JP/4/umar

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.