JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — President Abdurrahman Wahid fired his national police chief on Monday after police failed to carry out his order to arrest the youngest son of ex-dictator Suharto in an effort to end a spate of unexplained terrorist bombings.
The blasts, including one that killed 15 people in a garage beneath the Jakarta Stock Exchange on Wednesday, have cast a shadow of fear over the capital and have shaken Wahid's year-old reformist government.
"Recent security developments require changes," Wahid told a hastily called news conference at the presidential palace.
The dismissal of Gen. Rusdihardjo also comes amid international condemnation of Indonesia's security forces, particularly the police, which failed to stop the mob murders of three U.N. humanitarian workers Sept. 6 in Indonesian West Timor.
Wahid announced the dismissal an hour before he met visiting U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen about deteriorating security in West Timor, where militias, opposed to independence for neighboring East Timor, are waging a war of terror with covert backing from sections of Indonesia's military.
Cohen later warned Indonesia that it could face an international diplomatic and economic backlash if it did not fix West Timor's security.
The firing of Rusdihardjo is a slap in the face for Indonesia's armed forces, which reigned supreme during Suharto's 32-year authoritarian rule.
Until last year, the police force had been an integral part of the military, which Wahid has battled for many months to subdue as part of wider democratic reforms.
Indonesia's influential head of Parliament, Akbar Tandjung, on Monday urged Wahid to take firmer measures to prevent terrorist attacks, but criticized his move to order the arrest of Suharto's youngest son.
"We are in the new era. You cannot arrest someone if you don't have evidence," Akbar said.
On Friday, Wahid stunned many when he publicly demanded that police arrest Tommy Suharto as a way of ending the bomb attacks.
Detectives questioned the younger Suharto on Saturday, but said there was no evidence on which to hold the 38-year-old multimillionaire, who flatly denied any involvement in Wednesday's attack or other bombings.
No one has claimed responsibility for the bombings. But many blame supporters of former President Suharto.
The explosions have coincided with major developments in a corruption case being brought against the former leader, who is facing trial for allegedly stealing a fortune from the Indonesian state while in power.
The failure of the police force to act on Wahid's order to arrest Suharto's son has weakened his public image as a leader in control.
The president said Rusdihardjo, who was appointed to head Indonesia's 200,000-strong police force after the president assumed office last October, would be replaced temporarily by his deputy, Lt. Gen. Bimantoro.
Until now, Rusdihardjo had been regarded as a Wahid loyalist who had been implementing major reforms in the police force — reviled during Suharto's time for corruption and human rights abuses.
Wahid's security has been tightened, but the president said he had no information about being personally targeted by the bombers. "I don't know about any threat about blowing me up," he said.
Wednesday's stock exchange blast had been preceded by explosions that rocked the attorney general's office, which is responsible for bringing Suharto to justice, and the home of the Philippine ambassador. A small bomb also exploded outside the Malaysian embassy.
Indonesian shares nose-dived Monday as the Jakarta Stock Exchange reopened for the first time since the bomb blast there.