Bombers spread terrors, hatred

Bombers spread terrors, hatred

JAKARTA (JP): Preliminary questioning of alleged bombers
revealed that they planted bombs to incite terror and sow hatred
between people of different religions in the country, an officer
said on Saturday.

"So far we've had a confession that the arrested bombers
wanted to see people of different religions blaming and fighting
each other," Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul
Alam told reporters.

Police also got an indication that the next target of the
groups was mosques.

"We believe that the people are merely the hit men and it's
not easy to make them reveal who their boss is," Anton said.

Police have apprehended 14 people, including three Malaysians,
for allegedly being involved in the Atrium Plaza bombing in
Central Jakarta, and a series of church bombings in the city
earlier this year and on Christmas Eve throughout the country
last year.

Some of them also confessed that they had been involved in
communal clashes in the Maluku islands.

Earlier, police blamed Acehnese separatists, the Free Aceh
Movement (GAM) and the fugitive Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra as
being behind the bombings. (emf)