SBY CORRECT IN QUICKLY ANNOUNCING DULMATIN'S DEATH : GOLKAR

Jakarta, March 10 (ANTARA) - Senior Golkar Party politician Theo L Sambuaga said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was correct in announcing the death of top terrorist Dulmatin quickly in Australia.

(The President is right) "because he happened to be in Australia when he received the report about it, and ,secondly, because Dulmatin is part of an international terrorist network. He was also wanted by other countries and posing a security threat to them," he said to ANTARA here on Wednesday.

The former chairman of the House Commission I dealing with among others international affairs made the statement in reponse to some quarters deploring the President for making the announcement abroad.

"The raids on their terrorists' hideouts and the disclosure of the police's success in dealing with the international-calibre terrorist are correct in terms of international relations because he was the common enemy of peace-loving peoples," he said.

The Presdient's announcement at a forum in Australia also constituted an effective effort to assure US President Barack Obama not to be worried about coming to Indonesia, Theo said.

"I think President Obama will not cancel his plan (to visit Indonesia) as our security authorities have shown their capability in maintaining security at any level," he said.

Theo said people should not go to the extent of thinking that the success was "engineered."
"We all know that the police efforts to find Dulmatin have been made for almost 10 years and have consumed much of our energy as he often moved to other countries, particularly the Philippines. It happened he was detected when he entered Indonesia in January this year and was suspected of setting up a training ground in Aceh providing an opportunity for us to seize him," he said.

So this was not an engineered sucess and neither was it timed to happen ahead of US President Obamam's visit, he said.

"Once again, we must remember that Dulmatin has been on the police's wanted persons list for a long time and it was just a coincidence that he was neutralized ahead of President Obama's visit. I think it is too far-fetched to think that the police wanted to show off their capability by eliminating him before President Obama's visit," he said.

Theo said appreciation even had to be awarded to the police for proving that they could overcome any kind of situation.

"Once again, I hope the incident should not discourage President Obama to visit Indonesia to develop closer relations between the two coutnries of great influence in the Asia Pacific," he said.

Speaking on behalf of the Golkar Party, Theo said, the Indonesian people must appreciate the police who were able to uncover a terrorist training gound in Aceh, seize a number of terrorists and kill one of their leaders.

"We from the Golkar Party executive board and I myself however hope that the police will not relax their alertness but keep searching for those believed still at large," he said.