Three more Medan bomb suspects arrested

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Medan

Police arrested three more suspects implicated in the recent bomb blasts in the North Sumatra capital of Medan, saying that funding for the attack could have come from Singapore.

National Police detective chief Comr. Gen. Erwin Mappaseng said on Monday that the three were arrested on Saturday and Sunday in the ongoing hunt for remaining members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist cell in Medan.

A total of 16 people had been arrested in connection with the bombings, he said. Police are still searching for others said to be involved.

"The execution (of the bombing) was ordered by GAM for the Deli-Medan area," Erwin told reporters.

A bomb exploded in the parking lot of the Medan mayor's office on March 31, and another at a gas pipeline belonging to state oil and gas company Pertamina near the Deli seaport on April 1. No one was injured in the attacks.

Erwin said police had traced the suspects' cashflow, saying some of the money had came from Aceh as well as from abroad. "So far, we've only found out that the money was transferred from Singapore," he said.

He said GAM had a representative in Singapore but did not elaborate.

GAM is fighting an independence war in the neighboring province of Aceh Nangroe Darussalam.

The police's biggest catch in the bombing case has been that of alleged GAM commander Abdul Wahid. Abdul is in charge of the separatists' operations in the North Sumatra regency of Deli and in Medan.

He told the police that 40 GAM members were planning more terror attacks in Medan, prompting the hunt for his followers.

Medan police chief Adj. Comr. Sr. Bagus Kurniawan identified the latest arrested suspects as Abdullah, Mustofa and Musliadi.

Abdullah was arrested in the regency of Langkat, while Mustofa and Musliadi were both apprehended in Medan, Bagus said.

He said Abdullah was a GAM spy, and Mustofa the group's treasurer for Medan.

The three suspects, he added, were also likely involved in a grenade attack on the Asean Internasional hotel in Medan last year, and two church bombings in 2000.

Police continue to search for a suspect known as Zulfikar, the alleged mastermind of the Medan bombings.

GAM has denied involvement in any bomb attacks outside Aceh. But police have also linked the group to last week's bombing of the Soekarno-Hatta international airport in Jakarta.