Ba'asyir blessed Bali bombing: Da'i

Ba'asyir blessed Bali bombing: Da'i

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said on Tuesday that Abu
Bakar Ba'asyir knew and endorsed the Oct. 12 Bali bombing that
killed over 190 people and injured some 300 others.

Da'i's statement was the first direct reference to the
cleric's involvement in the Bali blasts, the biggest attacks
since Sept. 11, 2001, when suicide terrorists dove passenger
airplanes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New
York City, killing over 3,000 people.

The police chief said that investigators arrived at the
conclusion after interrogating suspects of the bombing.

Investigators have arrested a total of 29 suspects in the
case, all of them currently in detention at Bali Police
headquarters in Denpasar. Ten people, including three Malaysians,
are on the wanted list.

"The jihad (holy war) operation is reported to have been
blessed by the Jamaah Islamiyah leader, Abu Bakar Ba'asyir," Da'i
said in a hearing with the House of Representatives' Commission I
for defense and security affairs here on Tuesday.

Da'i, however, did not immediately say that Ba'asyir had
already been declared a suspect in the terror attacks, nor did he
comment on the implications of Ba'asyir's blessing the attacks.
He simply said that his staff were developing and working on the
case.

Ba'asyir, 64, is currently under police custody on treason
charges. He has been accused of plotting to assassinate President
Megawati Soekarnoputri when she was still vice president, and of
masterminding a string of church bombings on Christmas Eve in
2000.

Until Tuesday, police had not linked Ba'asyir to the Bali
blasts. The Muslim cleric has denied any wrongdoings and any
knowledge of Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) or its operations.

Da'i said that JI, a regional terrorist network, was behind
the Bali bombing, which was apparently planned during a meeting
in Bangkok in mid-February 2002. The operation targeted the
interests of the U.S. and its allies in Singapore and Indonesia.

This eventually resulted in targeting and bombing two
nightclubs on the resort island of Bali, which explosion killed
mainly foreign tourists, but also many Indonesian nationals.

Da'i also disclosed that JI leader Ridwan Isamuddin, alias
Hambali, financed the operation with up to US$35,500 in funds
directly transferred to Ali Ghufron, alias Mukhlas, one of the
key suspects in the Bali bombing.

The United States and other countries have linked JI, which
aims to create a pan-Southeast Asian Islamic state, to Osama bin
Laden's al-Qaeda network. The United Nations put JI on the list
of terrorist groups late last year.

Da'i said police found residues of both TNT and the military
explosive RDX at both the Sari Club and Paddy's Bar blast sites,
but still could not identify the type of bombs used.

"Once the bomb-maker is arrested, we will then carry out new
tests," Da'i said.

Police said Monday they were hunting a man called Dulmatin,
whom they say was the maker of the bombs used in Bali as well as
in other Indonesian cities.

There were speculations in the beginning of the investigation
that the bomb was composed of plastic explosive C4. This
speculation was based on the magnitude of the mushroom cloud
resulting from the blasts. During the investigation, however,
police investigators found that a "ball of fire" had resulted
from cars that had exploded in the blasts.

Police investigators submitted the dossier of Amrozi, the
first key suspect detained by police, to state prosecutors, but
the file was returned as it was deemed incomplete.

"The dossier is being improved and is going to be presented to
state prosecutors no later than Feb. 2, 2003," said Da'i, adding
that police investigators were preparing the case files of other
key suspects, including Abdul Aziz, alias Imam Samudra, and
Mukhlas.