‘Manado blast a terror act’

Saturday night’s blast at the Philippine consulate general office in the town of Manado in Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi was a terrorist act, the Indonesian Embassy in Manila said yesterday.

"This irresponsible act of terrorism is simply intolerable and aimed at discrediting the government of Indonesia," embassy spokesman Triyogo Jatmiko told AFP.

The blast caused no casualties or major damage but there was some "damage to the main gate and windows" of the consulate office, an officer at the Central Sulawesi police headquarters had said.

Indonesian Ambassador Soeratmin told the Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday about the blast and that "he was shocked to learn about the incident, he strongly condemns it and we will do everything possible to bring the perpetrators to book," Jatmiko said.

"From initial reports, what they (suspected terrorists) are trying to achieve is to create fear among the community," he said.

Indonesian police believe the blast was caused by a home-made bomb.

Meanwhile, the Philippine military said yesterday there has been no evidence that a wave of deadly bombings in Mindanao was connected to the car bomb attack that killed at least 182 people in Bali, Indonesia.

"There is no evidence linking the recent bomb blasts in the Philippines to the explosions in Bali, Indonesia," military spokesman Brig. Gen. Eduardo Purificacion told reporters.

He said a bomb attack in Zamboanga City last Oct. 2 that killed an American Green Beret and an explosion in a bus terminal in Kidapawan City last Thursday were the handiworks of "local terrorists."

"Nonetheless, we are monitoring any terrorist threat here as well as continuing with our intelligence information sharing with other countries as regards possible presence of international terrorists in the couhtry," he said.

An official with the Philippine Embassy in Jakarta confirmed there were no casualties and said the incident had been reported to the embassy in Jakarta.

Jatmiko said Saturday’s incident was the first bomb attack on a foreign interest in Manado, which lies at the northernmost tip of Sulawesi and just south of the Philippines’ troubled Mindanao island.

Saturday’s blast is the latest violent incident at a Philippine property in Indonesia following a car-bomb outside the residence of Philippine ambassador in Jakarta in August 2000.

That blast killed one person, wounded former ambassador Leonides Caday and heavily damaged the residence.

It is unclear whether Saturday’s incident is related to last month’s arrests of four Indonesian men during raids in the southern city of General Santos.

A Philippine security official had said one of the four has been blamed for a wave of bombings last April which left 15 people dead and 60 wounded in General Santos.

Agus Dwikarna, an Indonesian Muslim activist, is currently jailed in the Philippines for possession of explosives.

Washington is concerned Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, may be home to al-Qaeda sympathizers. – AFP