Reenactment traces bomb assembly

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The explosives used in the bomb attack on the JW Marriott Hotel in Mega Kuningan, South Jakarta, on Aug. 5, had been assembled at a rented house on Jl. Kemuning Raya in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, say police investigators.

This was revealed in the reenactment of the lead up to the Marriott bombing on Tuesday at a house located beside a railway line, with two terror suspects Masrizal alias Thohir and Ismail. They were arrested in late October in Cirebon, West Java.

"The bomb was assembled inside one of the rooms on the second floor of the house, where Malaysian bomb expert Azahari stayed," Comr. Arismunandar, one of police investigators in charge of the reenactment, told The Jakarta Post.

The explosives consisted of six plastic boxes containing black powder weighing 19 kilograms each. Around those boxes, the suspects placed eight plastic jerry cans of gasoline and liquid soap to create a fireball effect. All the explosives were placed in a Toyota Kijang minivan used to store and transport the bomb.

Part of Tuesday's reenactment was also held at Kuningan Mosque, close to JW Marriott Hotel, and at the hotel itself.

One of the survivors, Febby Firmansyah, who married in September while still undergoing treatment for severe burn wounds, said he and two other victims would like to meet "and have a chat with the bombers and to show them the wounds so they can see what the bomb did to us".

Ismail said the bomb was assembled by Azahari and another Malaysian bomb expert Noordin Mohammad Top. Both are still at large.

"Noordin was the one who taught us how to make bombs," Ismail told reporters.

The minivan, fully loaded with explosives, was driven by suicide bomber Asmar Latin Sani. It then exploded and ripped through the hotel's driveway, claiming 13 lives, including the bomber, and injuring 147 people.

House owner Fauzi, who also took part in the reenactment, said that Asmar and Thohir arrived in early July last year to rent the house. They agreed to pay a rental fee of Rp 4.4 million (US$517) for two months.

A top police investigator, who was in charge of the bomb investigation, told the Post recently that the police discovered the rented house from phone numbers recorded in the cell phone belonging to Sony D. Legia. Sony, a resident of Cibubur, East Jakarta, was the former owner of the Kijang van used to transport the bomb.

"There were two calls from Asmar, who wanted to purchase the van. One was made from a wartel (telephone kiosk) in Cibubur and another from Pasar Minggu," the one-star general, who requested anonymity, said.

Detectives then started to track down all rented houses within a two kilometer radius of the Pasar Minggu phone kiosk, especially those immediately vacated after the Marriott bombing.

"Later, we found the house but they (the suspects) had cleaned it up. We still managed to discover some traces there," the officer said.

Police discovered a piece of newspaper in a trash can with a handwritten list of some buildings, including the Marriott. They also found a service card for the Kijang van purchased by Asmar from Sony.

"The mystery about where the Marriott bomb had been prepared was solved after we discovered the key of the rented house at Azahari's rented room in Bandung along with a note written by Asmar listing several bombing targets," said the officer.