Bomb replays convincing

Blontank Poer, The Jakarta Post, Surakarta, Central Java

With reconstructions carried out in two separate locations in Sukoharjo, Central Java, on Saturday, the police investigating the Oct. 12 Bali blasts are convinced that the suspects held two meetings in July and August to plan the attacks.

Imam Samudra, Mukhlas and Amrozi reconstructed how they, with other suspects Dulmatin, Idris, Abdul Ghoni, Ali Imron and Zulkarnain, held a meeting to plan the attack.

Dulmatin, Idris, Ali Imron and Zulkarnain are still at large.

The reconstruction at Imam's rented house in Sanggrahan village showed how he presided over the second meeting to assign tasks to the participants to execute the bombing.

Attending the meeting were Rauf, Yudi, Amien, Agus and Iqbal, all known as the Serang Group. Part of the so-named Solo Group was arrested by the police on Dec. 5, a day before Idul Fitri, in nearby Klaten.

"The suspects held two meetings to plan the attack. The first was held in Manang Village for planning it while the second, in Sanggrahan village, was held to give out detailed instructions to the executors of the attack," head of the investigation Insp. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika said on the sidelines of the reconstruction here.

He said the reconstruction had convinced the police that the suspects had launched the attack following some careful planning and there were no other people involved.

Pastika said further that the reconstruction at the house belonging to the father-in-law of Herniyanto, one of the suspects now being detained in Bali, showed Imam knew Mukhlas, the older brother of Amrozi, because both had attended a meeting there, which thereby simultaneously refuted Imam's statement that he did not know Mukhlas.

During their interrogations, Imam denied knowing Mukhlas and that he and his group had robbed a gold shop in Serang to finance the bombing, while Mukhlas said he had received US$30,000 from Malaysian Man Win, now under arrest in Malaysia, to be handed over to Imam.

Imam was arrested in Merak, Banten, on his way from Serang to Pekanbaru, Riau, on Nov. 21.

Pastika, however, went further on whom should be held responsible for the blasts at Paddy's, Sari Club and the U.S. Consulate in Renon.

"The blast details will be included in the suspects' dossiers. Of utmost importance is that, with the reconstruction, the suspects will have no reason to retract what they have confessed to investigators," he said.

Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang, spokesman for the investigative team, said that the team had prima facie evidence to link the Bali blasts respectively with Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) and Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who has been charged with plotting to kill President Megawati Soekarnoputri, and with being involved in a series of blasts in several cities in 2000 and 2001.

He said Zulkarnain was a commander of Askari Islamiyah, a militia linked to the Jamaah Islimayah (JI) regional terror network. "We are still chasing him," said Aritonang, who accompanied Pastika in the reconstruction.

Pastika said the team was already aware of the suspect's involvement but before Saturday had not published his name.

"He participated in the discussions" where the bombing was planned, Pastika said before he, the suspects and other investigators boarded a plane for the city of Surabaya.

The suspects were to spend the night at police headquarters there before continuing with the reconstruction on Sunday in the East Java district of Lamongan, he said.

"The name Zulkarnaen is perhaps the most important thing to have emerged from the reconstruction so far," Pastika said, as quoted by AFP.

Both Pastika and Edward said they were convinced Ba'asyir was closely linked to JI, and several suspects in the Bali blasts were active in the organization.

"Ba'asyir cofounded JI with the late Abdullah Sungkar. Now, you can see the connection between Ba'asyir and the Bali blasts and the others occurred in the past," he told local and foreign journalists covering the reconstruction process.

Spending the night at East Java Police Headquarters in Surabaya, several suspects, including Amrozi and Mukhlas, were scheduled to be taken to Lamongan on Sunday to reconstruct their last meeting in September before the Bali blasts that killed almost 200, mostly Australian, and injured more than 320 others.

The suspects, who were flown to Surakarta early on Saturday in a chartered plane, will be returned to Denpasar soon after the reconstruction for further interrogation.

The suspects' dossiers will be submitted to government prosecutors in January with the intention that the cases can begin in court in February.