JP/4/umar

Umar Patek's death not confirmed: Police

Eva C. Komandjaja The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The National Police have denied a report that Indonesian terrorist suspect Umar Patek was killed last week by the Philippine army during a raid in the southern part of the country.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Aryanto Boedihardjo said on Friday that the Philippine National Police (PNP) had contacted National Police Headquarters saying that they had never issued a statement on the death of the alleged terrorist.

"Last week we received a report from an unknown source saying that Umar was killed in Sitio Tinugos jungle in Maguandao area in the Southern Philippines, but the PNP said that they could not confirm whether it was Umar or not," Aryanto said.

He explained that the National Police's senior liaison officer in the Philippines, Sr. Comr. Bambang Saidi, had talked to the regional head of the PNP's intelligence and investigation division Angelito Cansimbiro and found out that the news of Umar's death was not issued by the Philippine police.

Aryanto said the PNP had denied carrying out DNA tests on Umar's body, saying they had never seen the body nor taken it to Philippine Police headquarters.

An officer from the Indonesian Consulate General Office in the southern Philippine city of Davao Bambang Gunawan had contacted a spokesman at the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) about Umar's death and the spokesman confirmed that the body was not Umar's.

MILF Muslim separatist rebels dwell in the southern part of the Philippines. Previously, the group helped their government in the hunt for two Indonesian terrorist suspects, including Umar.

The group previously said that Umar and Dulmatin, both suspects in the 2002 Bali bombings, were being protected by al- Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf rebels.

This is not the first time Umar has been declared dead. Previously, Umar was rumored to have been killed during a military attack in January on Mindanao island.