President congratulates police for ‘successful operation’

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sat, 08/08/2009 5:35 PM | National

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono congratulated the National Police on Saturday for its crackdown on the terrorists’ network in the country, which led to the death of most wanted suspect Noordin M. Top.

The president called the police raids on terror suspects in two houses in the West Java town of Bekasi and the Central Java town of Temanggung as “a successful operation” to enforce the law.

“On behalf of the state, the government and people of Indonesia, I thank the police for their successful operation,” Yudhoyono told a media conference after a meeting with National Police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri at the presidential office.

Yudhoyono said the operation was “important” in the country’s fight against terrorists and to protect the people.

The raids in the last two days capped a concerted law enforcement operation in Jakarta, West Java and Central Java, the president said, following the twin hotel bombings in South Jakarta on July 17.

The police’s counterterror squad shot dead Noordin in Beji village in Temanggung and two of his accomplices in Bekasi.