Activists warn govt of sluggish bombings probe

JAKARTA (JP): Activists questioned on Friday the government's sluggish pace in probing the Christmas Eve bombings, saying that better cooperation was needed between the state and the public to uncover these terrorist attacks.

Asmara Nababan who heads the Indonesian Forum for Peace (FID)'s fact-finding team on the bombings, said they were still waiting for the government's reaction to the forum's work.

The forum is a voluntary council set up by activists soon after the Christmas eve bombings to help the government identify the perpetrators.

"We have laid out our hands...but then the question is will the government reach out to them? Initially, we did see the government's willingness to cooperate with us, but now...?" he told a media conference at the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute Foundation (YLBHI) when announcing the findings of the team's investigation.

"Based on our investigation, we are sure we can uncover not only the perpetrators but also the masterminds behind the bombings. But we can only succeed if the state and the society cooperate."

"We don't need more rhetoric. We want the government to give us an answer tomorrow," Asmara added

Earlier this week, FID submitted a proposal for the establishment of a commission consisting of seven high-ranking security officers and representatives of the forum to oversee the investigation.

The government said they agreed with the proposal but has yet to follow up on the initiative.

The secretary of the forum's investigating team, Munir, vaguely described the mastermind of the bomb attacks on the nine churches in seven provinces as an organization that has wide access to all societal elements.

"The suspected perpetrators do not come from the same political grouping or community...a big political power would be needed to link them to commit this terror," he said.

Munir argued that the attacks were not religiously motivated but designed to destabilize the country by creating communal conflicts.

Munir also alleged that those who placed the three grenades on a railway track in Bekasi were also linked to the Christmas eve bombings.

Separately in Bandung, prosecutors returned the dossiers on the suspects of the Christmas eve bombings in the city to police investigators because the description of the crime and charges were inadequate.

The suspects, Roni Milyar, 21 and Agus Kurniawan, 23 are still being treated at Sartika Asih Hospital for burns.

The other suspects, Aceng and Iqbal are still at large. (25/bby)