As Indonesian police foil bomb plots, the country’s Chinese community finds itself targeted again

Members of the banned Islamic Defender Front have admitted to planning attacks on Indonesian-Chinese citizens and China-owned businesses

Resentment against those of Chinese heritage is nothing new, but analysts say the Covid-19 recession and events such as the repression of Uygur Muslims have fuelled a new wave of anger

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Indonesia’s special counterterrorism squad Detachment 88, seen here in a 2010 training exercise, arrested four members of the banned Islamic Defender Front on March 29. Photo: AFP

Published: 7:00am, 9 Apr 2021Updated: 9:53pm, 9 Apr 2021

Last weekend, four members of Indonesia’s banned Islamic Defender Front (FPI) extremist group made shocking video confessions; two were planning to bomb Chinese-owned businesses as well as shops owned by ethnically Chinese Indonesians, while the others had made plans to attack the police and the military with acid and pipe bombs.

The men were arrested on March 29 in Jakarta and West Java by the Indonesian police special counterterrorism squad Detachmen t88 – or Densus 88 – a day after the church bombing in South Sulawesi, to which the FPI members have not been linked.

Five pipe bombs were seized from the home of one of the suspects, along with 5.5kg of explosive materials, including 1.5kg of triacetone triperoxide (TATP). There were enough explosives seized, according to police, to make 70 more bombs.

One of those arrested, Ahmad Junaidi, said he was an FPI sympathiser who had attended weekly Koranic study sessions led by fellow detainee Husein Hasni. In a video published by news portal Detik.com, Ahmad revealed that after each session, the group would discuss the latest issues facing the country, and they concluded that Indonesia was “controlled by China”.

“We had many discussions about the country being in a state where it was already controlled by China … industries being controlled by China,” he said. “Finally, my friends … urged me to carry out bombings at Chinese industries located in Indonesia.”

Another suspect, Bambang Setiono, admitted to having been an FPI sympathiser since December. He confessed to planning attacks, such as hurling home-made bombs, against Chinese-Indonesians and Chinese-owned shops.