🇮🇩 Two attacks in Indonesia

Hello friends,

A sad update this week from Indonesia where two terror attacks have hiked up tensions ahead of the Easter holiday. While, so far, only the attackers have died the targets of the attacks are a cause for deep concern. 

We don’t have too much analysis just yet about the Palm Sunday attack in Makassar and the police headquarters shoot out yesterday in Jakarta, but this is what we know so far.

Stay safe out there over the holidays, everyone, we’ll be back to our regular schedule next week (assuming no one calls in sick and I can finally return to my normal hours!).

Erin Cook

Palm Sunday

A suicide bomb attack on Sacred Heart Cathedral in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Sunday left 20 injured and police scrambling. 

National Police spokesman Argo Yuwono told reporters later the same day that initial investigations show two suicide bombers had approached the church on a motorbike before detonating. 

“The bike was destroyed and there are body parts… we’re still collecting parts and trying to identify the gender of the perpetrators,” he said at the time, as reported by Al Jazeera. 

It’s a style of attack which we have seen repeatedly in Indonesia — targeting both churches and police — and the Southern Philippines.

The bombers were later identified as Makassar-based newly-weds with ties to the Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), an organisation responsible for church attacks that horrified in Surabaya and Jolo, Philippines.

Raids on suspects in Makassar on Tuesday found evidence of links to the Islamic Defenders Front, the now-disbanded-but-restarted-under-a-similar-name hardline Islamist group better known as FPI. While these investigations are still preliminary, police have handed it over to the elite counter-terror unit Densus 88 for further follow-up. 

I’m wary of over- or understating the relevance of the FPI connection so will be sending a lot of WhatsApp messages this long weekend. Will be back with more on that. 

Wednesday

Then last night I learned of the latest in an extremely Indonesia way — forwarded a video of a woman being shot with no context at all. 

Police shot and killed a woman who fired shots within the National Police headquarters in South Jakarta, Wednesday afternoon. According to Reuters, the woman, a 25-year-old Jakartan, had posted the Islamic State flag to her Instagram post and had also farewelled her family. 

“From the profiling of the person in question, that person was a suspect or a lone wolf with the ideology of radical ISIS,” police chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo told media.

This particular attack is remarkable despite the relative efficiency in shutting it down. Firstly, being able to get so far inside the headquarters is a new stage. Previous attacks on police have been in smaller, local headquarters or at police posts around towns and cities. Secondly, because of how busy the national headquarters is the showdown was effectively shown live on major TV and internet news media. 

The attacks in both Jakarta and Makassar are believed to be in retaliation for recent raids by Densus 88 across the country. 

Updates will come over the weekend, so we’ll catch up then. But for now, let’s end it on the people who really deserve the attention after messes like this: the people who make a huge difference in small, but brave ways.

Kosmas Balembang is the parking lot attendant at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Makassar. On Sunday, he was welcoming attendees of the day’s third mass and keeping the car park orderly. 

As the bombers approached he said, effectively, ‘nope, not a chance,’ forcing them to detonate outside of the church. Kosmas has suffered minor burns and is undergoing treatment at a local hospital and is a hero after saving who knows how many lives.

“At the time, some congregants were leaving, and the gate was being opened. As some were leaving, [the bombers] wanted to enter, but I stopped them and all of a sudden there was an explosion. All I could say was, ‘God help me,’” he told government officials.