INDONESIA: Indonesian security forces were on high alert yesterday, independence day of the world's most populous Muslim country, after making 10 arrests in connection with a deadly bomb attack on a luxury hotel.
Soldiers in camouflage with assault rifles or machine-guns guarded street corners and the entrances to malls, hotels and government buildings in the capital amid warnings of more attacks by radicals. "The order for us is 'alert one'. That is the emergency level," a spokesman for the national police, Mr Zainuri Lubism, said. "For this independence day, we are securing Jakarta and other provinces in the 'alert one' status."
The Australian Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, yesterday said that terror attacks still threatened the region, despite the recent arrest of south-east Asia's most wanted militant, Hambali, and that Indonesia was the immediate concern. "Because it is a national day there is thought to be a particular danger," he said on Australian television.
Some 230,000 police were on duty throughout Indonesia, working alongside thousands of soldiers and undercover intelligence agents to foil any possible attacks by militant groups, the police spokesman said.
Security was particularly tight at the presidential palace where President Megawati Sukarnoputri reviewed troops at a special ceremony attended by ministers, foreign diplomats and hundreds of VIP guests.
The celebration comes nearly two weeks after a suicide bomber blew up a car packed with explosives in the courtyard of the US-run JW Marriott hotel in central Jakarta. The national police chief, Gen Da'i Bachtiar, said authorities had arrested 10 people in connection with the blast. "We are still searching for several people who need to be arrested."
It was the second major bombing in less than a year, following last year's Bali nightclub blasts that killed 202 people, 88 of them Australians.
Australia and New Zealand have warned of possible fresh militant strikes on soft targets, including Jakarta shopping malls and hotels, over the weekend. Several Western countries, including the US, have warned their citizens to avoid public places.
Dozens of Jakarta hotels and apartment buildings where foreigners live have bolstered security with armed police guards, barbed wire and sandbag barricades. Despite the heavy security presence, thousands of Indonesians strolled, picnicked and played games in parks around the capital. Indonesian red-and-white flags fluttered from lampposts, balconies and the backs of cars and motorcycles.
There have also been fears that any planned militant attacks may be brought forward after the capture in Thailand last week of Hambali, real name Riduan Isamuddin, an Indonesian suspected of leading the regional Jemaah Islamiah militant network that police have blamed for the Bali blasts and which has been linked to the Marriott bombing.
Hambali was captured in a joint Thai-US operation. Indonesian officials have said he should be put on trial in Indonesia.