Explosion outside disco stuns Jakarta

Explosion outside disco stuns Jakarta

Yogita Tahilramani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After a slew of bombings in 2000 and 2001, Jakarta was rocked
once again by an explosion early Sunday morning near the Eksotis
discotheque in the Mangga Besar area of Central Jakarta. No
fatalities were reported.

The explosion left two men seriously injured with burns and
shrapnel wounds. The blast stunned the capital, which had been
relatively calm since the last explosion on New Year's Day this
year, in South Jakarta.

"The explosion destroyed a roadside noodle stall and injured
five people, two of them very badly," Jakarta Police spokesman
Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

The seriously injured victims were identified as Adi. S, 24,
and Solikhin, 31, an owner of a food-stall located right in front
of the Eksotis discotheque. Both received medical treatment at
the Husada Hospital in Central Jakarta.

Three other people were injured as a result of the explosion.
Two have been identified as Eko Budi and Eli Hakim.

Jakarta Police detectives are questioning 23 people as
witnesses in connection with the explosion and the finding of two
other homemade bombs, neither of which exploded after police
reportedly managed to defuse them.

Of the bombs that did not explode, one was found in the
parking lot of Sarinah department store in Central Jakarta, and
the other near the 1001 discotheque on Jl. Hayam Wuruk in West
Jakarta.

Anton said on Sunday that police were hunting down the
suspects.

"We believe the people who placed the bombs outside Eksotis
are the same people who placed those in the parking lot of
Sarinah department store, and near the 1001 discotheque," Anton
told the Post.

All three explosive devices appeared to have a timer, a relay
mechanism, gasoline and a battery, and were placed between
midnight and 2:30 a.m. on Sunday.

"The terror, I'm afraid, has begun again. And I have a bad
feeling that we have not seen the last of this. The one which
exploded and the two other bombs which did not explode turned out
to be low explosive devices, containing little TNT or
trinitrotoluene," Anton said.

According to police data, one explosive device was found in
the parking lot of Sarinah department store, at about 12:40 a.m.
on Sunday, hidden in the right wheel of a Timor sedan. A jerry
can containing unidentified liquid was also found near the sedan.

The second explosive device, which did not explode, was found
near the 1001 discotheque at about 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, where a
black plastic bag containing wiring, a jerry can and other
materials were found.

There was a lot of confusion among police and reporters on the
crime scene in Hayam Wuruk when a fire broke out on the fourth
floor of a nearby hotel, Hotel Jayakarta, on Jl. Hayam Wuruk,
which destroyed three vehicles, leading people to believe that a
bomb blast had occurred there.

"For now... we believe that was caused by a short circuit,"
Anton said.

Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Makbul Padmanagara said on
Sunday that police were still analyzing the crime scenes.

Along with several top detectives of both Jakarta Police and
National Police, Makbul and National Police chief of detectives
Insp. Gen. Engkesman Hillep reported the incident to National
Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar at his residence on Sunday
afternoon.

On New Year's Day this year, a grenade exploded on Jl.
Bulungan, South Jakarta claiming one life in the early hours of
2002.

Recently the Central Jakarta District Court handed down the
death penalty to the two men and a Malaysian national allegedly
tied with a radical Muslim group, for placing a bomb in Atrium
Plaza in Central Jakarta in August last year.