Police hang up on text terror messages

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.