Police claim solo run in probe into Bali blasts

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.