Police distribute pictures of two bombing suspects

JAKARTA (JP): City Police headquarters distributed pictures on Wednesday of two persons suspected of being involved in the Aug. 1 bomb blast outside the residence of the Philippine Ambassador to Indonesia on Jl. Imam Bonjol in Central Jakarta.

"The pictures were drafted based on testimony from witnesses who were in the area prior to the explosion," said city police spokesman Supt. Muhammad Nur Haji Usman.

Muhammad Nur said the pictures were drafted from witnesses' descriptions of two people seen in the red Suzuki Carry minivan, identified as the source of the blast.

"A witness said he was asked by a man about the Ambassador's residence two or three days before the blast, while another man remained seated in the car," Muhammad Nur said.

Chief of City Police detectives Sr. Supt. Harry Montolalu said that the man from the minivan spoke Indonesian.

Muhammad Nur said the two men returned to the scene on the day of the bomb blast and entrusted the minivan to a local, who is now a witness.

Picture A shows a drafted composite of the minivan driver and picture B is the suspect who asked the witness to watch the minivan outside the ambassador's residence.

Ambassador Leonides T. Caday was due to enter the gate to his residence when a bomb exploded in the red Suzuki minivan parked a few meters from the Mercedes sedan transporting the ambassador.

The blast killed two people and injured 21 others, including the ambassador.

Muhammad Nur said the pictures of the two people have been distributed to all police precincts here and to other provincial police headquarters in the country.

"So far, there is no information about the two suspects," he said. (asa)