Experts baffled by nature of bombs in Tuesday's blasts

Experts baffled by nature of bombs in Tuesday's blasts

JAKARTA (JP): Police forensic experts are at a loss over what
exactly caused three powerful bombs to explode in an empty room
of a two-story boardinghouse at Jl. Cikoko Barat III No. 23 in
Pancoran, South Jakarta, on Tuesday morning.

National Police forensic laboratory deputy chief Sr. Comr.
Dudon Setia Putra told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that the
bombs contained the high explosive TNT (trinitrotoluene),
potassium chlorate and sulfur.

"What we are baffled by is how did these bombs explode when
there were no detonators. No batteries, no detonators or
accelerators, nothing," he said.

The bomb blasts injured five people, and damaged at least four
cars and four houses, although no fatalities were reported.

A forensic expert said that his immediate superior had
instructed him and his subordinates to find out whether a
combination of sulfur, potassium chlorate and TNT could explode
on its own.

"Neither of the components in the three bombs could have
worked as an accelerator or catalyst. We are still testing the
theory as to whether it was possible that the room temperature
and the level of oxygen in the room could have caused the bombs
to explode," the forensic expert, who requested anonymity, told
the Post.

Speaking for the National Police Forensic Laboratory, the
expert said that whoever had made the homemade bombs had used
conventional steel pipes to make it look like he was a "semi-
professional" bomb assembler.

"We know that this is not the work of a semi-professional.
This person knows explosives and is well-trained and probably a
bomb expert," the official said.

Of the seven bombs found in and around the crime scene, the
forensic official said six were encased in steel pipes which were
each about 10 centimeters long and five centimeters in diameter.

The bottoms of the cylinders were capped by steel caps, while
the tops had red-colored fuses. Each pipe bomb, he said, weighed
about 600 grams.

The official added that aside from the seven bombs, police had
also found 21 steel caps for pipes at the crime scene.
Apparently, the assembler had planned to make 21 pipe bombs.

Separately, Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul
Alam said on Wednesday that police detectives had released 41
witnesses in the case, and had named at least 17 of them as
principal witnesses.

The suspect at large is Edi Susilo, a student of Borobudur
University who had been renting the room where the bombs
exploded.

Anton said that police had distributed Edi's sketches to all
police precincts and subprecincts.

An official for the National Police Intelligence and Security
Directorate, who also requested anonymity, added the police had
received information that the bombs were to have been planted at
gas stations across the capital.

"That was the plan and that is what we heard. Of course, this
time too, God showed us his hand. We were saved from a disaster,"
the official said. (ylt)