The Hindu : International : 20 killed as twin blasts rock crowded Indonesian market

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 29, 2005

International

International

20 killed as twin blasts rock crowded Indonesian market

P. S. Suryanarayana

Explosions follow closure of U.S. missions over terror attack fears

SINGAPORE: At least 20 persons were killed and 40 others injured as a result of two sequential bomb explosions at a busy marketplace in the town of Tentena in Indonesia's Central Sulawesi on Saturday, according to police officials in Jakarta.

No organisation claimed responsibility even several hours after two bombs were detonated by suspected terrorists. Within minutes of the first explosion, another bomb went off outside a police station in the same marketplace, even as people had rushed to help those injured in the earlier blast. At least one police officer was said to have been injured in the second blast.

The population of the town is predominantly Christian in Muslim-majority Indonesia, and this gave currency to speculation that the latest bomb explosions were perhaps a matter of sectarian violence, which was not unknown to the country, and not political terrorism.

However, Saturday's violence occurred within two days of the decision by the United States to suspend the operations of its embassy in Jakarta and other consulates across Indonesia with immediate effect and under further notice on the basis of apprehensions of terrorist violence of an unspecified kind.

The Indonesian National Police Chief, Gen. Dai Bachtiar, said in Jakarta on Saturday before leaving for the Sulawesi town that information had been received earlier that indicated the possibility of bomb attacks against oil refineries operated by foreign companies and against the U.S. embassy in Jakarta.

Vice-President's visit

AFP reports:

Indonesia's Vice-President Yusuf Kalla will on Sunday visit the scene of a twin bomb attack which killed at least 20 persons and wounded almost 60 on Saturday. Mr. Kalla said he would travel to the town of Tentena, on the island of Sulawesi, to view security operations in the wake of Indonesia's worst attack by suspected Islamic militants since the October 2002 Bali bombings.

The Vice-President was already visiting South Sulawesi, the province next to Tentena's surrounding Central Sulawesi, at the time of the attack to inaugurate a mosque in his home town of Makassar. Speaking to reporters, Mr. Kalla said that more police would be deployed to Tentena and vowed that the Government would ``hunt down'' the bombers, whom he said were responsible for earlier sectarian violence.

``The motive is quite clear ... this must have been carried out by the same group who ignited problems in Ambon and in Poso,'' Mr. Kalla said.

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