Pindad, police give conflicting account on AG office bomb
BANDUNG (JP): State-owned weapons manufacturer PT Pindad denied on Friday reports it produced the bomb found at the Attorney General's Office in Jakarta on Wednesday.
"PT Pindad does produce explosives. But a statement saying that the bomb found at the Attorney General's Office was made by Pindad needs verification," Pindad production director Adik A. Soedarsono told journalists in Bandung.
Police found the bomb and a broken timer tied between pipes in the ceiling of a second-floor bathroom in the attorney general's building on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after a homemade bomb exploded in the same building.
National Police chief Gen. Rusdihardjo has identified the second bomb as an M1 explosive manufactured by PT Pindad.
Pindad's operation is under the auspices of the Army, and the M1 explosives are produced only for the Army's purposes, Adik said.
"Any Pindad product bears the type of explosive, the company's logo and production code number," said Adik.
He said he did not know what kind of explosive was found in the Attorney General's Office.
"There is a possibility that certain parties have used PT Pindad's name illegally, because we are not the only explosive producer in the world."
According to Adik, PT Pindad produces M1 and M2 explosives with differing contents (weight) of TNT. "The M1 type contains 60, 120, 160 and 225 grams of TNT, while the M2 type has 450 and 500 grams of TNT."
Bandung Regional Police chief Sr. Supt. Alex Bambang Riatmodjo, however, gave a conflicting statement. He said the police had verified the explosive came from PT Pindad.
Bambang was working with the South Jakarta Police in verifying and cross-checking the type of bomb found at the attorney general's building and the types of explosives manufactured by PT Pindad.
He said the second explosive device found at the Attorney General's Office was very powerful. "It was produced in PT Pindad's production center in East Java and was dispatched to an Army arsenal in Jakarta on Dec. 30, 1996. But we have no idea how the explosive got out of the arsenal."
Denial
Meanwhile, Jakarta Military Commander Ryamizard Ryacudu dismissed on Friday the possibility that any of his troops were involved in planting the bomb.
"There has been no reports at all that we lost any of our explosives. So it's impossible that my men were involved," he told journalists at City Hall after attending a meeting on security in the capital.
"We checked all of our arsenals immediately after the explosion. Not even a single bullet was missing," he said, adding that the command was not the only user of such explosives.
"Explosives are widely distributed outside the military. Even fishermen and limestone miners use them," he said.
Ryacudu also said it was possible the bomb came from a foreign country. "Besides our domestic supply, the military also procures its armaments from foreign countries. We don't know yet for sure about it."
Also in Jakarta, the head of the National Police's Forensic Laboratory Center, Brig. Gen. M.A. Erwin Mappaseng, said the police had failed to detect the second bomb while combing the compound on Tuesday night.
"The electricity went out right after the explosion and the detector device could not spot the bomb. The wall was too thick for the detector to locate it," he explained.
A chemist at the forensic laboratory said the second bomb had been set to explode at midnight, about six hours after the homemade bomb exploded on Tuesday evening.
"It's likely that the bomb was expected to destroy the whole building while many people were gathered inside and around the building due to the first blast," he told journalists at the Attorney General's Office.
He also said police would find it difficult to identify those responsible for planting the bomb from the fingerprints found at the scene. "There are lots of fingerprints on the bomb and also at the site." (25/bby/nvn/sur)