Bali Police involve fishermen, residents to prevent terrorism

Dicky Christanto, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar

Police in Bali are training residents to play an active role in preventing terrorist attacks.

The island has suffered two terrorist attacks. Deadly bombings in 2002 and 2005 killed hundreds of people, mostly foreign tourists. The bombings also had a crippling effect on the island's tourist industry.

"With a limited number of personnel, we (the police) can not handle (the security of) the whole island by ourselves," Bali Police chief Insp. Gen. Paulus Purwoko said recently.

Police began the new initiative by approaching fishing communities, which are seen as vital in the effort because of the vulnerability of the island's 400 kilometers of coastline.

"We organized a meeting with representatives of the island's fishing communities, seeking ways to establish a close cooperation with them in securing the island's coastal and border areas," he said.

More than 300 groups of fishermen from across the island have participated in a series of meetings since the end of 2007. Officers from the Bali Police have used the meetings to teach the fishermen various aspects of intelligence gathering, early detection and how to handle critical situations.

Nyoman Sudi, a former fisherman who now uses his jukung, a traditional outrigger boat, to take tourists on guided sea tours near Sindu Beach in Denpasar, said he attended a meeting three months ago.

"The meeting took place at the South Denpasar Police office and lasted for about two-and-a-half hours," he said. At the meeting, Sudi said, police officers introduced participants to procedures and methods for dealing with suspicious objects, situations and individuals.

"For instance, what we should do if we come across an unattended bag or a group of suspicious people in our neighborhood," he said.

The officers also asked participants to alert the nearest police station if they saw an unidentified ship approach the beach.

"There is a probability that the people who want to destroy Bali will use the beach as their main entry point. So the police asked us to remain vigilant on this matter," Sudi told.

Police also taught participants how to use the element of distraction to gain the upper hand on suspected terrorists.

"For instance, some of us would engage the person(s) in a friendly chat while the rest of us would run to the nearest police station to report the presence of suspicious individual(s)," Sudi said.

The meetings have yielded concrete results. Ketut Sukarja, the head a group of fishermen based at Sunrise Beach in Sanur, Mina Sari Asih, said his group had already informed the police about the presence of several unidentified boats in Sanur.

"The police responded quickly to each and every report we made," he said.

"We made the report by cellular phone, or if the phone's signal was down we did it the hard way, some of us waiting at the scene while the others sailed to the nearest police station," Ketut said.

Most of the reported boats were later found to be engaged in illegal fishing.

The cooperation between the police and the fishermen has also resulted in several arrests of suspected criminals on Sunrise Beach.

"Most of them were crooks who targeted parked motorcycles or the engines on our speedboats. But none of them were terrorists, or at least that's what the police said," he said.