Mon, 19 Apr 1999

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)