Joint inquiry team to question 10 Pakistanis

Tiarma Siboro and A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali

The Joint Inquiry Team led by the National Police will reinterrogate 10 Pakistanis who were previously questioned over the Oct. 12 bombings in Bali, in line with new findings at the blast site on Friday.

Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang, spokesman for the inquiry team, said the police had delivered summons to the Pakistanis, who arrived on the island months before the tragedy, to appear for questioning at the provincial police headquarters in Denpasar.

Aritonang declined to say what the team had found at the blast site or where the foreigners now were. He said they were staying with a Muslim foundation that had guaranteed their availability if they were needed for further questioning.

The police brought dozens of witnesses back to the blast site in Kuta on Friday to try to reconstruct the events leading up to the attack.

Armed officers cordoned off the area as the witnesses were led along Jl. Legian in Kuta, where two bombs exploded on Oct. 12 outside two popular nightclubs, Paddy's and Sari.

"We hope that some witnesses will perhaps remember things they may have forgotten when they return to the crime scene," said Aritonang.

The process is expected to continue on Saturday.

A multinational team, comprising more than 100 officers from Australia, the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Japan, have joined the National Police to investigate the attack.

Suspicion has fallen on Jamaah Islamiyah, believed to be a Southeast Asian ally of al-Qaeda, but no suspects have been arrested and police have been tight-lipped about their findings.

Aritonang said three people whose sketches have been distributed to officers nationwide may have carried out the Bali bombing.

"The three possible suspects were thought to be the executors, their faces were recognized at the scene of the blasts. The conclusion about the group was based on our finding that the bomb blasts had been carefully and professionally planned and executed.

"The police are still investigating all of these elements," he said.

He later said the sketches, prepared from witness descriptions, would not be released to the public until police were certain the three Indonesian men carried out the deadly attack.

An overlap between the police and the military in the investigation process came to surface following a claim by a team of military intelligence officers led by the National Intelligence Agency (BIN), which said they had identified "several suspects."

Aritonang said the police had no idea whether these "several suspects" matched the three possible suspects in the police sketches.

The Indonesian police are responsible for locating the perpetrators of the bombing, and are being assisted by police and experts from several countries, including Australia, in forensics, drawing sketches and medical matters.

Separately, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) will hold a closed reconstruction at the blasts site on Friday night, with four witnesses believed to be employees of Paddy's. The witnesses will be asked to go to the blast sites to reconstruct what was happening before, during and after the blasts.

This latest move comes after the Australian team completed making a three-dimensional I-Site photograph, which can help witnesses recall what was happening during the blasts, and help police detect whether certain chemical materials were left at the site.

Entering the 13th day of the investigation, no person or group has been identified as being responsible for the tragedy, even though over 170 witnesses, including the Pakistanis, have been questioned.

The joint investigation team also revealed last Sunday that it was currently focusing on three other witnesses -- a Balinese woman who was recently flown to Australia for treatment of injuries sustained in the blast, and two fishermen from Islamic Kepaon village -- but failed to provide any link to the bombing.

The woman, believed to be Desi Williams, was reportedly questioned by the police only a day after the blast in relation to a "drug problem". Desi's husband, an Australian, is currently jailed at Kerobokan penitentiary here on drug charges.

Besides Desi, three other Balinese women have been evacuated to Australia for medical treatment. They are Kadek Alit Margarini, who died in Australia, Chusnul Chotimah and Ngasti Budi Rahayu.