Police arrest 4 suspects in Saturday's bombing

JAKARTA (JP): Security authorities have arrested at least four people in connection with last Saturday's bomb explosion at a department store on Jl. H. Agus Salim in Central Jakarta, a reliable source said on Monday.

The source, who is close to the investigation, said those now in custody included two active servicemen from one of the Armed Forces' special forces and two civilians, one of whom was female.

The source, who requested anonymity, refused to give any further details of the arrests.

"Let the police answer those questions," he said.

However, he stated his belief that the explosion, which caused extensive damage to the lower part of the three-story Ramayana department store and shattered windows in nearby shops, was connected to the prolonged land dispute which has been simmering between the owners of the land on which the store is built and the state Bank Dagang Negara branch office located behind it.

"The suspects are not people from the bank, but they were hired by a third party to plant the bomb," the source said, refusing to elaborate.

None of the city's top officials were willing to comment on the matter or confirm the arrests.

Jakarta Police chief Maj. Gen. Noegroho Djajoesman insisted that the investigation was still underway and that police would make an official announcement at a later date.

"How do you know that (four people were arrested)?," he told journalists seeking confirmation of the reports.

"The investigation is still underway and we'll let you know if we make any arrests," he added.

Asked about possible motives for the attack, Noegroho simply commented: "All possible motives will be thoroughly checked."

A similar attitude was adopted by Jakarta Military Police chief Col. Hendardji, who was contacted separately on Tuesday.

"Have they really been arrested?" he replied.

Hendardji said his office had been informed of the blast and had provided some men to assist the investigation.

But he refused to comment on whether two active members of the Armed Forces had been taken into custody for an involvement in the blast.

The blast, which rocked the street popularly known as Jl. Sabang at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning, caused no fatalities.

Police said the blast, which could be heard up to one kilometer away, came from one of three bombs planted in the area by a group of unidentified people several minutes earlier.

Two of the bombs apparently failed to detonate.

According to security officers, a group of at least six men arrived at the site on three motorcycles, and in a red Feroza jeep and white Kijang van shortly before the bomb was detonated.

A security officer revealed that the explosives were carefully packed into large bottles in what were believed to be homemade devices made by professionals.

"They looked like Molotov cocktails with a fuse on top. But they probably had TNT inside," the source said, referring to the flammable toxic compound trinitrotoluene.

His theory was backed up by a demolitions expert, who claimed to have rushed to the site minutes after the blast occurred.

"I could smell from the air and from dust left on three nails in the building wall that it was 100 percent TNT," the expert, who said he spent five years as a demolitions expert in the French Foreign Legion, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

"The men who made the devices ware pros and must be members of a special force or combat engineers," he said on condition of anonymity.

"Look at the number of devices. Three! An odd number is the sign of a special force," the man said.

Police earlier said that the three bombs were of a similar size and design -- round, 10 centimeters in diameter, five centimeters high with a fuse.

"The fuses and the other two bombs were just decoys. That's the works of pros," he said, adding that the bomb was detonated from a distance, probably using an analog wristwatch.

He attempted to bury speculation that the attack was motivated by the land dispute.

"From my personal experience, I would say that the bomb cost around Rp 75 million. That's too much for a land dispute," said the source, adding that he had been involved in demolitions in Thailand and Samoa.

He revealed that 10 kilograms of TNT could be bought on the black market here for Rp 20 million.

He went on to put forward a theory that the blast was designed solely to improve the image of the current government in the eyes of foreign backpackers who stay in cheap hostels on the nearby Jl. Jaksa.

"If the authorities are swift to make arrests and clean up the site, then foreign backpackers will leave saying that things recover quickly here," he said. (emf/bsr)