President wants terrorist network rooted out

Muhammad Nafik and I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Denpasar

President Megawati Soekarnoputri has called on security authorities to root out the terrorist network connected with the Bali bombings that killed over 190 people and wounded more than 300 last October.

"We hope that the terrorist ring can be uncovered to its roots, along with its supporters and all those behind it," she said in a New Year's Eve message broadcast on state television on Tuesday night.

She hailed the police's success in their investigation into the Bali bombings.

"Our security forces have successfully revealed the network's culprits on the basis of preliminary evidence and convincing confessions," she added.

Megawati made the speech to mark the end of the year 2002 and to ring in the new year at Bali's Kuta beach, close to the blast sites of Paddy's bar and the Sari Club.

Thousands of Balinese, as well as domestic and foreign tourists attended the festival which was televised nationally and filled with messages of peace. The event was billed as an effort to prove the once-bustling tourist island was now safe to visit.

Up until the Oct. 12 bombings that stunned the nation, Megawati's government had played down warnings of terrorist cells operating in Indonesia. Since then it has pushed through emergency antiterror regulations in a move sanctioned by most religious and political leaders.

Police investigating the bomb attack currently have 15 suspects under arrest and are tracking down at least 11 others, including two Malaysians.

Investigators have named Imam Samudra as the mastermind of the deadly blasts and linked his group to the regional Jamaah Islamiyah terror network.

The bombings have also been linked to the recent blasts in the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar on Dec. 5, in which three people were killed and 11 others injured.

However, the alleged mastermind of the Makassar attack, Agung Abdul Hamid, remains at large. Police say he fled with at least four more bombs.

The police also described another key suspect in the Bali bomb attack, Mukhlas alias Ali Gufron, as the controller of the plot and described him as the operations chief of Jamaah Islamiyah.

Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, the terror group's alleged spiritual leader, is being detained at the National Police Headquarters in Jakarta. He has been charged with involvement in a string of bombings in 2000.

Despite the police's success in probing the deadly Bali attack, many ordinary people and analysts have expressed doubts that suspects like Samudra and his accomplices were the real brains behind the plot.

They queried how the suspects managed to assemble such powerful bombs and detonate them without assistance from others who may have access to high explosives such as RDX that was found at the blast site.

Samudra, believed to have bomb-making expertise, has only admitted he used TNT for the bombings, and denied knowledge of RDX. The presence of traces of RDX at the bomb site is still unexplained by investigators.

Meanwhile, Attorney General M. A. Rahman said on Wednesday his office would work at full speed to bring the suspected Bali bombers to court in February as planned.

"Because of the importance of these cases ... we are sending five prosecutors from our head office in Jakarta to help," he said after meeting Balinese prosecutors and National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar in Denpasar.

Chief investigator Insp. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika has said police would begin to hand over at least six case files of the 15 detained suspects to prosecutors by next Monday.

Amrozi, arrested on Nov. 5 would be the first suspect whose dossier would be handed over to prosecutors on Jan. 6, he said, adding that the rest would be formally submitted after that.

State prosecutors will then register the case files with court officials.

The dossiers of the four prime suspects -- Amrozi, Samudra, Mukhlas and Hernianto -- will be submitted separately. The remaining 11 suspects are charges with assisting the four main suspects and their dossiers will be submitted in two batches.

The police say the trials will probably begin in February in Denpasar.