Police's lab tests point to solo bomber
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
After studying DNA tests for almost a month, police said on Monday that blood samples from the families of another two suspected bombers from West Java and East Java did not match the DNA of body fragments found at the Kuningan bomb site.
National Police director of the counterterror division Brig. Gen. Pranowo Dahlan said police had conducted DNA tests on all of the suspected bombers' families and concluded that Heri Golun, alias Heri Kurniawan, was the sole suicide bomber.
"We have examined all of the suspected bombers' families. We found only one family's blood sample matched DNA from the blast site," said Pranowo.
Police initially suspected that two suicide bombers were involved in the terrorist attack outside the Australian Embassy in Kuningan, South Jakarta, which claimed nine innocent lives and injured over 180 others.
Police also took blood samples from two families -- one in East Java and another in West Java -- for DNA tests.
"The blood samples from both family members don't match the DNA from the explosion site," said Pranowo.
Police have arrested over 30 people but officially named only eight people as suspects in the blast. The suspects have been identified only as IR, AAH, UB, IS, DN, AF and Munfiatun, the wife of Noordin Mohomad Top, a Malaysian fugitive suspected of masterminding a number of bombings. Another suspect, Rois, alias Iwan Darmawan, is still at large.
Police said that all of the detained suspects were accused of harboring Azahari and Noordin, and helping transport the materials for the Kuningan bombing. They are still questioning Munfiatun to get information on Noordin's whereabouts.
Noordin, together with Azahari bin Husin, is believed to have masterminded the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people and the JW Marriott Hotel attack, which claimed 12 lives.
Both were believed to be members of Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), a UN-listed terrorist organization blamed for the Bali bombings and the JW Marriott Hotel attack.
Police said the two had recruited several new suicide bombers, including those who perpetrated the Kuningan bombing on Sept. 9.
Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar told a press conference recently that several of the detained suspects had revealed that they were members of an organization known as the Indonesian Islamic State (NII).
He said the police were still looking for links between the bombing and the organization as they had found no documents mentioning a connection.
Many have linked the blast to NII, with several media outfits alleging that Heri and Rois were members of NII. Rois was believed to be Azahri's closest aide.
Pranowo said terrorist links were very broad in Indonesia because, according to detained suspects, the bond was simply the same aqidah (faith).
"Remember that they could recruit people from Sumatra to execute the Marriott bombing, people from East and West Java for the Bali bombings. They also recruited people from South Sulawesi for several bombings in Makassar," he said.
"So, it is possible that they recruited NII members in West Java for the Kuningan bombing as they said that NII members have the same aqidah as them," Pranowo added.