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.