Reenactment traces bomb assembly

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.