Dulmatin not killed in RP air strike

Dulmatin not killed in RP air strike

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The National Police finally confirmed on Wednesday that Dulmatin,
a key terror suspect, had not been killed during air strikes by
the Philippine military in southern Mindanao on Jan. 26, 2005.

An officer attached to Interpol in Indonesia, Brig. Gen. Sisno
Adiwinoto, said that he had received a report from an
international monitoring team comprising military attaches from
Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam that Dulmatin had not been killed.

Dulmatin is reportedly an expert on assembling bombs. He has
also been linked to the 2002 Bali bombings and the JW Marriott
bombing in 2003.

"There was nobody killed in the strike. Based on reports that
we received on Jan. 31, there was only one person injured and
that was a local resident," Sisno said.

The attack was conducted by the Philippine military targeting
a suspected meeting of regional Al-Qaeda-linked group leaders,
including leaders from Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), in Butilan Marsh
and Datupiang Mangindanao in the southern Mindanao area around 40
kilometers from Davao City.

Dulmatin and his colleague Umar Patek were believed to be
attending the meeting. Previous press reports quoted a Philippine
military official as saying that he believed the two had been
killed during the air strike, along with 40 rebels.

Sisno, however, said that no members of the Philippine Abu
Sayyaf rebel group or JI were killed during the attack.

"Neither were there any Indonesian citizens killed or injured
during the attack," Sisno said.

Deputy Chief of Detectives Insp. Gen. Dadang Garnida made
similar comments, saying that the report that Dulmatin had been
killed was not based on hard facts.

"The information was unclear and unreliable," Dadang said.

Dadang added that the police would continue to hunt Dulmatin
and other terrorists, whether hiding inside or outside the
country.

Separately, Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan visited
National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar at National Police
Headquarters to discuss counterterrorism cooperation between the
two countries.

"We both agree that terrorism is a crime that knows no
borders, and which cannot be handled by one country only.
Therefore, we need help from other countries, such as Singapore,"
Da'i said.

Da'i explained that cooperation was necessary to apprehend
terror suspects such as Azahari bin Husin and Noordin M. Top, who
are believed to be the masterminds behind several bombings in
Jakarta and Bali.

"These people can hop from one country to another easily. We
have to prevent them from doing so by tightening up our borders,"
Da'i said.

However, he admitted that he and Tan had not discussed the
possibility of an extradition agreement between Singapore and
Indonesia.