Straits Times / Singapore Dec 8, 2010 Indonesia on alert after church blast
JAKARTA - INDONESIA will boost security over Christmas and New Year to prevent violence against Christians in the Muslim-majority country, police said on Wednesday. The alert came after a crude homemade bomb exploded harmlessly at a church near Solo in central Java on Tuesday and another unexploded device was found at a church in the same area last week. 'Ahead of Christmas and New Year, we'll enhance security measures to anticipate bomb threats... and church burnings,' national police spokesman Iskandar Hasan told reporters. 'The national police chief has ordered all police personnel across the country to coordinate with churches and local administrations to take preventive measures.' He said a 'terror group' was likely behind the bomb scares but he was reluctant to lay the blame at any particular organisation while investigations were ongoing. Indonesia is home to a plethora of homegrown Islamist extremist groups bent on waging jihad or 'holy war' against non-Muslims and the democratically elected government in a bid to impose Islamic law on the country. The government has arrested and convicted hundreds of alleged terrorists since the 2002 bombings of tourist areas on the resort island of Bali, which killed 202 people, mainly Westerners. -- AFP -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
