INDONESIA: INDONESIAN POLICE INCREASE SECURITY IN BID TO THWART MUSLIM MILITANT ATTACKS DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON
Record ID:
208447
INDONESIA: INDONESIAN POLICE INCREASE SECURITY IN BID TO THWART MUSLIM MILITANT ATTACKS DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON
- Title: INDONESIA: INDONESIAN POLICE INCREASE SECURITY IN BID TO THWART MUSLIM MILITANT ATTACKS DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON
- Date: 22nd December 2004
- Summary: (W3) JAKARTA, INDONESIA (DECEMBER 22, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE OF POLICE FORCE DURING SHOW OF FORCE 0.07 2. WIDE OF POLICE PERSONNEL SALUTING 0.13 3. SLV ANTI-RIOT POLICE SALUTING 0.18 4. VARIOUS OF JAKARTA POLICE CHIEF FIRMAN GANI REVIEWING POLICE PERSONNEL 0.37 5. WIDE OF MILITARY CEREMONY/ FIRMAN GANI ON PODIUM 0.42 6. SCU (SOUNDBITE)(Bahasa Indonesia) JAKARTA POLICE CHIEF FIRMAN GANI SAYING: "I believe it would be a disgrace for us if the several leads we've got in the past few days, such as the seizure of explosives in Bandung and other areas, are not followed upon by the increase of alertness for the Christmas and New Year holidays." 1.10 8. VARIOUS OF POLICEMEN FROM RAPID FORCE UNIT 1.21 9. WIDE GANI AT PODIUM 1.26 10. SCU (SOUNDBITE)(Bahasa Indonesia) JAKARTA POLICE CHIEF FIRMAN GANI SAYING: "We have learned that with the escalation of security disturbances lately, we could not take lightly these incidents, especially the shooting and bombing incidents of churches in several places." 1.50 11. VARIOUS OF POLICE PERSONNEL LISTENING DURING THE BRIEFING 2.02 12. WIDE OF RAPID FORCE UNIT POLICE WITH MOTORCYCLES 2.07 13. WIDE OF FEMALE POLICE DURING THE BRIEFING 2.12 14. WIDE OF RAPID FORCE UNIT 2.17 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 6th January 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: JAKARTA, INDONESIA
- Country: Indonesia
- Reuters ID: LVA57Y1EPOM3QREAFPUE2J73CLUX
- Story Text: Indonesian police boost security across the country
ahead of Chrismas and New Year holidays.
Indonesian police are throwing a huge security
blanket over thousands of churches, shopping malls and
hotels to thwart attacks by Muslim militants during
Christmas and New Year celebrations.
The campaign, involving 130,000 personnel, comes after
foreign governments warned that intelligence indicated
attacks on Western and local targets were being planned in
the world's most populous Muslim nation.
Hundreds of people have died, many of them foreign
tourists, in attacks blamed on al Qaeda-linked militants in
recent years.
Nerves have been rattled in the past week by false
alarms, including loud blasts from a probable meteor shower
and a dud grenade found in the car park of the Jakarta
Hilton Hotel.
More than 9,000 police were working to secure the
capital's 647 Christian churches and shopping malls,
Jakarta police chief Firman Gani said after a review of
his forces on Wednesday (December 22) morning.
"I believe it would be a disgrace for us if the several
leads we've got in the past few days, such as the seizure
of explosives in Bandung and other areas, are not followed
upon by the increase of alertness for the Christmas and New
Year holidays," he said.
"We have learned that with the escalation of security
disturbances lately, we could not take lightly these
incidents, especially the shooting and bombing incidents of
churches in several places," Gani added.
However, experts say Indonesia's police force is too
small and poorly prepared to provide adequate security
across the sprawling archipelago of 17,000 islands and 220
million people.
A report this week by the respected International Crisis Group, a
t
hink-tank based in Brussels, said Jakarta
needed to double the size of the force.
Black-clad security officers in armoured anti-bomb
vests and helmets and toting automatic weapons patrol the
Australian embassy in Jakarta to augment police security
after a deadly bombing in September that killed 10 people
and wounded many.
Extra armed police could also be seen posted at some
posh hotels and shopping centres frequented by foreigners.
Police last Friday found nine homemade bombs stashed in
a public bus in West Java.
The U.S. embassy said on Wednesday in an email sent to
its citizens that it was closing its consulate in Surabaya,
the capital of East Java province, until early in the new
year.
The British and Australian embassies have already
announced plans to scale back operations over the period.
Indonesia has fallen prey to a string of deadly
bombings in recent years that have been blamed by
authorities on shadowy Jemaah Islamiah, seen as the
Southeast Asian arm of al Qaeda.
Those attacks include the Bali bombings two years ago
that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, as well
as a 2003 blast outside the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta
that killed 12 people and the Sept 9. truck bomb outside
the Australian embassy.
Islamic militants also launched a wave of bomb attacks
on churches across Indonesia in 2000 that killed 19 people.
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