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

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.