explosives are on their way to Jakarta, targeting malls or places of worship tonight or tomorrow night. Police have tightened access to Jakarta. The suspected vehicles' registration numbers are D 183 KH, D 1631 TH and D 4187 TH. Please, keep away from malls or shopping centers."
This is one of a number of similar messages being sent since Friday to people across the city, perhaps also the country, via their cellular phones.
Another message says that the vehicle with registration number D 183 KH is either a red Suzuki Katana or a red Daihatsu Taft.
Due to the disquiet caused by the text messages, Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani, Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso and Jakarta Military Commander Maj. Gen. Agustadi Sasongko held a press briefing to give assurances that the messages were bogus and designed "to spread terror ahead of the election".
"There is no corroborating information to the effect that Jakarta is under such threat that the election can't be held tomorrow," Sutiyoso said at the Australian Embassy Bombing media center in the Sari Pan Pacific Hotel on Sunday.
He believed the messages were intended to discourage people from voting during the second round of the presidential election on Monday.
A registration number starting with "D" show that the vehicle originates from Bandung, Sumedang or Subang.
"We have checked the numbers with the vehicle identification units from the West Java Police and Jakarta Police," Firman said. "The first number was not registered at all while the last two numbers were registered but the types of the vehicle were different."
Firman said the police investigation had come up against a cul-de-sac in the form of a number of unidentified cellular phone numbers.
"Whoever sent the messages likely used pre-paid numbers. It's difficult to track down the owner of these numbers," he said. "We could, however, use the global positioning system (GSP) if they keep using the cards."
Prepaid cards for cellular phones are sold freely and customers are neither required to fill in a form nor submit a copy of their ID card. Many cellular phone operators are currently competing to offer low-priced prepaid cards, starting from around Rp 20,000 (US$2.22).
Agustadi said the military had prepared 37 stand-by platoons to help 15,000 on-duty police officers in ensuring security in the capital on election day and during the vote count.
Despite the concern of the authorities about the text messages in Jakarta, the public appears to not be unduly worried.
"We haven't seen any decrease in the number of visitors tonight. The mall is as busy as a normal weekend," said Mety, an employee at Plaza Indonesia on Jl. Thamrin, Central Jakarta.
Plaza Senayan general manager Budiyono said that there had been a very small decrease in the number of visitors over the weekend.
"But the decrease is caused by the long weekend, with many Jakartans leaving town. There were some people who were so scared by the text messages that they called me to ask me about it. But the number was insignificant," he said.