Key suspect details how bombings were staged

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali

Ali Imron, a key suspect in the Bali bombings, publicly showed on Tuesday how the horrifying terror attacks were carried out, boasting about his group's bomb-making skills but apologizing to families of the victims.

He vehemently refuted widespread claims that other parties assisted the bombers in staging the blasts that killed almost 200 people and injured some 300 others last October.

"I want the Indonesian people and others to know that the bomb incidents were purely the work of our group," Imron told a bizarre media conference at Bali Police Headquarters, Denpasar.

"I swear -- I am a Muslim ... there were no others manipulating or supporting us, as we have recently heard from the mass media," he added.

The news conference, attended by chief investigator Insp. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika and Bali Police chief Insp. Gen. Budi Setyawan, sometimes resembled a talk show with Imron acting more like the host than an alleged mass killer.

The key suspect boasted about his group's prowess in making high-explosive bombs and then voiced remorse for the Oct. 12 attacks, blamed on the regional Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) terror group.

"The capabilities of our group are something to be proud of as sons of the Indonesian nation. But the mistake that needs to be highlighted is that we used them for the wrong purpose," he said before carrying out an on-site reenactment of the three blasts.

Imron said that during his escape, for three months until his capture in January, he was annoyed by media reports that highly trained foreigners had been involved in staging the Bali blasts and that he felt challenged to give details of how he had produced the carnage.

"I hope there will be no more arguments about who really detonated the Bali bombs after I give these explanations," he added.

Imron claimed to have learned how to assemble bombs in Afghanistan, where he joined, what he called, a jihad against Russian troops.

He confirmed the role of another suspect, Malaysian Azahari, in making the Bali bombs, but described the Malaysian chemistry expert as his "student", whom, he said, learned bomb-making skills in Afghanistan after Imron had left it.

Imron, who was at the scene minutes before the blasts, said the suspects chose Bali as they considered it a popular tourist destination for Americans.

"We picked (Bali) to target America and its allies because they are international terrorists," he said, adding that the aim was to wage a jihad.

At least 88 of the dead victims, mostly Westerners, were from Australia and 26 from Britain.

Imron, wearing a blue detainee uniform, said plans to trigger the van bomb with a cellular phone were aborted because Idris, also a key suspect, still at large, mistakenly took the phone away.

He gave no details of how the blast was actually activated.

Imron said he drove the L-300 van carrying the deadly bomb part of the way to Sari Club, Jl. Legian, on Oct. 12 and handed the wheel to a man named Arnasan, alias Iqbal 1, who parked it outside the club.

He said he left on a motorcycle with Idris for Denpasar, where they detonated a bomb near the U.S. consulate with a mobile phone. That blast caused no casualties.

Chief Bali bombing investigator, Pastika, said after the news conference that only the consulate bomb had been remotely activated with a cell phone.

Pastika said a blast at the adjacent Paddy's Cafe was caused by TNT inside a jacket worn by a man identified as Feri, alias Isa or Iqbal-2, apparently a suicide bomber.

Investigators have estimated that the van bomb weighed up to 100 kilograms (kg). Imron claimed that it weighed over a ton and consisted of a mix of 900 kg of potassium chlorate, 150 kg of sulfur and 75 kg of aluminum powder.

Yet he declined to comment on RDX, a high explosive alleged to have been used in the blasts. But sources close to the investigation said the suspects had obtained RDX from India and the Philippines, and TNT from conflict-torn Ambon in Maluku.

Imron also admitted he was among the six suspects who made the bombs and that the five others were Azahari and his four accomplices currently being sought by police, Dul Matin, Abdul Roni, Umar Arab, alias Wayan, and Sarjio, alias Sahwat.

It took nine days to assemble the bombs, Imron added.