JAKARTA, 18 July 2003 - Indonesia has warned that the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah is "very likely" to be planning fresh attacks in the region. The unusually blunt warning by Indonesia's chief security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono comes two days after a bomb exploded at Indonesia's Parliament building and a senior JI operative escaped from jail in the Philippines.
"It's very possible that Jemaah Islamiah, whose elements are spread throughout Southeast Asia, will carry out fresh criminal actions," Yudhoyono told a news conference on Wednesday. "We cannot say terrorism in Indonesia and Southeast Asia has reduced. Moreover, from what we've found there are indications terrorist movements in Southeast Asia will tend to carry out more of the actions they have planned and prepared for."
The JI, which has been linked to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terrorists, is accused of being behind last year's Bali bombings which killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.
The Indonesian minister said he had ordered security tightened at key installations across the country as a result of the parliament blast, in which no one was killed or hurt.
The escape of alleged JI bombmaker Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi from a Manila jail on Monday also raised the threat of new attacks, the minister said.
On top of that, Jakarta will hold its annual People's Consultative Assembly and celebrate its independence anniversary next month. Police also arrested nine suspected JI members in Indonesia last week and said they had foiled plots to attack churches and shops in capital Jakarta. Police seized a huge cache of explosives during the raids. They said they were hunting several more JI militants.
The suspected militants had targeted eight strategic locations in Jakarta as part of their operations, police have said, without explaining what they intended to do. Yudhoyono referred to trials of JI leaders in Indonesia, including its alleged chief Abu Bakar Bashir, but did not say if he thought their verdicts could be a flashpoint. Bashir is on trial for treason but has not been charged over the Bali bombings.
Yudhoyono ordered the police, intelligence agencies and immigration authorities to do more to fight terrorism and work more closely with Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.
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