Human rights activists urged President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) on Friday to immediately arrest the perpetrators of the bomb attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels after he claimed that his intelligence officers had gathered evidence related to the bombings.

“I want SBY to arrest the bombers immediately. He just told an official press conference that he already knew who the perpetrators were,” Director of the Research Institute for Democracy and a Prosperous State (Pedoman), Fadjroel Rachman, told a press conference.

Yudhoyono referred to the bombers as “people who are involved in a new form of terrorism, people who are familiar with abducing and killing and people who once escaped the law”.

Despite this statement, Yudhoyono did not clearly name any suspects.

“I truly regret his ambiguous statement. If he already knew, then why didn’t he just arrest them right away? We need real action from the President, not just words,” Fadjroel said.

Suciwati, an activist from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said the government’s lack of tough actions had prompted terrorists to continuously attack the country.

“We have too many political deals with human rights violators. If the government continues to make political deals with terrorists, then bomb attacks will continue to take place” she said. (hdt)