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| Southeast Asia |
| Solo coppers ask churches to dig holes to ditch bombs |
| 2005-12-16 |
| Police have ordered churches in the Indonesian city of Solo to dig holes to throw away suspicious objects that might be bombs, a newspaper said on Friday, amid fears of Christmas-related attacks. Police across the world's most populous Muslim country have been stepping up security measures ahead of the year-end holidays to avoid a repeat of 2000 Christmas Eve bombings of churches in several Indonesian cities which killed 19 people. "If there is any suspicious object, whether it could be a bomb or not, it can be thrown straight away into the hole. After that, report to the police so that it can be investigated," Koran Tempo newspaper quoted Solo police chief Abdul Madjid as saying. Madjid added that besides digging the one-metre (3 ft) deep holes, churches should tell their congregations to only bring essential items to Christmas events and avoid carrying backpacks. Police in Solo could not immediately be reached for comment on the report. Volunteers from Indonesia's largest Islamic group have said they would help police guard churches across the vast country during the holiday season. Around 17,000 policemen are expected to secure Christmas celebrations in the capital Jakarta alone. Around 85 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people are Muslim. Christians form the second largest religious group in the country as a whole, as well as in Jakarta. Although Indonesia has been relatively calm in recent weeks, many security analysts say threats of militant attacks still run high because police have yet to catch one of the alleged masterminds of previous bombings, Malaysian-born Noordin M. Top. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 They already have all the holes they need. Called mosques. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2005-12-16 16:17 |
| #1 Police have ordered churches in the Indonesian city of Solo to dig holes to throw away suspicious objects that might be bombs, No dammit, not at roadside, further back, further than that, much further, no dammit go back more than three feet. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2005-12-16 08:21 |