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Back to Home Page National News June 04, 2000
Security worries intensify after bomb threat on expat
JAKARTA (JP): One day after finding a suspicious package in a West
Jakarta church, city police were called on Friday night by a foreigner
living in Cilandak, South Jakarta, who said he had received a bomb
threat earlier the same afternoon.
Chief of Cilandak Police Subprecinct Maj. Nurhayati said on Saturday
that Alistair Lang, a British citizen living on Jl. H. Abu, Cipete,
Cilandak district, South Jakarta, had received a phone call on Friday
night from an unidentified person who claimed to have planted a bomb
inside his house.
"Lang immediately called Cilandak Police and reported the mysterious
call," Nurhayati told The Jakarta Post.
Head of the local neighborhood unit, Musadat, who lives next to Lang's
house, said he knew nothing about the bomb threat until Cilandak
Police officers, who arrived in the area around 6:00 p.m., notified
him.
Police conveyed the report to the National Police Bomb Disposal Squad
(Gegana), which arrived at Lang's house to look for the reported bomb
at around 7:30 p.m.
The bomb disposal team, led by Sgt. Sardi, searched the house for
about an hour before concluding that it was safe.
Nobody picked up the phone when the Post tried to contact Lang at his
home on Saturday.
Eric Humphries, a staffer at the British Embassy, he could not confirm
whether Lang was from the UK.
"We cannot confirm his citizenship as soon as tonight. I think you
should verify the information with the embassy or the police
yourself," he told the Post from his home on Saturday
The bomb threat was the second incident in the capital in as many
days. On Thursday, church staffer F. Rujimin alerted West Jakarta
Police to a suspicious item at Salvator Christ Church on Jl. K.S.
Tubun.
The item, a drinking bottle with batteries and wires packed in a brown
cement sack, was found at 8:45 a.m. on Thursday by Rujimin.
Duty officer at the National Police Forensic Laboratory (Puslabor)
Munawardin said on Saturday that laboratory officers had yet to come
to any conclusion over the item.
Bombs have exploded in the North Sumatra capital of Medan and the East
Java town of Nganjuk over the past week.
In Medan, a bomb exploded in a Protestant church last Sunday, injuring
47 people. Two other bombs that failed to explode were discovered in
two other churches. Last Monday, a blast occurred in front of a
restaurant, injuring three.
In Nganjuk, a grenade exploded in a van last Tuesday. East Java Police
Chief of Detectives Col. Suharto said last Wednesday that apart from
the Belgian-made grenade, a homemade bomb, hundreds of 5.56 millimeter
M-16 rifle bullets and a large number of other bullets of calibers
ranging from 6.3 mm to 9 mm where in the van when it exploded. (07)
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