U.S. monitors blast probe for technology used

U.S. monitors blast probe for technology used

Agencies, Bangkok

The United States could review its trade in dual-use and military technology with troubled Indonesia as a result of the Bali bombing, a senior U.S. trade official said on Monday.

U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce Kenneth Juster, who is touring Southeast Asia, told reporters Washington was keeping a close eye on the investigation of the Oct. 12 nightclub blast that killed more than 180 people, many of them foreign tourists.

"Obviously as the investigation unfolds in Indonesia we will have a better sense of whether any high technology items from the United States were involved in that," he said as quoted by Reuters.

But Juster, who heads the Bureau of Industry and Security responsible for regulating the export of sensitive technologies, including dual-use technology that has both military and civilian applications, said there was no indication any U.S. technology had been used in the Bali attack.

"I have no reason whatsoever to believe that this is the case, but that is always something we monitor," he said.

"I think it is too early to tell what the ramifications would be in terms of exports to Indonesia until one can really further investigate the causes and individuals behind the terrorist activity."

Few details of the investigation in Bali have been released, but investigators have said they believed military-type C4 plastic explosives were used.

The C4 plastic explosive used in the Bali bombing is a very powerful substance mainly manufactured in the United States but widely supplied to military forces around the world.

"It's a standard issue, military plastic explosive based on an explosive ingredient called RDX, to which a polyisobutene plasticizer is added," Mark Ribband, head of a British company that manufactures this explosive, told AFP last week.

Ribband said C4 was manufactured "in several countries, but it's primarily US."

"If you see C4 in another country's military inventory, it tends to be because there has been American influence there, like C4 and M-16s means America, and AK-47s and Semtex mean Eastern Bloc."

The M-16 is the standard U.S. military assault rifle whose Soviet equivalent is the Kalashnikov, or AK-47. Semtex is a powerful plastic explosive that, in the Soviet era, was made in Czechoslovakia.

The United States does not have broad-based sanctions against trade with Indonesia, but sensitive dual-use technology and conventional weapons sales are reviewed on a case-by-case basis by the commerce and state departments, Juster said.

He did not say what dual-use items the United States exported to Indonesia.

The Bali bombing has already prompted debate over whether the United States should resume ties with Indonesia's military, cut after its suppression of dissent in now independent East Timor.

Some analysts say the bombings and presence of militant cells in the Southeast Asian country underscore the need for much better training and equipment for Indonesia's security services.

Juster said the Bali blasts and recent bombings in the Philippines showed the urgent need for closer cooperation between governments and the private sector.

"Industry is more dependent on security than ever before," he said. "Unfortunately I can't see these problems going away immediately... This is not an issue governments alone can handle. It has to be done in partnership with the private sector."