Six countries officially join Bali investigation

Six countries officially join Bali investigation

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Kuta, Bali

Indonesia on Friday signed an agreement with six countries to
set up a a joint investigation into last week's bombing in Bali
as joint team members cautioned that the probe might take a long
time to complete.

Insp. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika, Indonesia's chief
investigator on the case, vowed to intensify the probe with the
international help, stressing that last Saturday's terrorist
strike was not only an attack on Bali but on international
civilization as well.

"This task (to investigate the bombing in Bali) is a challenge
for me because the bomb explosion here is not just an attack on
Bali or Indonesia, but also an attack on the world's civilization
and humanity," Mangku said at a joint press briefing with
Assistant Commissioner Graham Ashton from the Australian Federal
Police (AFP) at the Hard Rock hotel here.

Mangku said he signed the pact with representatives of police
forces from Australia, Britain, the United States, Germany, New
Zealand and Japan to jointly investigate the case.

"This morning we signed a cooperation agreement on the joint
investigations into the Bali blast in which the Indonesian police
will be assisted by international police forces," he said

"The signing of the agreement showed the Indonesian
government's appreciation of the case and we will give our
assistance to the country ... that includes to involve our
forensic expertise," Ashton added.

Meanwhile the task force's senior officers said they were in
the process of obtaining forensic samples it believed to be
"significant".

They have also "formed a view" about a single group that may
have been responsible for the weekend explosions which left more
than 180 people dead and hundreds injured.

"We are getting significant information in and we do have a
view but at this time we are not prepared to say what that view
is," Ashton said as quoted by AFP.

But he admitted that catching the terrorists would be a long
and exhaustive process and was not prepared to forecast when
police might achieve a breakthrough.

Under the investigation agreement, Indonesian security
officers will cooperate with the foreigners for a period of three
years, if the investigation is completely closed by that time.

Almost 100 international officers -- 49 Australian Federal
Police, 24 from Australian state forces and 21 experts from
Britain, New Zealand, the United States, Germany, Japan and
Sweden -- have been assigned to the operation.

The joint investigation team is divided into two groups that
will focus on providing technical assistance to the Indonesian
Police to carry out forensic examinations at the crime site, both
for medical and investigation purposes.

The Australian contingent has been in the country since Sunday
helping to identify victims, most of whom were Australian.

According to Mangku, the Indonesian team consisted of officers
from the National Police Headquarters, Bali Police and East Java
Police.

The team has so far interviewed several key witnesses,
including a former Indonesian Air Force officer due to his
expertise in the type of explosives used. However, the team has
not yet declared any suspects. The 57 Indonesian witnesses are
not in jail, but placed at "certain places to ensure a smooth
investigation process".

Contrary to previous reports, none of the witnesses were
foreigners, the officers asserted.

Mangku said the team had also conducted investigations in
several regions of the country but refused to disclose which.

Meanwhile, a military source said security officers were
currently monitoring Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara province and
Sibolga in North Sumatra province because "some members of the
country's radical groups, including Laskar Jihad, are currently
holed up in those places."

The involvement of foreign officers in the investigation has
created a division among the Indonesian security authorities,
with some rejecting the involvement of foreigners in the
investigation process.

"If these foreign investigators insist on helping us
(Indonesia's intelligence), they can only help us in (providing)
technology and expertise, but they must not carry out direct
intelligence operations," a top-level intelligence source told
The Jakarta Post.

Confusion is also rife among Indonesian security officers as
to the involvement of United Nations investigators on the team.
Earlier on Wednesday National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Saleh
Saaf said that UN officers were joining the joint investigation.
However, Saleh's statement was immediately denied by Brig. Gen
Edward Aritonang, spokesman for the investigation team.

"No, they (the UN officers) are not included in the MoU. There
are several countries involved, but not the UN," Edward told the
Post here Friday.

Meanwhile an intelligence source speculated that the UN
officers were just assisting the forensic team, considering that
"the UN has a big concern to create peace in the world, as well
as to help fund the investigation."

The source also said that unlike the UN peacekeeping forces
which usually perform a coordination role among foreign security
officers, the UN officers in Bali were not, as yet, leading the
team.