Indonesian police responsible for firing on Australian counter-terror chief

By Kenneth Conboy

An incident on which I reported last week requires updating.

The Indonesian police on 7 December admitted that it was their own officers who mistakenly fired on Lester Cross, the director of the Jakarta Center for Law Enforcement Cooperation, a week ago. JCLEC, located in Semarang, Central Java, acts as a clearing house for counter-terrorist specialists in the region.

According to first reports, several motorcyclists, who had been following Cross’s bulletproof van, pulled alongside and fired at the windows with revolvers before fleeing the scene. Though there was initial speculation the attack was the work of terrorists, the police have now quietly reported it was actually four of their own undercover officers who opened fire after mistaking the Australian for a drug trafficker. The officers claim to have been acting on a tip from an arrested drug dealer.

The police have apologized to Cross, who said he understood it was an accident.

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