Malaysians implicated in Bali attack
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.