Police to question governor, musician over bombing

Police to question governor, musician over bombing

JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta Police Chief Insp. Gen. Sofjan Yacob
said on Thursday that police would question prominent people
whose names have emerged amongst the evidence at the Guntur blast
site in South Jakarta, that claimed three lives.

Sofyan said that among the prominent names to be summoned were
Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh, legislator Zulvan Lindan and
musician Fariz RM.

Their names were mentioned in documents belonging to the Aceh
Referendum Information Center (SIRA), a non-governmental
organization which police believe is responsible for the fatal
blast at an Acehnese dormitory in South Jakarta on May 10.

"Governor Abdullah Puteh was also mentioned by our primary
suspect, Taufik Abdullah, as the man who gave his blessings for
certain Acehnese events ... police will need to hear what the
Aceh governor has to say about these matters," Sofjan told The
Jakarta Post over the phone from Makassar, South Sulawesi.

Sofjan was in Makassar to officially hand over his former post
as South Sulawesi Police chief, to Brig. Gen. Firman Gani on
Friday in a police ceremony.

Sofjan said all other names mentioned in the SIRA documents,
including Zulvan of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
and musician Fariz, would be summoned for questioning.

Fariz, according to the documents, sent letters to separatist
Free Aceh Movement (GAM) war commander Tengku Abdullah Syafiie to
express sympathy and support for the group's struggle, the
general said.

A letter was also found amongst the evidence at the Guntur
blast site.

Meanwhile, Fariz admitted on Thursday that he had sent the
letter to the GAM commander because he was very concerned about
Acehnese refugees.

"My concern was for the refugees," Fariz told private
television station SCTV here on Thursday.

He added that he wanted to write songs, and hand over whatever
profits he received from the sale of the songs to those refugees.
That's the reason why he wrote the letter to the GAM commander.

Meanwhile, SIRA Jakarta chapter coordinator Faisal Saifuddin,
who is scheduled to arrive at city police headquarters for
questioning on Monday, said on Thursday that evidence found at
the Guntur blast site could have been engineered.

"If SIRA documents were found at the site, then I demand to
know what those documents say since to date, all documents issued
by SIRA are open to the public, and do not contain any
sensational material," Faisal was quoted by Antara as saying.

The blast on May 10 claimed at least three lives, and
destroyed a major portion of the Iskandar Muda student dormitory,
which police say was a front for bomb-assemblers.

Meanwhile, a sound-system speaker found among the ruins of the
blast site, suspected of being a bomb, scared local residents on
Thursday of Jl. Perahu in Guntur.

Parwi, a chicken-noodle vendor, said that residents panicked
when police officers informed them of "a possible active bomb" in
the ruins of the blast site, and ordered them to stay 100 meters
away from the blast site.

Setiabudi Police subprecinct chief Comr. B. Soetrisno said
that four diggers, hired by the National Police Forensics
Laboratory (Puslabfor) to clear away the ruins, were the first to
find electric cables, running from a "dark box" in the ruins.

The workers told reporters that police had told them to be
careful while digging.

"Police told us that if we found any cables connected to an
object, we must report it. So, we did," one of the diggers, Toto,
told reporters.

A bomb squad official at the site, Sr. Comr. Amri Kamil, said
that his team arrived and blew up the box at the site.

"The dark box connected with the electric cables, turned out
to be just a sound-system speaker," Amri said. (27/01/ylt)