Foreign bomb experts may role-play in Bali blast: BIN

Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The State Intelligence Agency (BIN) said on Friday it believed that the devastating Bali bombings, which killed nearly 200 people, involved highly-skilled foreign experts.

"We are sure that foreign elements along with Indonesian experts or perpetrators were involved," BIN spokesman Muchyar Yara told The Jakarta Post.

"As we know Indonesia has no such bomb experts with such extraordinary expertise. They are extremely rare here."

Muchyar said Indonesian experts were generally trained to make bombs using one, two or three explosives. He could not identify where the foreign bomb experts were from.

National Police say the Oct. 12 explosions that ripped through the Sari nightclub on Bali's Kuta Beach tourist strip were packed with multiple explosives, among them TNT, RDX and HMX. Their opinion seems to differ with Australian investigators.

Muchyar said bombs made with multiple explosives were not manufactured by formal entities at home or overseas, saying they must have been made by foreign experts in cooperation with Indonesians.

"The bombs must have been assembled in the country. If they were made abroad, it is too risky to bring them here," he argued.

"Their expertise is far above the average level of that of previous bombers who have attacked many places across the country."

His statement was echoed by Australian police who said on Friday that expert bombers planned the blasts in Bali to maximize casualties.

"The degree of coordination including the vehicle placement really reflected a high degree of planning and a high degree of expertise," Graham Ashton, the federal police officer leading Australian detectives investigating the bombings told AP in Canberra.

He said Australian investigators believe the blasts were caused by the explosive chlorate and that it was set off by a "booster charge" such as TNT.

Analysts here have also said the Bali bombers were highly- skilled professionals, who could be Indonesians or foreign citizens.

However, Muchyar would not speculate on whether the three men whose sketches were released by police on Wednesday were merely the perpetrators or the brains behind the Bali blasts.

Political scientist Hermawan Sulistyo, who is assisting the National Police detectives investigating the blasts, said whether the three unidentified suspects were the masterminds or perpetrators would remain unclear until they were arrested.

"It's very hard to speculate if they are bomb experts or not. We don't know about them yet. We must arrest them first," he told the Post.

Military observer Hasnan Habib shared Hermawan's view, saying the arrest of the suspects would help police investigators unravel the mystery of the Bali bomb attacks.

He said a very high level of expertise was required to build the bombs that went off in Bali and the bombers likely were experienced.

Hasnan, Hermawan and Muchyar said that dangerous explosives such as TNT and RDX were imported products banned for public sale.

Yet Muchyar said ordinary people could buy these explosives due to a lack of control by relevant authorities.

According to a BIN report revealed recently, the Bali bombs were likely made of "SEMTEX explosives, a combination of RDX and PETN materials".

"These explosives are usually used in limited military operations to demolish bridges, buildings or special business interests like open mining," it said.

The explosions were believed to be controlled by a ADC detonator made in Korea or by a remote control or timer," the report said.

It said explosives used by the Indonesian Military (TNI), were only available for use by the Army's combat engineers.

The identification of those who use the explosives in industries such as mining would take longer, it said.