Nine injured in latest Ambon bomb blast

Nine injured in latest Ambon bomb blast

M. Aziz Tunny and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Ambon/Jakarta

Nine people were injured on Thursday when a home-made bomb
exploded at a market in Ambon, Maluku, the scene of widespread
Christian-Muslim violence between 1999 and 2002.

The explosion took place at around 2:30 p.m. Ambon time,
around the same time as Maluku Governor Karel A. Ralahalu was
attending a gathering some 2,600 kilometers away in Jakarta at
the Vice Presidential Office to report on positive developments
in Ambon following the government-sponsored Malino peace accord
that ended the clashes that claimed thousands of lives.

Shortly after the meeting, attended by Vice President Jusuf
Kalla and other top government and security officials involved in
brokering the 2002 peace agreement, Karel received a phone call.

"There has been an explosion at the Mardika market in Ambon,"
a crestfallen governor told one of his colleagues.

The police said that the primitive bomb, which was packed in
cardboard boxes, exploded while being transported by a pedicab at
the Mardika market, injuring the driver and nearby passersby.

Two cars, two motorcycles and two pedicabs were damaged in the
blast.

The pedicab driver, identified as Bal Passal, said that an
unidentified man had asked him to deliver two small cardboard
boxes to the Mardika bus station.

As he was driving his pedicab to the destination, Passal smelt
what he believed was sulfur. Becoming suspicious that something
was wrong, Passal decided he would try to find the man again.

However, the packages exploded before he could do so.

"The man had dark skin, and was about 145 centimeters tall,"
Passal told reporters.

The Mardika market, which is also known as the Baku-Bae
market, was set up to serve both Muslim and Christian communities
in Ambon after the signing of the Malino peace agreement.

The police identified Kasim Wali, 20, as being the man who
asked Passal to deliver the boxes, and quickly arrested him. The
police have named Wali as the prime suspect in the case.

"We have arrested the prime suspect. We are now seeking other
suspects. The bomb was a low explosive device but it was intended
to explode in a public place," Adj. Comr. Leonidas Braksan, Ambon
and Lease Islands Police chief told reporters.

He explained that the bombing shared similarities with other
terrorism cases that had occurred in the past, all of which were
aimed at disrupting security in the city.

"The prime suspect is not the mastermind. He was told to do
this," Leonidas said, adding that the police were still analyzing
the motive behind the bombing.

The Ambon Police were working hand in hand with the Maluku
Police's antiterror unit to find the real masterminds, he said.

Karel called on the police to take resolute action against the
perpetrators.

"They must be punished to the full extent of the law," he
said, adding that he was confident that Ambon people would not be
provoked into violence by the incident.