Bomb found close to Munir's family home

JAKARTA (JP): A live bomb was found outside the family residence of human rights activist Munir in Batu, Malang, East Java, in the early morning hours of Monday.

The police defused the high explosive bomb in the middle of a paddy field opposite the house on Jl. Diponegoro.

The bomb squad claimed it was of TNT (trinitrotoluene) type.

Munir, the founder of the National Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), was taking leave for a week to visit his parents, wife Suciwati and their three-year-old son Alif in the town.

Munir said that they were woken up at around 2 a.m. by Alif's cry when the phone rang. The caller hung up when Suciwati took it.

"The phone rang again and when I took it, a man on the other line said he was looking for my wife but refused to reveal his identity. He later said that a bomb had been planted around the house and would explode within minutes," he told The Jakarta Post over the phone.

Munir then searched around the house and found a suspicious black plastic bag outside his mother's room.

Batu Police came within 15 minutes and confirmed it was a bomb, while the bomb squad arrived around 6:30 a.m.

"The bomb is certainly connected with my work," he said.

Munir has often criticized the authorities for their failure to solve the bombing cases that have rocked the country over the past two years. (bby/emf)