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Indonesian capital beefs up security for Chinese New Year celebrations

Xinhua, February 5, 2016 Adjust font size:

More than 3,000 Indonesian cops will be deployed to beef up security across the country's capital during the Chinese New Year celebration next week, an official said.

Jakarta Police Chief Inspectore General Tito Karnavian said that 3,300 officers from the police, military, and city administration will help enhance security at some 279 temples and other public spaces as the Chinese New Year rolls in on Monday.

"There will be a huge mass flocking those places so we want to monitor the traffic and also prevent violent acts and terrorism," he told reporters at his office.

Last month, the city witnessed a harrowing terrorist attack claimed by the Syria-based Islamic State group, killing eight people, including four of the militants.

Chinese Indonesians account for 2.8 million, or 1.2 percent of the nation's total population of about 240 million, according to census data from the Central Statistics Agency.

During the three-decade rule of the late dictator Suharto, the festivities for the start of the lunar new year and other expressions of Chinese cultural identity were prohibited.

In 2001, then-president Abdurrahman Wahid revoked the Suharto-era prohibition and three years later then-president Megawati Soekarnoputri declared the Chinese New Year a national holiday.

Jakarta currently is led by a governor of Chinese descent, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who is also known by his Chinese nickname Ahok. Endit