Bombers, RDX source still unknown

Bombers, RDX source still unknown

Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Suspicions and speculation have taken on a life of their own in
the weeks following the Bali bombing as the type of bomb device
used has not been completely identified by investigators.

In addition, the whereabouts of all the bombers and the source
of the RDX, the main ingredient of one of the explosive traces
found by forensics experts at the scene of the blast, remains
unknown.

At least ten Indonesian men who are wanted by the police as
suspects in the tragedy are still at large. The multinational
inquiry team is slated to release photos on Sunday with the hope
that citizens will be able to assist with information leading to
their capture.

Joint inquiry team spokesman Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang
admitted on Saturday that the police were not yet able to say who
provided the bombers with the RDX since Amrozi, the sole suspect
in custody so far, only confessed to purchasing a cocktail of
common chemicals at a shop in East Java.

RDX is the main component of the C-4 explosive compound, which
is not available to the general public but usually only found in
government military arsenals.

"We are still trying to find it (the source). Such a high-
level explosive is not found on the open market," Aritonang told
The Jakarta Post from Denpasar, Bali.

The police spokesman confirmed that the bomb that devastated
the Sari Club in Kuta certainly contained a number of chemicals,
including RDX.

"The RDX was obtained from other sources. I will let you know
later how difficult it is to obtain RDX," inquiry team leader
Insp. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika said.

Amrozi has admitted to being one of the planners in the attack
that killed over 190 people, mostly foreigners and wounded more
than 320 others, saying he only provided a portion of the bomb-
making materials and transported them in his L-300 minivan to
Bali a week before the blast.

Suyanto, one of Amrozi's lawyers, claimed on Saturday that his
client was not the bomb maker. "He was only a messenger ordered
to buy the explosives. He doesn't even know who assembled the
bomb," he told Antara.

Suyanto also said that Amrozi pointed to Imam Samudra and
Idris as those masterminding the bomb attack. The confession to
his lawyer was the same as that given to the police.

The explosives, which Amrozi said were bought from a chemical
shop in the East Java capital of Surabaya, included potassium
chlorate. RDX was not one of the materials Amrozi purchased
there.

Police have, however, found TNT and traces of C-4 in at least
four rented houses in Bali, where Amrozi and his accomplices had
stayed for several days before the bombings.

C-4 was first manufactured in the United States and most
government military forces - usually those that are allies or
trading partners with the US and its allies - around the globe
have access to it. Nonetheless access is limited to official
military and security forces.

Asked how Amrozi and his accomplices would have been able to
obtain C-4, Aritonang said, "We don't know yet."

A cache of bullets along with various firearms comprised of
automatic and home-made rifles were discovered by the police at a
jungle near Amrozi's home in Lamongan although none were used in
the Bali attack.

The Indonesian Military (TNI) has denied ever having stored
RDX or C-4 after speculation surfaced that rogue soldiers may
have played a role in the blast.

The blast was large enough to cause two steel poles five
meters away from the blast center to bend at a 15 degree angle
and created a huge crater, but somehow left enough of the van for
investigators to pull serial numbers from the parts.

Some pundits have speculated that the huge explosion was not a
result of conventional explosives and could not have been only
caused by RDX due to the size of the crater left in its wake and
the leveling of the surrounding area.

Gossip and speculation throughout Indonesia has been rampant
as many people seem unwilling to accept the investigators and
Amrozi's version of events, crater size being one issue that is
often referred to. However, a chemical expert downplayed such
suspicions.

"It must have been C-4 and/or other high explosives," Agus
Nurhadi, a chemical expert with the University of Indonesia who
conducted independent research at the blast site, told the Post
last Tuesday.

Yet he dismissed public suspicions that the bomb was some sort
of "micro nuke" given that it did not melt the copper part of
electricity wires located five meters from the blast epicenter.

In spite of that, theoretically micro nukes would create a
crater depending on deployment, according to explosive experts.

Joe Vialls, an Australian investigator who carried out an
independent probe into the explosion said he believes the bomb
was not made from potassium chlorate and paraffin as claimed by
Amrozi through the Indonesian police.

"To claim that the Bali bomb was made from potassium chlorate
is pure idiocy," said an analysis written by Vialls. "You can
manufacture a crude weapon from 90 percent potassium chlorate and
10 percent paraffin, but it is an incredibly slow and entirely
unpredictable low explosive."