Probe into Marriott blast to be completed

SURABAYA: The investigation into suspected terrorists in the Marriott hotel bombing was almost complete, National Police chief Da'i Bachtiar said here on Sunday.

"The police have arrested several terrorist suspects, including the latest one, Amran, who have helped put our investigations on the right track," Da'i said during a elections briefing at the East Java military command headquarters on Saturday. More arrests would hopefully be made soon, he said.

The national police's anti-terror unit recently captured Malaysian citizens Amran bin Mansur, alias Andi Saputra, and Jafar, known followers of wanted terrorists Dr Azahari and Noor Din Moh Top. The latter two were believed to be responsible for the Marriott bombing last year. While other suspects had been arrested and prosecuted, there were still a significant number who remained at large, Da'i said.

Regarding security preparations for the legislative election on April 5, Da'i said "nationally the elections are ready to be carried out. There are no extraordinary problems to hamper the implementation of the polls."

"Although some places in Aceh are still considered prone to security problems, military forces have been stationed there to assure the smooth implementation of the elections," he said.

A total of 20,000 personnel consisting of 8,000 police officers, 2,000 soldiers and 10,000 civilians have been mobilized for the event in East Java.

During the briefing, Da'i was accompanied by State Secretary Bambang Kesowo, Home Affairs Minister Hari Sabarno, General Elections Commission head Nazaruddin Syamsuddin, General Elections Monitoring Committee boss Komarudin Hidayat, and several high ranking army officials. -- JP