Police claim solo run in probe into Bali blasts

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Amid various "intelligence reports" appearing in the media in connection with the investigation into the Bali blasts, a source close to the National Police suggested on Sunday that the intelligence agency had done little to help police arrest key suspect Imam Samudra.

"Police success in capturing Imam Samudra was 90 percent attributable to the work of their detectives and forensic experts," said Hermawan Sulistyo, a political researcher, who helps advise the Indonesian police investigating the case.

According to Hermawan, the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) intelligence information has hardly been used by police investigating the case.

Instead of using BIN reports, the police officers on the ground developed and used their own networks to hunt down the perpetrators and unravel the case, said Hermawan.

"I don't know whether the exchange of information between BIN and the National Police took place at a high level, I am still not sure it does happen," he told The Jakarta Post.

Shortly after the Bali bombing, the government set up a terrorist desk that incorporates police and intelligence bodies to deal with the bombing attack.

Hermawan hinted that various reports in the media, which relied mostly on intelligence sources, might be false.

This includes reports released by Time magazine.

Based on intelligence information, the magazine has run stories suggesting that al-Qaeda operative Syafullah from Yemen, Zubair from Malaysia and local hard-liner Syawal were the "generals" in the Bali bomb blasts, playing down Samudra's role in the Bali bombing.

So far, police have insisted that Samudra, whose real name is Abdul Azis, is the principal planner in the Bali blasts, which killed almost 200 people.

"That is a raw information. The police did not use it, as stronger clues and evidence are being sought to confirm the report," said Hermawan of intelligence reports, adding that the police investigating the case used all information they developed in the field.

Regarding foreign involvement in the bomb attack, as suggested by intelligence sources, Hermawan said the tip-off lacked evidence.

Among a series of bomb blasts that rocked Indonesia in the past few years, only one had links to foreign hands, he said.

He was referring to the explosion in Atrium shopping mall in Senen area, Central Jakarta in 2000, which involved a Malaysian.

"Therefore, having learned from the pattern, the foreign involvement theory is not accepted in the bombing cases here, including the Bali bomb blasts," said Hermawan.

Hermawan's remarks supported an earlier statement by the top police officers who said they had not found any links between the Bali blasts and international networks such as terrorist group al-Qaeda.

Minister of Defense Matori Abdul Djalil, citing intelligence reports, has pointed to al-Qaeda as the principal planner of Bali bombing.

The National Intelligence Agency's spokesman Muchyar Yara was not available for comment on Sunday.

Hermawan also supported the police investigation in the case, which is not confined to the investigation into the Bali bomb blasts.

"By investigating other cases, such as Batam and Pekanbaru bomb blasts, the police have finally obtained a comprehensive picture linking the Bali carnage and earlier blasts," said Hermawan.

Separately, several Muslim leaders from the Central Java town of Surakarta visited fellow cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir on Sunday, who is being detained at the Kramat Jati Police Hospital in East Jakarta.

Ba'asyir is accused of masterminding the planned assassination of then vice president Megawati Soekarnoputri and the bomb blasts on Christmas Eve in 2000.

Muzakkir, the leader of the clerics visiting Ba'asyir said that the Muslim leaders demanded that the police speed up the legal proceedings against the suspect.

According to them, Ba'asyir detention had produced nothing substantial for police investigators, therefore they suggested that the case be quickly brought to court.

"In court, the truth will be revealed at last," he was quoted by detik.com news portal as saying on Sunday.