Indonesia bombs jolt expats and investors

The bombs that tore through the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels Friday were apparently assembled in a guest room by Islamist radicals who then walked among businessmen and diplomats before detonating their devices.

Of the 16 men who sat at a Marriott breakfast table for a briefing organized by consulting firm Castle Asia, four were killed, including a New Zealander and three Australians, and the rest were wounded, a company source said.

“The method used in this attack was more sophisticated... so that's a lot more sinister, and a new twist,” said Martin Hughes, director of Business Risk Indonesia.

“But no, I don't think it will stop investment. There will be a temporary hiccup in some instances but the show will go on,” he said.

Australian sports consultant Geoffrey Gold, who was friends with several men at the meeting, described the carnage at the two hotels which left at least eight dead and 55 injured as “shocking.”

“This particular bombing has struck a bit harder than the other ones, because things had seemed to be going so well in Indonesia in the last few years,” said the long-time expatriate.

“For this to recur seems to be a hit below the belt.”

But the foreign business community, vital to Indonesia's ambitions to unlock its vast economic potential, is battle-hardened after a decade of terror attacks and most defied expectations that they would cut-and-run.

“All the expats I know are fine, they're not worried, they're not thinking about getting out of the country. This sort of thing can happen anywhere so you just need to adjust,” said Jessica Uekermann, a 32-year-old hotel manager.

“This has happened so many times already in this country,” she said as she strolled with a friend through Jakarta's opulent new Grand Indonesia shopping mall.

Friday's blasts are the first major attack in Indonesia since 2005 bombings in Bali. But since 2000 there have been numerous incidents including a 2003 car bomb at the Marriott and a 2004 attack on the Australian embassy.

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