Indonesia Update
By Kenneth Conboy
Indonesian police continued their sweep of radicals in Central Java with a trio of arrests in and around the provincial capital of Semarang. On 30 April, 45-year old Budiyono (Indonesians often use only one name), believed to be a JI finance officer, was captured after a lead from Malaysian authorities. Caught over the ensuring two days were 45-year old Slamet Pramono and 38-year old Najib, the latter believed to be a recruiter of suicide bombers.
These arrests were separate from the raid on a JI safe house in Wonosobo, Central Java on 29 April, which resulted in the deaths of two extremists. Noteworthy was the fact that a laptop found in the safe house reportedly contained a plan to use suicide bombers with explosive backpacks (as was used in Bali on 1 October 2005) during Christmas 2006. This appears to support speculation by some Indonesian authorities that JI in the future may be shying away from the use of truck bombs in favor of backpacks--this because backpacks are a cheaper alterntive, and because of the dwindling number of JI bomb experts who can fashion the relatively sophisticated detonators needed for a large truck bomb.