Prabowo denies role in bombings

JAKARTA (JP): Former Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) chief Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subianto firmly denied on Wednesday allegations he was behind a series of bomb attacks on Christmas Eve.

"I strongly reject accusations that I was involved in the bombings," Prabowo said during a media conference at the house of his father, economist Sumitro Djojohadikusumo, on Jl. Kartanegara in South Jakarta.

Prabowo was responding to statements by President Abdurrahman Wahid, who mentioned him and former Army chief of staff Gen. (ret) R. Hartono in connection with the bombings during a recent interview with Newsweek magazine.

Abdurrahman was quoted by the magazine as saying: "I received a message from Prabowo. He was very upset that his name was mentioned in the police report. If that's so, he said, it should be proven. The police report also mentioned the name of former Army chief of staff Gen. R. Hartono. This only means the police will investigate, and if they find proof they will detain anybody who's involved."

Abdurrahman admitted to having no legal evidence against the masterminds of the bombings, and both National Police and Jakarta Police chiefs have denied the existence of such a report.

Hartono said on Tuesday he would file a lawsuit against the President for "slander".

The Dec. 24 bombings left 18 people dead and more than 100 injured.

"I've read Newsweek carefully and actually it's clear that Gus Dur is not accusing me, so I will let this case rest," Prabowo said, referring to President Abdurrahman by his nickname.

Prabowo also said he had not met with Hartono for over three years.

"I consider such accusations as part of the character assassination of me. Maybe it's convenient for them to make me a scapegoat," Prabowo said, adding that he had been made a scapegoat for various outbreaks of violence in the country since the May 1998 riots up to the murder of three United Nations workers in Atambua, East Nusa Tenggara, last September.

Prabowo, a Muslim, said he would never have committed such a "savage and immoral" act as the bombings, because many of his relatives are Christians and were attending Mass on Christmas Eve.

He said he was asleep in his house in Jakarta after celebrating Christmas Eve with family members when he heard about the bombings from a friend.

"As you know, my mother is a Christian and almost two-thirds of my family are Christians and we usually have a family get- together," said Prabowo, who also claimed to have been obsessed with fighting terrorism since he was a member of the Army Special Forces (Kopassus).

The son-in-law of former authoritarian ruler Soeharto said he was ready to answer a police summons.

Looking fresh and relaxed, Prabowo refused to speculate about the masterminds of the bombings. "It's hard to point at certain groups ... so if there is a certain group who says there were nine generals involved in the bombings, they may as well say there were 99 or 900 generals."

The Indonesian Forum for Peace earlier raised the possibility of nine generals being involved in the bombings.

In a separate interview later in the day, Prabowo also said he believed the Indonesian Military (TNI) was not involved in the bombings.

"Some members of TNI may be involved, as may be paid civilians. Now people can easily be found to plant a box without knowing what's in it for Rp 200,000 or Rp 300,000," he said.

According to Prabowo, terrorism is basically a copycat act. "Take a plane hijacking as an example. Once it succeeds, other (terrorists) will follow. The copycat action may take the shape of a separatist movement after the Free Aceh Movement."

When asked whether he would like to help the government solve the bombings, he said: "I will gladly do so, but my capacity in that matter must be made clear first."

In Bandung, West Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Yun Mulyana revealed on Wednesday that four more people had been named suspects in the Christmas Eve bombings in the city.

He said the four were identified by two of the key suspects in the case, namely Haji Aceng and Iqbal, who were arrested in Brebes, Central Java, on Tuesday.

Mulyana, however, refused to identify the new suspects, saying the police had yet to verify the testimony of Aceng and Iqbal.

Aceng's family has retained defense lawyer Farhat Abbasa, who is also defending two other suspects in the case, Roni Miliar and Agus Kurniawan. (edt/25)