Children take part in a shrimp cracker eating competition at Karet Pedurenan, South Jakarta, to celebrate Independence Day on Monday. (Photo: Ashlee Betteridge, JG)

Indonesia Celebrates Independence Day Amid Tight Security

Indonesia on Monday marked its Independence Day amid tight security a week after police said they had foiled a plot to assassinate President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono using a bomb-laden car driven by a suicide attacker.

Yudhoyono led a moment of silence for the people who died in the struggle for independence from Dutch colonial rule in a ceremony at the state palace in Jakarta.

Yudhoyono made no speech at the solemn ceremony as tens of millions of people across the world's fourth most populous nation celebrated Independence Day with joyful activities, such as fireworks, neighbourhood contests, parades and dance performances.

Among the most popular games to mark the celebrations is "Panjat Pinang," in which individuals and groups struggle to reach the top of a greased betel nut palm trunk, vying for prizes ranging from new motorcycles to towels and plastic buckets.

In Indonesia's easternmost province, Papua, Independence Day celebrations were marred by the hoisting of a flag belonging to the Free Papua Movement, a separatist group fighting for an independent Papua, the state-run Antara news agency reported.

In Jakarta, security was tight around the presidential palace as thousands of police and soldiers were deployed to safeguard the ceremony there attended by hundreds of guests, including foreign dignitaries and diplomats. Security personnel also closed down several roads around the palace.

After a four-year lull in terrorist attacks, the world's most populous Muslim nation was jolted July 17 by bombings at Jakarta's JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels, which killed nine people, including two suicide bombers, and injured 53.

DPA

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