Police say SIRA activists involved in Guntur blast

Police say SIRA activists involved in Guntur blast

JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta Police Chief Insp. Gen. Sofjan Yacob
said on Sunday that there was strong evidence to suggest the
involvement of activists from the Aceh Referendum Information
Center (SIRA) in Thursday's bombing.

"Our primary suspect in this case, Taufik Abdullah, is a SIRA
activist. Police are also tracking down three other suspects
currently at large, one of whom is reportedly a SIRA activist
named Gafi," Sofjan told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

He added that another suspect who also remains at large,
Diana, is also allegedly linked to the Jakarta Stock Exchange
(JSX) bombings last September, which claimed at least 10 lives.

"We received this information from one of the arrested
suspects, Hidayatulloh, alias Mursalih. This is why we are so
keen to get hold of the three suspects at large," Sofjan said.

At least three people were killed in the blast, the first
since the Christmas Eve bombings that rocked the capital last
year.

Police will soon question SIRA leaders over the matter, Sofjan
added.

Of the 18 people grilled over the case, at least six have been
declared suspects.

SIRA, a nongovernmental organization based in Aceh, has been
known for its support of the province's independence. It
organized a mass rally last November to call for a referendum for
independence.

The Jakarta chapter of SIRA denied on Saturday its alleged
role in Thursday's bombing and demanded that the police and the
military apologize for their baseless accusations.

The center's coordinator, Faisal Saifuddin, said on Saturday
that such an allegation was in contradiction to the non-violence
preached by the SIRA movement, adding that the incident was
engineered by "the center's enemy".

"Our movement has nothing to do with the tragedy or with the
dormitory. None of the people from the dormitory was a SIRA
activist, we don't know these people," he told a media
conference.

He also lamented the police investigation in which witnesses
were not allowed to be accompanied by lawyers, and where the
principle of the presumption of innocence was not upheld.

"The police should restore our (good) name and hold a
transparent investigation," he said, adding that they would be
willing to help the police with their investigation.

A blast destroyed a students' dormitory on Thursday afternoon
belonging to the Acehnese Iskandar Muda Students Welfare
Foundation in the Guntur subdistrict of Setiabudi, South Jakarta.

Three people, who were in the dormitory, died instantly, while
18 others were injured and later questioned by Jakarta Police.

So far, seven people have been named suspects, including three
who are still at large; Tarniji, Gapi and Diana, who were at the
site minutes before the blast.

According to a police report based on the witnesses'
testimonies, the three were known SIRA activists, and Gapi
himself claimed that he had been given an order to cause
explosions across Java.

Police concluded that the dormitory was a place used to
assemble bombs or to store explosives, by a "highly organized"
group, while revealing that they had found several SIRA documents
inside the building and planned to question a SIRA leader as a
witness in the case.

Faisal argued that such documents could easily be obtained by
the public from their office in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, as
all Acehnese in the city were allowed to join SIRA rallies, as
long as they did not bring weapons and drugs.

"We have often had such accusations leveled at us, which
indicates the existence of some parties aimed at putting an end
to our peaceful movement. This is very neat counter-intelligence
work. The Acehnese should be aware of them," he said.

Faisal also commented that this tragedy was likely to have
been engineered to expedite the government's plan to impose a
military operation and civil emergency status in the strife-torn
province.

Lawyer Johnson Panjaitan from the Indonesian Legal Aid and
Human Rights Association alleged that police investigations
tended to insinuate that Acehnese killed each other so that the
Acehnese would receive all the blame for the bombing incidents.

Panjaitan is the defense lawyer handling two cases which
involve Acehnese suspects, the JSX bombing last year and the
trial of SIRA chairman Muhammad Nazar in Banda Aceh. Nazar was
sentenced in March to 10 months in jail for subversion.

"From my experience, the indictments in these trials has not
been based on thorough investigation," he said.

He indicated that investigators in cases involving Acehnese
people made up charges to implicate them in the separatist
movement. (ylt/bby)