September 13, 2000: Indonesia Stock Exchange Bombing Blamed on Rebels Appears Linked to Indonesian Military Instead

A bombing at the stock exchange in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital city, kills 15. It is the fourth bombing in Jakarta since July, and the most deadly. Later the same month, two Indonesian soldiers are arrested and the Indonesian government claims they were the ones who planted the bomb. One of the soldiers belongs to Kopassus, Indonesia’s notorious special forces unit, and the other belongs to a different elite unit. The two men will later be sentenced to life in prison for their roles in the bombing, but one will escape from prison before being sentenced. One of them will say his next targets include the US embassy and a Jakarta department store. The government says the two soldiers were rogues acting by themselves and hints that Islamist rebels from the province of Aceh are behind the bombing. However, little evidence of this is presented in court, and many analysts suspect elements in the military were involved as part of high-level political intrigues. The bombing takes place two days before the resumption of the corruption trial of Suharto, president of Indonesia until 1998, and there is strong speculation that the Suharto family is behind the bombing and the other recent Jakarta bombings to pressure the current Indonesian government not to act against Suharto. One of Suharto’s sons is arrested for an alleged role in a bombing earlier that year, and then released. [BBC, 9/13/2000; Asian Political News, 8/27/2001] In 2002, the Age, a major Australian newspaper, will comment about the stock exchange bombing, “Indonesian military elements were prepared to cause massive casualties and huge economic disruption in their own capital for the purposes of elite-level politics.” [Age (Melbourne), 10/17/2002]