Prabowo denies role in bombings

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)