Malaysians implicated in Bali attack
Berni K. Moestafa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The police on Monday added two Malaysians and four Indonesians to the list of suspects behind the Bali bombing, in the strongest sign so far that the bombing was the work of a terrorist group with a regional scope.
"Their names were gleaned from documents investigators have found," joint-investigative team spokesman Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang, said as quoted by Antara.
He identified the two Malaysians as Azhari and Nurdin Muhamad Top. According to the documents, Azhari helped with the technical preparations of the bombs while Nurdin provided the funds.
The documents disclosing their names were found in the home of one of the suspects earlier this month. Known as the Solo documents, they describe the structure of an organization the police believe is the terrorist group Jamaah Islamiyah (JI).
JI is said to be a regional organization. But until now, the line of suspects only included Indonesians.
The naming of the Malaysian suspects could alarm Malaysia and Singapore where JI reportedly operated or still operates bases.
The Bali bombing investigation has so far been focused within Indonesia, but police have not rule out the possibility of conducting investigations in neighboring countries.
Their arrest also raises the possibility of the hunt for bomb suspects being expanded to neighboring countries and increases the urgency to make the existing regional anti-terrorism pact work.
So far Indonesia has signed the anti-terror pact with Malaysia and the Philippines, Thailand and Cambodia. Singapore, once an operations center of the JI network, is absent and has signed no pact with any other country in the region.
Indonesia and the Philippines recently agreed to increase their anti-terror cooperation and said they expected to expand the trilateral anti terror pact to all of Southeast Asian countries.
Monday's announcement of the six new names expands the list of suspects police are still hunting for to 11. Fifteen others have been arrested, including the alleged masterminds of the attack, Abdul Azis, alias Imam Samudra, Ali Ghufron, alias Mukhlas, and Amrozi.
The four new Indonesian suspects include Zulkarnaen, whom the police mentioned for the first time last Saturday.
Zulkarnaen is the alleged commander of the little-known JI militia wing, Askari Islamiyah.
His name emerged when police on Saturday gathered together eight suspects to reconstructed a series of meetings held in July and August to plan the bombings.
The others include: Saad, in whose home the police found the Solo documents; Heri Harfidin, who allegedly recruited several other suspects in Serang, the capital of Banten province; and Utomo Pamungkas alias Mubarok.
Edward said Utomo received the money which was later handed to Amrozi for the purchase of the explosive materials and the minivan. The explosives were stashed inside the minivan which was parked outside one of the two Bali nightclubs the bombers targeted.
More than 190 people, mainly foreign tourists, died in the explosion that rocked two crowded nightclubs in the Kuta.
Still at large are suspects Umar Patek, Umar Wayan, Ali Imron, Idris and Dulmatin. Police said they believe Dulamtin assembled the bomb that was inside the minivan and which caused the biggest number of casualties.