CT UPDATE -- SBY TOUGH ON BALI BOMBERS; PATROL

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 JAKARTA 003143 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS, S/CT, DS DOJ FOR CTS THORNTON, INL FOR BOULDIN, AAG SWARTZ, ICITAP FOR TREVILLIAN/BARR NSC FOR E. PHU E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/09/2017 TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER EAID ID SUBJECT: CT UPDATE -- SBY TOUGH ON BALI BOMBERS; PATROL BOATS FOR SULAWESI; POSO COMMUNITY POLICING REF: A. JAKARTA 3043 ¶B. JAKARTA 2939 ¶C. JAKARTA 2597 ¶D. JAKARTA 2497 Classified By: Pol/C Joseph Legend Novak, reasons 1.4(b,d). ¶1. (U) This message was coordinated with Consulate Surabaya. ¶2. (C) SUMMARY: In the latest counter-terrorism news, President Yudhoyono has asserted that he will not grant the three terrorists convicted for the 2002 Bali bombings clemency (should they request it). The three terrorists remain on death row, but the government has not announced any date(s) for the executions. In the meantime, the USG has begun delivering patrol boats for use by the GOI in the Sulawesi Sea region. During a recent visit to Poso in Central Sulawesi, local authorities hailed the use of community policing, which they say has helped keep the peace in a region which has seen inter-religious violence and terrorism. END SUMMARY. THE PRESIDENT'S HARD-LINE ¶3. (SBU) In his most pointed comments yet on the matter, President Yudhoyono stated in a media interview on November 8 that the three terrorists convicted of the 2002 Bali bombings "must" be executed and that he would not grant them clemency. The three Jemmah Islamiyah (JI) terrorists lost their final appeals in recent Supreme Court rulings (ref D). The only possible recourse left to the three men is if they request clemency (which--given SBY's recent comments--would be quickly turned down). In any case, based on a recent announcement by the Attorney General (ref B),the three terrorists only have until late November to make such a request or face execution. ¶4. (C) In a November 13 meeting with Pol/C, the Australian Pol/C said his government was "monitoring the situation closely." Based on his information, the GOI did not expect the terrorists to send in clemency petitions and it was making "administrative arrangements" for the executions. The Australian Pol/C said he had pressed the GOI to provide the possible date(s) of the execution, but his contacts said they did not yet know, though they thought that "sometime in late December was possible." SULAWESI PATROL BOATS ¶5. (SBU) In other news, the U.S. Department of Justice's ICITAP Indonesia program has delivered 15 small patrol boats (10 meters in length) to the Indonesian National Police (INP). Four boats in Bitung, North Sulawesi, and two boats in the Bangka Straits on the Sulawesi Sea are now operational. Four boats stationed on Batam island, near Singapore, will be operational within three weeks, and five boats in Tarakan, East Kalimantan, will be operational in early January 2008. The boats will be used for patrolling coastal, inter-island, and river areas for counter-terrorism purposes and to fight transnational crime, including interdicting vessels suspected of carrying terrorists and arms or engaged in human trafficking and illegal fishing. ¶6. (SBU) ICITAP will also host five Filipino police officers on Batam Island the week of November 20. The team from the Philippines will inspect the five patrol boats being readied for service, and discuss "lessons learned" regarding procurement and transportation issues in preparation for receiving their own small patrol boats later this year. ICITAP understands that the GOP is interested in deploying the boats off of Palawan Island in the Western Philippines. POSO -- FOCUS ON COMMUNITY POLICING ¶7. (C) Police contacts have hailed community policing as assisting in calming the sometimes tense situation in the JAKARTA 00003143 002 OF 002 religiously mixed Poso region of Central Sulawesi. Poso Police Chief Mohan, who took command in March, discussed community policing in a November 7 meeting with poloff. Under this INP initiative, he said each of the nearly 20 villages in the Poso area had four to five police officers stationed in the vicinity. The officers were tasked with building a positive relationship within the communities and were already receiving valuable information about "outsiders" who moved into the area. According to Mohan, there was initial suspicions that the police were there "to spy" on communities, but the actions of the police since then had allayed those fears. ¶8. (C) Poloff also met with First Police Inspector F. Tarigan, the de facto police chief of Tentena, a predominately Christian community adjacent to Poso (Poso is predominantly Muslim). Tarigan also highlighted community policing as a major reason why religious violence had given way to social peace. He said both Muslims and Christians were openly talking about their grievances and were working with the police to identify radicals attempting to enter the area and create problems. HUME