Jabar admits to buying 10 detonators for Xmas attacks

Jabar admits to buying 10 detonators for Xmas attacks

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Abdul Jabar, one of the suspects in the 2000 Christmas bombings,
said he was ordered by Abdul Aziz, alias Imam Samudra -- a key
planners of the Bali bombings -- to purchase 10 detonators to
attack churches here, his lawyer, Muhammad Ali, said on Tuesday.

"Jabar said he was ordered by Imam (Samudra) to buy 10 devices
as bomb detonators ... The detonators were likely to be used in
the Christmas bombings," Ali of the Legal Aid Institute People's
Suffering Mandate (LBH Ampera) told reporters following a meeting
with Jabar.

Quoting Jabar, Ali said Jabar met with Imam Samudra, Abas, and
some other Christmas bombing suspects at his home on Jl. Cikini
No. 58 in Central Jakarta in 2000.

The house, Ali said, had been used as a stopover as well as a
meeting point to plan the church bomb attacks in Jakarta.

"Jabar admitted that he was the field operative in the
bombings, targeting the two churches (Anglican church in Menteng,
Central Jakarta and Koinonia church on Jl. Matraman Raya, in East
Jakarta)," said Ali.

A police source said earlier that in the attacks, Jabar, 35,
worked with his younger brother Salahudin, along with two other
accomplices, Darwin and Musa. All three are still at large.

The bomb planted at the Koinonia church injured 10 people,
while a bomb planted at the Anglican church did not explode and
the police took it safely away.

In addition to the Koinonia and Anglican churches, the bombers
also managed to detonate bombs outside of Santo Yosef church in
Matraman, East Jakarta, outside the Kanisius College chapel in
Menteng, Central Jakarta, outside the Kathedral church in Central
Jakarta, and outside a church in Halim Perdanakusumah, East
Jakarta.

The blast in Santo Yosef church killed four people, while in
other bomb attacks, dozens were injured.

As police claimed earlier, the Christmas bomb attacks were
"the results of Jamaah Islamiyah network's activities."

Jabar underwent police questioning for the second time on
Tuesday for his role in the bomb attacks on those churches.

Jabar, who has been the subject of an apparent police manhunt
off and on for nearly three years, surrendered to police in
Lombok last week.

He was granted on Tuesday, a visit with his mother Siti
Zadiyah who had not seen him in two years.

"We both cried ... When I last saw him, Jabar promised that he
was going to buy a house. He also promised to invite me to stay.
But, to my surprise, I must meet with him in this situation,"
said Siti after the meeting.

Siti said she knew nothing about Jabar's terror activities.

"To the best of my knowledge, my son sold iced-cendol ( a
beverage made of rice-flour droplets) in front of our house in
Menteng," said Siti.

Police said Jabar was charged with illegal possession of
explosives according to the Emergency Law No. 12/1951 which
carries a maximum sentence of death.