Police play down new terror fear

Police play down new terror fear

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Police will not increase their presence in public places over the
coming two months amid fears of a resurgence of terror activity
in the country.

National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Saud Usman Nasution said
on Tuesday there would be no extra deployment of officers to
guard places that might be targeted by the terrorists such as
embassies or public facilities like shopping malls.

"We will remain on alert but we won't add more personnel. We
have always been on guard all the time anyway, not just now or
whenever we detect threats," Saud said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered security
officers to raise their vigilance due to possible strikes in the
near future. He noted that bomb attacks have occurred around
September and October in the past three years.

Saud said the police had not yet seen any increase in
terrorist activities in the last few weeks, contrary to the
President's statement that terrorist cells in the Southeast Asia
region continue to maintain contact among themselves.

"We haven't received any threats yet and we don't detect any
intensification of terrorist activities," Saud said.

Saud said that National Police chief Gen. Sutanto had ordered
regional police forces to intensify their search for two
Malaysian fugitives Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohd Top, who
are held responsible for three major bombings in 2002, 2003 and
2004.

Saud added that Sutanto had signed a memorandum of
understanding with the Philippines police, due to findings that
many Indonesian militants went to the Philippines for training
and returned home as skilled terrorists.

Sutanto also intends to renew a similar agreement with the
Australian police, whom the National Police worked with in
capturing the culprits in the 2002 Bali bombings.