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RI condemns Brussels attacks, calls for stronger cooperation

The Indonesian government has condemned a series of apparently coordinated bomb attacks at a Brussels airport and a metro station, that left at least 34 people dead in the latest terrorist act in the European Union

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Wed, March 23, 2016

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RI condemns Brussels attacks, calls for stronger cooperation

T

he Indonesian government has condemned a series of apparently coordinated bomb attacks at a Brussels airport and a metro station, that left at least 34 people dead in the latest terrorist act in the European Union.

Security was tightened across the jittery continent and transport links paralyzed after the bombings that Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel branded '€œblind, violent and cowardly'€.

The Foreign Ministry conveyed Indonesia'€™s '€œdeepest sympathy'€ to the Belgian government and people, particularly the victims and their families.

'€œIndonesia emphasizes that no forms of terrorist acts or the reasons behind them can be justified. The Indonesian government calls on the international community to strengthen cooperation to address radicalism and terrorism,'€ read a ministry statement issued on Tuesday.

The Indonesian Embassy in Brussels has been monitoring the situation in coordination with Belgian security authorities and hospitals across the city to ascertain whether any Indonesian nationals were among the victims.

'€œSo far, no Indonesian citizen have become victims of these terrorist acts,'€ the statement said.

The embassy was also in direct communication with the Indonesian community in Belgium, urging Indonesian nationals to be on alert and avoid locations that might be possible targets of attacks.

There are around 1,200 Indonesian living in cities across Belgium, including some 400 in Brussels and the surrounding areas.

Agence France-Presse reported from Cairo that Sunni Islam'€™s leading seat of learning, Al-Azhar, said Tuesday'€™s attacks in Brussels '€œviolate the tolerant teachings of Islam'€, and urged the international community to confront the '€œepidemic'€ of terrorism.

'€œAl-Azhar strongly condemns these terrorist attacks. These heinous crimes violate the tolerant teachings of Islam,'€ the Cairo-based Al-Azhar said in a statement.

'€œIf the international community does not unite to confront this epidemic, the corrupt will not stop from committing heinous crimes against the innocent.'€

The Egyptian foreign ministry also condemned the attacks that left at least 26 people dead and dozens wounded in Brussels.

'€œThe time has come for the world to make a final stand to deal with the phenomenon of international terrorism,'€ ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said in a statement issued in English.

He called for steps to tackle it at the '€œfinancing and ideological levels [...] and to prevent the recruitment of more individuals by criminal terrorist groups'€.

Meanwhile, New York and Washington DC stepped up security in the wake of the attacks in Brussels, deploying elite counterterrorism reinforcements to crowded areas and train stations, police said.

The New York police department said there was no indication that the attacks in Belgium were connected to New York, but ordered the steps as America'€™s biggest city of 8.4 million began the morning commute.

'€œThese teams have been deployed to crowded areas and transit locations around the city out of an abundance of caution to provide police presence and public reassurance as we closely follow the developing situation overseas,'€ the police department said in a statement.

In the US capital, metro transit police said additional K9 sweeps and patrols would start as a '€œprecaution'€, adding that there was no known, specific or credible threat to Washington DC.

New York police also took a swipe at proposed federal spending cuts on counterterrorism, calling them '€œirresponsible'€ in the city that '€œis widely recognized as the nation'€™s top terror target'€.

At least 26 people were killed and dozens wounded in bombings at Brussels airport and a metro station in the city on Tuesday that is home to the Eu and NATO.

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