Police yet to focus their inquiries on bomb source

Rendi A. Witular and Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Kuta/Jakarta

Almost six weeks after the deadly Bali terrorist attacks, police investigators are yet to focus their investigation on the source of high explosives used to make the bombs.

"We have not yet focused our investigation on the source of the explosives. It is still too early to move toward that," head of the multinational inquiry team Insp. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika told The Jakarta Post in Denpasar, Bali.

He argued that with the arrest of at least six more suspects, including Imam Samudra, who are believed to be the masterminds of the Oct. 12 blast, would further pave the way to finding the sources of the horrifying bomb.

However, analysts have said identifying the source of the high explosives would significantly help the joint inquiry team find the bombers, who may have been involved.

A probe into the sources of the explosives could open other options of other parties -- not only those linked to al-Qaeda or JI -- possibly playing a role in the bombings, they said.

Pastika had not yet begun to investigate the possibility of any security personnel or national explosive producers and distributors being involved in supplying the explosives.

Police had earlier found at the blast site traces of TNT and RDX, a chemical in C-4, which are not available with general public but usually found in military arsenals and companies obtaining licenses to import and distribute such explosives.

These bomb-making materials were not among those that Amrozi, the only suspect in custody so far, confessed to buying from the Tidar Kimia chemical shop in Surabaya, East Java.

What Amrozi purchased from the shop were common chemicals such as calcium chlorate, sulfur and aluminum powder, according to the police.

The inquiry team has said that RDX, was only used as a booster to detonate the high-powered bomb believed to be planted in Amrozi's Mitsubishi van.

Hari Fajar Sampurna, an explosive expert from P.T. Dahana -- one of the nine companies licensed to import and distribute explosives to any interested parties -- said he could understand if RDX was used only as a booster to detonate the ammonium nitrate-made bomb.

"If RDX was the main ingredient of the bomb, the devastation caused would have been much worse than that in Bali," he told the Post on Monday.

But he doubted the Bali bombers were capable of assembling a RDX-made booster without sophisticated equipment.

"A booster must be made with very solid material, like a grenade, which cannot be made at home or other common places. It must be made at a factory. Especially if it contains RDX," he said.

C-4 was first manufactured in the United States and its trading partners and other allies around the globe have access to it.

The Indonesian Military (TNI) has denied in local media reports ever having stored RDX or C4. However, PT Dahana operations director Tanto Dirgantoro said on Monday his company had imported RDX for limited parties including the military.

Bomb experts have said that given a lack of control by the government, it was easy for buyers to obtain explosives in the country.

Up until 2001, all imported explosives could be brought into the country without clearing customs since explosives were considered, at that time, a strategic good that was duty free, they added.