'Bali nightclubs not original bomb targets'

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar

A suspect in the Oct. 12 Bali bombing has revealed the intervention of three mysterious strangers who led to a last- minute change to the targets to be attacked.

During interrogation on Friday last week, Amrozi, one of the suspects detained, told police detectives that the alleged mastermind behind the bombings, Imam Samudra, had referred to the three men during the final preparations for the attacks, which claimed over 190 lives, mostly foreigners, and left hundreds of others injured.

According to the interrogation report, which was shown to The Jakarta Post, Amrozi said the attack was initially planned for the United States honorary consulate in the Renon area of Denpasar.

Amrozi only realized that two other bombs had gone off inside the Paddy's Cafe and in front of the Sari Club on Jl. Legian in the packed tourist resort area of Kuta when he saw the report on television at his home in the East Java town of Lamongan.

The bomb that exploded near the U.S. honorary consulate claimed no fatalities. Police said Amrozi hated Americans as a result of U.S. policy on Palestine and Iraq.

Amrozi told the detectives that he had never been introduced to nor seen the three strangers, and that he was involved in a quarrel with Imam on Oct. 8 over their involvement in the plot.

Amrozi found out about the intervention of the other men when Imam told him that further instructions on the bomb plot would be discussed with other parties whose identities Amrozi did not need to know.

The three mystery men were not part of the team involved in the initial discussions on the bomb plan, which took place in a number of towns in Central and East Java.

Amrozi was arrested on Nov. 5 in his hometown of Lamongan and was sent to Denpasar, where the team investigating the bomb attacks is based.

Amrozi claimed to be in the dark about the whereabouts of the three strangers.

When asked for confirmation on Thursday, the joint investigative team's leader, Insp. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika, neither denied nor confirmed the existence of the interrogation report.

"I don't know. I haven't read the report yet," said Pastika.

Police have said Amrozi was a field operative and not the assembler of the bombs used in the attacks in Bali.

Following the arrest of Amrozi, the police released composite sketches and a photograph of six suspects.

Pastika admitted on Thursday the involvement of three suspects other than Amrozi and the six suspects whose identities were made public recently.

"I said before, there are between six and 10 suspects. Thus far, we have only managed to identify seven suspects. We still don't know the whereabouts of the remaining three suspects," said Pastika.