Prabowo denies role in bombings<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Former Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad)
\nchief Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subianto firmly denied on Wednesday
\nallegations he was behind a series of bomb attacks on Christmas
\nEve.<\/p>\n
\"I strongly reject accusations that I was involved in the
\nbombings,\" Prabowo said during a media conference at the house of
\nhis father, economist Sumitro Djojohadikusumo, on Jl. Kartanegara
\nin South Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Prabowo was responding to statements by President Abdurrahman
\nWahid, who mentioned him and former Army chief of staff Gen.
\n(ret) R. Hartono in connection with the bombings during a recent
\ninterview with Newsweek magazine.<\/p>\n
Abdurrahman was quoted by the magazine as saying: \"I received
\na message from Prabowo. He was very upset that his name was
\nmentioned in the police report. If that's so, he said, it should
\nbe proven. The police report also mentioned the name of former
\nArmy chief of staff Gen. R. Hartono. This only means the police
\nwill investigate, and if they find proof they will detain anybody
\nwho's involved.\"<\/p>\n
Abdurrahman admitted to having no legal evidence against the
\nmasterminds of the bombings, and both National Police and Jakarta
\nPolice chiefs have denied the existence of such a report.<\/p>\n
Hartono said on Tuesday he would file a lawsuit against the
\nPresident for \"slander\".<\/p>\n
The Dec. 24 bombings left 18 people dead and more than 100
\ninjured.<\/p>\n
\"I've read Newsweek carefully and actually it's clear that Gus
\nDur is not accusing me, so I will let this case rest,\" Prabowo
\nsaid, referring to President Abdurrahman by his nickname.<\/p>\n
Prabowo also said he had not met with Hartono for over three
\nyears.<\/p>\n
\"I consider such accusations as part of the character
\nassassination of me. Maybe it's convenient for them to make me a
\nscapegoat,\" Prabowo said, adding that he had been made a
\nscapegoat for various outbreaks of violence in the country since
\nthe May 1998 riots up to the murder of three United Nations
\nworkers in Atambua, East Nusa Tenggara, last September.<\/p>\n
Prabowo, a Muslim, said he would never have committed such a
\n\"savage and immoral\" act as the bombings, because many of his
\nrelatives are Christians and were attending Mass on Christmas
\nEve.<\/p>\n
He said he was asleep in his house in Jakarta after
\ncelebrating Christmas Eve with family members when he heard about
\nthe bombings from a friend.<\/p>\n
\"As you know, my mother is a Christian and almost two-thirds
\nof my family are Christians and we usually have a family get-
\ntogether,\" said Prabowo, who also claimed to have been obsessed
\nwith fighting terrorism since he was a member of the Army Special
\nForces (Kopassus).<\/p>\n
The son-in-law of former authoritarian ruler Soeharto said he
\nwas ready to answer a police summons.<\/p>\n
Looking fresh and relaxed, Prabowo refused to speculate about
\nthe masterminds of the bombings. \"It's hard to point at certain
\ngroups ... so if there is a certain group who says there were
\nnine generals involved in the bombings, they may as well say
\nthere were 99 or 900 generals.\"<\/p>\n
The Indonesian Forum for Peace earlier raised the possibility
\nof nine generals being involved in the bombings.<\/p>\n
In a separate interview later in the day, Prabowo also said he
\nbelieved the Indonesian Military (TNI) was not involved in the
\nbombings.<\/p>\n
\"Some members of TNI may be involved, as may be paid
\ncivilians. Now people can easily be found to plant a box without
\nknowing what's in it for Rp 200,000 or Rp 300,000,\" he said.<\/p>\n
According to Prabowo, terrorism is basically a copycat act.
\n\"Take a plane hijacking as an example. Once it succeeds, other
\n(terrorists) will follow. The copycat action may take the shape
\nof a separatist movement after the Free Aceh Movement.\"<\/p>\n
When asked whether he would like to help the government solve
\nthe bombings, he said: \"I will gladly do so, but my capacity in
\nthat matter must be made clear first.\"<\/p>\n
In Bandung, West Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Yun Mulyana
\nrevealed on Wednesday that four more people had been named
\nsuspects in the Christmas Eve bombings in the city.<\/p>\n
He said the four were identified by two of the key suspects in
\nthe case, namely Haji Aceng and Iqbal, who were arrested in
\nBrebes, Central Java, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Mulyana, however, refused to identify the new suspects, saying
\nthe police had yet to verify the testimony of Aceng and Iqbal.<\/p>\n
Aceng's family has retained defense lawyer Farhat Abbasa, who
\nis also defending two other suspects in the case, Roni Miliar and
\nAgus Kurniawan. (edt\/25)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/prabowo-denies-role-in-bombings-1447893297",
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