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.