Indonesia
Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, was struck by the fierce violence of terrorism, suicide bombers, explosions, and shooting attacks. Seven have died including five terrorists. For the Police ISIS/Daesh is behind this attack. The reactions of the Catholic minority
Jakarta like Paris? On the morning (local time) of January 14 multiple explosions went off in the centre of Jakarta, the large, chaotic capital of Indonesia, with 11 million inhabitants. Bombs, shootings and suicide bombers attacked the area near Thamrin Street, a shopping and business district not far from the headquarters of the United Nations and embassy area. Assaults were carried out near a well-known local Starbucks attended by Westerners and in the parking lot of the popular shopping centre of Sarinah, where two attackers blew themselves up on board of two motorcycles in front of the roadblocks of the police. The death toll went up to seven, including five gunmen, plus two Canadian and Indonesian civilians. Twenty wounded, including a Dutch employee of the UN, in very serious condition. Four arrested. It is suspected that a group linked to the Islamic state (Daesh / Isis) carried out the attack. Indonesian police said the attackers “have imitated the terrorist actions of Paris”. Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian fighter in Syria has been named the mastermind of the terror attack. The alarm in the most populous Muslim country in the world – about 250 million inhabitants – was already high for days, notably after the arrest of nine suspected militants of the Islamic State in December, accused of planning a bomb attack in the capital. Some observers have detected a reinvigoration of jihadist fundamentalism in Indonesia: an estimated one thousand members linked to the network Isis and about 500 foreign fighters in Syria.
There have been eight major terror attacks in Jakarta since the year 2000, including the bombings in the Bali tourist resort in 2002 and in two hotels in Jakarta in 2009.
Now the situation is under control. However, noted Matteo Amigoni , Italian Caritas worker in Indonesia and the “population has been asked to stay at home and not to go out”.
Threats in December “In December – he said – a United Nations report guarded against travelling to sites notably visited by Western tourists but they didn’t expect an attack of this magnitude. It is true that there are Indonesian fighters in Syria and that in some areas, such as Aceh, sharia is applied, but I can hardly say that there is an advance of fundamentalism. If anything, there are many internal struggles between Sunni and Shiite factions”.
Christian minorities – “although building new churches is thwarted by the aggressive proselytism of certain factions – he pointed out – they live together in harmony and peace. Just consider that in Jakarta the parking lot of the Mosque is used by the faithful attending Mass service in the nearby Catholic basilica”.
Indeed, Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who conducted an official visit to Indonesia in November, after his visit to the Mosque met the archbishop Ignatius Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo in Saint Marta’s cathedral.
The reactions of the Indonesian Church. The archdioceses of Jakarta – with approximately 400 thousand Catholics living in the capital, representing 3% of the national population, most of whom live in the islands – immediately condemned the terror attacks, voiced by Veronica Wiwiek Sulistyo, chairwoman of the archdiocese’s Indonesia Catholic Society Forum:
“We are extremely worried. As an integral part of this nation, we call on the government to deal with the attacks properly. We hope that the government, through the police and military personnel, is able to protect all Indonesian people. The attacks are a clear signal that shows how the threats faced are related to the global terrorism network”.
When someone is arrested – commented Ridwan Habib, intelligence and defence analyst from the University of Indonesia at the Asian Catholic agency Ucanews – other terrorists immediately plan further attacks. This is their tactic. They have secret services and strategies. It should be remembered that Daesh once said that Indonesia would soon have been thrust into world spotlight”. For Father Franz Magnis-Suseno, Jesuit Fr, Professor of philosophy at the university of Jakarta, “this attack should ring a bell of alarm for all Indonesians and especially for the Muslims – he told ACN (Aid to the Church in Need) -. They need to acknowledge the terrorist threat”. In his opinion the targets are neither the Christian communities nor other religious minorities, but rather it is a message to the Western world, as the recent tragic events in Turkey and Egypt”.
