Police attempt to link Bali bombings with JI

Police attempt to link Bali bombings with JI

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Following the arrest of Imam Samudra, the alleged mastermind of
the Bali bombings, National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said
on Saturday that police would investigate links between the
alleged bombers and terrorist networks, including Jemaah
Islamiyah (JI).

"We will attempt more accurately to get information through
our interrogations as to the relations between the perpetrators
as well as whether or not they have links to other organizations,
whatever their names, including JI," Da'i told reporters at
National Police Headquarters.

Da'i admitted that police had yet to reach a final conclusion
as to whether Imam Samudra and his alleged accomplices belonged
to Jamaah Islamiyah.

"But, he (Samudra) has admitted that those guys gathered as
people with "shared ideas and opinions" which prompted them to
conduct these actions (bombings)," Da'i said.

The United Nations has declared Jemaah Islamiyah a terrorist
group for its links to al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden's terrorist
network believed responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S.
last year.

Indonesian authorities have repeatedly denied any cells of the
terrorist group exist here.

Many believe that JI was behind the Bali attack, which killed
at least 192 people and injured more than 300. Reported confessed
terrorist kingpin Al Faruq, reportedly in U.S. custody in
Afghanistan, claims that US$74,000 was transferred by a Saudi
Arabian donor to a JI operative in Southeast Asia to purchase
explosives which could have been used in Bali.

Any link between the Bali bombings and JI is likely to
implicate Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who is now under police detention
as a suspect in bombing cases in 2000 and treason in 1999.

Ba'asyir is refusing to cooperate till a list of demands is
met. Police asked prosecutors last week for a 40-day extension of
Ba'asyir's detention to complete the investigation files.

Two teams from the police laboratory and the Australian
Federal Police combed three rented houses where Samodra
reportedly stayed in order to obtain the DNA of the people who
used the premises.

Da'i said Imam would be interrogated at Cilegon Police
Headquarters until police completed their investigations in
Banten.

"After we finish our investigation in Banten, we will transfer
him," Da'i said, adding that Bali remained the base of
operations.

Da'i was talking following a meeting with the Indonesian
Association of Cleric and Management of Islamic Boarding Schools.

The Muslim clerics met with police to raise concerns over
public rumors that police would launch raids on Islamic schools
suspected of harboring suspected terrorists.

"We condemn the attack and call on the police to arrest the
perpetrators and masterminds alike," association chairman Hasib
Wahab Chasbullah said.

The association also urged police to charge anyone found to
have played a role in the attacks, even if leaders of Islamic
boarding schools were implicated, Hasib said.

"Any involvement (in the bombings) is their personal
responsibility, not linked to Islamic boarding school
institutions, even to Islam in general as Islam never teaches
violence, but peace," said Hasib.

Hasib said any act of anarchy or violence was against Islamic
values.