Wahid decries bid to weaken Govt.

By Amit Baruah

SINGAPORE, DEC. 25. The Indonesian President, Mr. Abdurrahman Wahid, said today that yesterday's attacks on churches across the country, in which 14 persons were killed and 50 wounded, were aimed at undermining his Government.

``They want to undermine the Government, to instill fear and panic among the people so that the Government cannot work. Several groups are out to create a chaotic situation,'' Mr. Wahid said. ``These are the actions of a party that is worried if this Government becomes stable, we will enter a new era, an era of economic awakening and an era of true democratisation.''

The police chief, Gen. Surojo Bimantoro, said at least 18 bombs had exploded across the length and breadth of the archipelago - most of them near church buildings.

Thirteen explosive devices, Gen. Bimantoro said, had been defused by the police. The toll was: three (Jakarta), two (Bandung), three (Sukabumi, West Java), one (Mojokerto, Central Java) and five (Pekanbaru, Riau).

The nature of the explosions (all of them went off almost simultaneously) would indicate a conspiracy to undermine stability of the country, already under threat from separatist groups.

The fact that no group has so far come forward to claim responsibility for the blasts also places them in the same category as the September 13 attack on the Jakarta stock exchange building in which 15 persons were killed.

Mr. Wimar Witoelar, spokesman for Mr. Wahid, told The Hindu that according to preliminary evidence it was evident that these attacks were not ``religiously motivated'', but ``politically motivated''. Mr. Wimar said from Jakarta that the attacks were well-planned and synchronised and ``made the Government look very incompetent''.

It was ironical that the blasts took place on Christmas eve when Mr. Wahid was planning to visit Irian Jaya, where a large concentration of Indonesian Christians live. ``The President is most keen on promoting religious tolerance. My hypothesis is that these are the acts of groups against (democratic) reform.''

Mercifully, he said, religious sentiments had not been aroused and leaders of the Catholic Church, too, had said they did not feel targeted.

At Jakarta's Roman Catholic cathedral, Cardinal Julius Dharmaatmadja told his congregation this morning: ``We do not need to accuse anyone at this present time....even more so another religion.''

The Cardinal reminded his followers of the bloody cycle of violence between Muslims and Christians in the Maluku group of islands, in which 5,000 people died.

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