Bali police establish new antiterror desk

Bali police establish new antiterror desk

Agencies, Jakarta

Police in Bali said on Friday they would set up a new body aimed at preventing a repeat of the deadly bombings that have dented tourism to the Indonesian resort island.

The Bali Security Council would comprise local business and community leaders as well as senior figures from the military and police, said police chief Made Mangku Pastika.

Its immediate tasks would be to raise funds to buy some 100,000 surveillance cameras and to "coordinate" security arrangements on the island.

"On the matter of security, there has to be extra efforts; there are funds that must be raised," Pastike told a press conference, quoted as saying by AFP.

Three suicide bombers blew themselves up on Oct. 1 at the Bali tourist hotspots of Kuta and Jimbaran killing 20 people, mostly Indonesians, bringing a grim reminder of the threat posed by Islamist extremists.

The latest attack occurred just as the predominantly Hindu island managed to revive its tourism sector, crippled by the October 2002 suicide bomb attacks that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

The council would also oversee security at any future international events, said Pastika, who led the 2002 bombing investigation that eventually resulted in three Islamist militants being sentenced to death and many more being jailed.

All five men initially detained in connection with the latest Bali attacks have since been released. Officials have said they suspect Malaysians Noordin Mohammad Top and Azahari Husin, leading members of the Islamist extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), could have masterminded the violence.

The pair are also believed to have played key roles in the 2002 Bali blasts and in the deadly suicide attacks against a Jakarta hotel and the Australian embassy.

Separately on the same day, East Kalimantan police said they had arrested four people involved in smuggling hundreds of kilograms of explosives from Malaysia into Indonesia.

East Kalimantan Police Chief Maj. Gen. Sitompul said that four other suspects escaped and remain at large.

He said the four -- three women and a man -- were seized on a speedboat heading for the town of Pare Pare on Sulawesi island.

Indonesian security forces have been on high alert since Oct. 1, when three suicide bombers set off charges killing 23 other people on the resort island of Bali.

"Police have seized hundreds of kilograms of explosive material, a thousand meters of fuse and 900 detonators," said Sitompul. He said the suspects had arrived from Tawau in eastern Malaysia.

"We are still investigating this case to determine whether the four suspects have links with previous bombings including Bali," he said, quoted as saying by Associated Press.

Sitompul said police were also searching for a man he identified as "A.M.", whom he described as "the owner of those explosive materials."