Police reenact events prior to bombing

JAKARTA (JP): As part of their ongoing investigation into last week's bomb blast outside the residence of Philippine Ambassador Leonides T. Caday, city police detectives reenacted on Tuesday the chronology of the incident on Jl. Imam Bonjol in Central Jakarta.

It was not a full reenactment, however, as just a Suzuki minivan was put in place about one-meter to the right of the original blast site. No witnesses or victims were present at the scene and little else was done to refresh the chronology of the incident.

Leading the enactment, city police chief of detectives Sr. Supt. Harry Montolalu said it was only aimed at refreshing the memories of the people who were in the area when the bomb exploded but who had yet to come forward to the police.

"Probably, people do not dare or do not have time.

"After being exposed in the media, hopefully people will be ready to give information to the police about what they know about and saw during the incident," he told reporters at the reenactment scene.

"Police need more testimonies from other people who were in the vicinity of the blast when the bomb exploded, due to the conflicting testimonies of witnesses who have been questioned by the police.

"The additional testimonies will give us a better description of the incident. For example, some people said that the Suzuki minivan had been parked at the spot since 10 a.m, but others said it was there since 12 a.m.," he added.

He said detectives had so far questioned 29 people as witnesses to the incident, which claimed two lives and left 21 others injured, including the ambassador.

Police said earlier that the Mercedes sedan, in which the ambassador was riding, was about to enter the residence when the bomb exploded.

When asked why the reenactment was not carried out in full, Harry said a complete one would be performed after the perpetrators were arrested.

"The suspects will provide us with a better description of the incident, therefore a full reenactment will be carried out after their arrest," he said.

Dozens of print and television journalists covered the procession, congesting the traffic on Jl. Imam Bonjol.

They stood close to the Suzuki van, which was borrowed from the city police headquarters.

The original car was totally destroyed by the blast, which is believed to have been the largest in the country's history.

Assistant to city police spokesman Asst. Supt. Alex Mandalika said police investigators had difficulty finding the owner of the car.

"We couldn't find the chassis number of the original red car, and that has prevented us from being able to identify the car documents and its owner," he said, adding that examination results by the National Police central forensics laboratory showed that the suspect had apparently changed the color of the car four times. (asa)