Two more bomb hoaxes disrupt the capital

JAKARTA (JP): Two more bomb threats were received in the capital on Thursday, bringing the number of such threats so far this week to six. All have turned out to be hoaxes.

According to the police, the two bomb threats were called in to the 26-story Gajah Mada Plaza shopping and office center on Jl. Gajah Mada, Central Jakarta, and the 50-story BNI 46 tower on Jl. Sudirman, South Jakarta.

Speaking to the media on Friday, Jakarta police spokesman Lt. Col. Edward Aritonang said that all of the threats were made through phone calls by unidentified parties.

It remains unknown whether all six bomb threats were made by the same party. Most of those who received the bomb threats claim that the voice was that of a male.

According to Aritonang, the call at Gajah Mada Plaza was received by one of the building's operators, Lusiana, on Thursday morning.

The male's voice told Lusiana to leave the building immediately because a bomb had been planted to explode at 10 a.m.

The threat was reported to the property's security guards who contacted the police, Aritonang said.

"The Gegana bomb squad found nothing suspicious after combing the building for four hours," the officer said.

On Thursday night, a security guard at the BNI 46 tower, the tallest building in Jakarta, phoned the police at 11 p.m., saying that an unidentified man had just phoned to warn him that bombs had been planted in the skyscraper.

"The bomb squad was again hastily dispatched to the building and found no explosives after thoroughly searching the building," Aritonang said.

The bomb squad did confiscate eight suspicious tubes found on the top floor of the building.

"These tubes are now being examined at the Gegana headquarters," he said, referring to the National Police Mobile Brigade headquarters in Kelapa Dua, south of here.

Aritonang declined to discuss the tubes, saying that "if they were explosives, they would become headlines in the media".

Earlier in the day, a similar bomb threat was received by an employee of the Columbia shopping center in the Ciledug district of Tangerang, west of here.

On Tuesday, the capital recorded three bomb threats, at the Hero supermarkets in South Jakarta and Bekasi, and a Ramayana department store in South Jakarta.

During the first eight days of this year, Jakarta received a total of seven bomb hoaxes. There was also a blast last Saturday at a vacant Ramayana department store on Jl. Sabang, Central Jakarta.

Later on the same day, Hotel Indonesia, in the heart of the capital, received a bomb threat which turned out to be a hoax.

When asked to comment on Friday about the rash of bomb threats in the city, Governor Sutiyoso said he strongly believed that the threats were masterminded by those who had their own political agenda.

"I strongly suspect these hoaxes are politically motivated," he said, refusing further elaboration.

"It's in the hands of the police and the military to prove," Sutiyoso said.

The governor, however, reminded Jakartans not to panic when dealing with such threats, but to report instantly to the police anything suspicious, even strangers lurking around their homes or offices. (emf/ylt)