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Indonesia to review anti-terror law

Source
Agence France Presse - October 15, 2005

Jakarta – Indonesia may strengthen its anti-terrorism law following suicide bombings at three crowded Bali restaurants that police say indicate an al-Qaida-linked militant group is adopting new tactics that are harder to predict, officials said Friday.

Police say the Oct. 1 attacks suggest Jemaah Islamiyah, the group suspected in the bombings, is picking softer targets and using smaller explosives that are easier to conceal.

The militants also appears to have recruited people from outside their network to carry out the attacks, police say. Jailed members of Jemaah Islamiyah told police they did not recognize pictures of the three suicide bombers, saying they were likely from outside the terror group.

Police also say the attacks indicate the bombers' motives may not be solely anti-Western. Most of the 20 other people killed in the blasts, along with the more than 100 injured, were Indonesian.

"Their target is no longer specific, but random," Security Minister Widodo Adisucipto said, adding that the government is reviewing its anti-terror law to see if changes are needed. Adisucipto did not elaborate on what reforms may be considered.

National police chief Gen. Sutanto said the law must allow police to arrest terror suspects more quickly. "For us, in order to arrest a suspect... we have to submit (evidence) to the court first," he said. "This needs time.... It is not fast enough."

Earlier this week, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer offered to send a team of experts to brief Indonesian officials on his country's own new counterterrorism law.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, enacted its anti-terrorism law after the Oct. 12, 2002, bombings of two Bali nightclubs that killed 202 people.

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