Bomb replays convincing

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.