Jakarta ups terror vigilance

The President summoned the chief security minister Adm (ret) A.S. Widodo and the chief of the National Intelligence Chief (BIN) Syamsir Siregar on Sunday night, ordering them to take every precaution against a possible terrorist attack.

Although the last terrorist attack in Indonesia happened in September last year, Indonesia would not let its guards down, he told the gathering of the Asia-Europe Editors Forum at the Dharmawangsa Hotel in Jakarta Sunday.

"We know that the terrorist cells are still active. They are still hiding, recruiting, networking, trying to find new funding source, and even planning," he said, adding that the authorities are focusing their wok on locating two Malaysians bombmakers believed to be tied to the series of bombings in Indonesia in the past three years.

The two-day forum of about 40 top editors from the two regions is being jointly organised by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation's Singapore office and The Jakarta Post.

Indonesia has been at the receiving end of several deadly terrorist attacks, including among them the October 2002 bombing of two Bali night clubs that killed many tourists, the August 2003 attack at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta and the car bomb attack outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta in September last year.