Patterns of Global Terrorism 1999 - Indonesia

The ballot results on 30 August favoring East Timor's independence sparked prointegration militias – armed East Timorese favoring unity with Indonesia – to mount a violent campaign throughout September against proindependence supporters. A number of militia members accused the United Nations of manipulating the ballot results, leading some militia units to seek foreign targets in the province. Incidents included the serious wounding of a US police officer working for the UN Assistance Mission to East Timor, an attack against the Australian Ambassador's vehicle, and an assault against the Australian Consulate in Dili, East Timor's capital. Militiamen also allegedly killed a Dutch Financial Times reporter in a Dili suburb on 21 September after his motorcycle driver tried to flee six armed men. In a separate incident the same day, prointegrationists ambushed a British journalist and a US citizen photographer in Bacau, east of Dili, but Australian troops later rescued the two.

A prointegration militia leader told former Indonesian Armed Forces Commander General Wiranto in early September that he would have no regrets about killing nongovernmental organization or UN persons who supported the proindependence side. Militia threats and attacks against foreigners, however, dropped dramatically after late September, when the situation began to stabilize.

Indonesian nationalists, mostly in Jakarta, responded to the referendum and the subsequent deployment of the International Force for East Timor with protests and low-level violence against perceived interference in their country's internal affairs. In late September the Australian Embassy in Jakarta was the target of almost daily demonstrations that included petrol bombs and stone throwing. Gunmen fired shots at the Australian Embassy on three separate occasions in apparent anger over Canberra's role in the international peacekeeping mission. In addition, unidentified assailants threw Molotov cocktails at the Australian International School in Jakarta on 4 October, but no injuries resulted. As of 25 October, pursuant to a UN Security Council resolution, the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor assumed all legislative and executive authority in East Timor and responsibility for the administration of justice.

Separatist violence flared in other parts of the country, particularly in Aceh, Sumatra, where the Free Aceh Movement and its sympathizers clashed with Indonesian security forces throughout the year. The separatists, demanding a referendum on Aceh independence, primarily attacked Indonesian targets, but US interests in the province suffered collateral damage. Unidentified assailants, for example, fired at a Mobil Oil bus and burned a Mobil-operated community health clinic on two separate occasions in late September. Free Papua Movement separatists located in Irian Jaya did not attack foreign interests but conducted some violent protests and low-level attacks against Indonesian targets in 1999.

Several small-scale bombings of undetermined motivation also occurred in Indonesia during the year, including the attack against the National Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta that injured six persons on 19 April. In addition, unidentified assailants conducted other bombings that injured several Indonesians in Jakarta's city center following the presidential election in October.