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."