Bali officers smoke more and talk less on the bomb
Bali officers smoke more and talk less on the bomb
I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali
Bali Police spokesperson Adj. Sr. Comr. Yatim Suyatmo has picked
up two bad habits lately: smoking and refraining from talking to
journalists on the latest development on the bombing
investigation.
He rarely used to smoke, but these days he always carries a
pack of Marlboro, and a green gas lighter in his pocket. Seeing
him puffing away, one may think that Suyatmo enjoys smoking.
"I smoke more frequently after the tragedy. Perhaps because of
the stress, such as dealing with journalists who keep pressing me
for information," he said smilingly, adding that his phones rang
all the time.
But there could be another reason for his restlessness. A
source close to the investigation disclosed that on Monday both
Bali Police chief Brig. Gen. Budi Setyawan, and Suyatmo had been
rapped by their superior in Jakarta for being too generous about
giving information to the media.
Indeed, since then information on the latest development of
the investigation has been difficult to come by as competent
sources are tight-lipped on the matter.
"I don't have any information on that. Today's information is
basically the same as what we had yesterday," Suyatmo will say
again and again when asked for updates.
He has been jokingly called the Smoking Man, that mysterious
character in the television series the X-Files, who smokes more
and talks less.
It would be useless to ask Suyatmo and other senior officers
about basic things like how many Australian Federal Police (AFP)
and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officers are
involved in the probe, or how many witnesses have been
questioned.
This has given rise to rumors and speculations about who
plotted the bomb attacks, some assert it is the CIA and the
Indonesian Military (TNI) with strong arguments to back their
theories.
A source close to the investigation who refused to be named
acknowledged their silence was an official policy.
"You know people, journalists included, swarmed the crime
scene minutes after the blast. There were hundreds of them. When
our forensic experts arrived the site had been littered and
damaged. We could not afford to let this thing happen again in
our investigation," he said.
Any leak of critical information could hamper the
investigation and diminish the element of surprise they want to
achieve when pinning down a suspect, he added.
According to the source six special teams are in charge of the
investigation. Each team comprises 10 to 20 officers from the
police intelligence and detectives division. Each investigator is
required to report the progress of his or her work to the team
leader every 15 minutes. The team leaders then relay the reports
to the commanding officer, a senior commissioner from the
National Police Headquarters, who has extensive knowledge and
expertise of terrorism.
"Each team works independently. They have specific information
to gather and specific targets to achieve. Basically, one team
does not have any knowledge of what the other teams are doing.
Only the commanding officer has the complete picture. This is
another way to ensure the secrecy of the investigation," he said.
Besides, the teams are not operating in and from the Bali
Police Headquarter in Denpasar. Six temporary field offices, and
one command center has been established in several unspecified
locations across Denpasar and Kuta.
He also said that the AFP and FBI investigators were actively
involved in the investigation.
"So far, we have questioned dozens of people. And we have
found several important clues, which I believe will play a
significant role in identifying the perpetrators of this
horrendous atrocity," he said.
Of course he could not detail what those important clues are.
On this matter he is just as tight-lipped as Suyatmo. And, they
both smoke the same brand of cigarettes.