Father says Misno had no interest in religion

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

In the middle of August of this year, Mad Sukarto gave Rp 1.5 million (about US$150) out of his meager savings as a farmer to his son, Misno, for who wanted to go to Batam island to work at a hotel. That was the last time he saw his sixth son, who killed himself in a suicide attack in Bali on Oct. 1, along with two other suicide bombers.

The 57-year-old farmer from Cilacap, Central Java, could not fully grasp why his 23-year-old son, whom he described as a "normal kid" with little interest in politics and religion, could become a militant and kill himself and others in a bomb attack.

"As a father, I feel like I have been beaten up. If only I knew beforehand of his plans, I could have tried to prevent it," said the father of seven during a press conference on Saturday in Bandung, West Java.

Sukarto spoke at a news conference organized by the family's lawyer in the hope that reporters would no longer disturb the family once it was over. His weeping wife Musbariyah, 55, did not speak during the event.

He said that his family had appealed to the police to allow them to bring Misno's body to Cilacap to be buried in his hometown.

"I would be fully convinced if I could see his body. That's why I want to quickly go back home to Cilacap with whatever is left of the body of my son," said Sukarto, who said that he was informed by his lawyer on Thursday about the result of a DNA test confirming that Misno was one of the suicide bombers.

The police said that they have now identified two of the three bombers. The other is Salik Firdaus, 24, a resident of Cikijing in Majalengka regency, West Java. The Oct. 1 bomb blasts, the second attack to have occurred in Bali, killed 23 people including the three bombers.

The terror attack, which was part of a series of bomb attacks in recent years, killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, and was blamed on the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) regional terror network, which is linked to the al-Qaeda network.

Last week, the National Police's elite antiterror squad killed Azahari bin Husin, one of the most wanted JI terrorists in the region, during a raid at his hideout in Batu, Malang, East Java.

It is unclear how the JI group recruited Misno.

Sukarto said Misno dropped out of school during junior high, and left the family's home in Cilacap in 1996 to work as a low- paid construction worker in Jakarta for four years. He changed jobs several times.

In 2004, Misno briefly stayed at his parents' house in Cilacap, and in early 2005 went to Majalengka, West Java, to help his street-hawker brother sell rice porridge.

Sukarto said that his last encounter with Misno was at his eldest son's house on Aug. 14, when Misno expressed his plans to go to Batam to work at a hotel. The next day, he gave his blessings and some money. On Nov. 7, his daughter contacted him to say that one of the Bali suicide bombers looked like Misno.

"Misno told me that he would write me letters, but when I heard nothing I just assumed he was short of money," he said.

Sukarto said his family had not been attracted to hardline Islamic teachings.

"He (Misno) wasn't especially religious and neither am I," he said. "He was a normal kid."