Sutoyoso tells Jakartans to be more vigilant
Sutoyoso tells Jakartans to be more vigilant
JAKARTA (JP): Governor Sutiyoso urged city residents on Friday
to improve vigilance "at all times" in light of the recent bomb
blast at Hayam Wuruk Plaza shopping center in West Jakarta.
Sutiyoso said Thursday's blast, following an earlier bomb
blast which occurred on Jan. 3, proved that called in bomb-
threats were not just hoaxes.
"From the time I was Jakarta Military Commander in 1996 until
some time last year, most of the threats were only hoaxes,"
Sutiyoso said at City Hall.
"But today, the threats are not just threatening."
As reported earlier, a strong blast rocked the shopping center
in West Jakarta on Thursday morning, shattering the windows of at
least four shops on the plaza's ground floor and panicking
shoppers.
The situation was quiet at the three-story shopping center on
Sunday.
Only a few shoppers were seen at the plaza, while several shop
owners sat in front of their shops talking about the incident.
The shoppers were asked to enter the plaza through the nearby
Bank Rakyat Indonesia building because the shopping center's
front gates were still closed.
Police lines were still in place in front of the three shops
on the ground floor nearest to the blast site.
A police officer and two civilian militia members from the
Tamansari Police subprecinct were deployed to monitor the scene.
Several shops were still closed, but many others reopened on
Saturday.
One of the shop owners, Iwan, said the number of shoppers at
the plaza had dropped by over 50 percent since the incident.
"Probably people are still afraid of the blast or they think
we are closed after seeing the closed gates," Iwan, who sells
various snacks, told The Jakarta Post.
He said he believed the blast, which occurred at 11:10 a.m.,
was related to an armed robbery at a Bank Central Asia (BCA)
branch some 500 meters from the shopping center.
"It's almost impossible that the incidents are not related
since the blast occurred a few minutes before the robbery," he
said.
Usep, a security guard at the shopping center, said the
plaza's management told employees the blast had nothing to do
with politics or the BCA robbery.
"The management said the bomb was probably planted because of
business competition among shopping centers in the city. It was
done by hired men," Usep said.
The shopping center is managed by PT Gunung Sewu Inti
Management.
City police Spokesman Lt. Col. Zainuri Lubis refused to give
details on the investigations into the blast and the BCA robbery.
"Comments about the two incidents should come from the City
police chief (Maj. Gen. Noegroho Djajoesman)," Lubis said on
Sunday.
About 10 minutes after the blast, at least six men armed with
machetes and guns attempted to rob the BCA branch. The bank's
security guard was stabbed to death and the bank manager suffered
stab wounds during the robbery.
A reliable police source said the chemical composition of the
explosive device used in the Hayam Wuruk blast was similar to
that from an explosion which occurred at Atrium Senen shopping
center last Dec. 11.
A bomb blast also occurred in the city on Jan. 3. A strong
explosion destroyed a vacant three-story Ramayana department
store and shattered the windows of nearby shops on Jl. Agus Salim
in Central Jakarta.
Lubis said police so far had arrested four people for their
alleged roles in the BCA robbery. No arrests have been made in
the Hayam Wuruk blast.
Two of the suspects were arrested by local residents after the
robbery, while the other two suspects were arrested in Bogor, he
said. (ylt/jun)