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Cops question Bali suspects
17/10/2002 07:41 - (SA)
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| Abu Bakar Bashir and two of his guards. (AP) |
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Joanne Collins
Bali, Indonesia - Indonesian police questioned two men on Thursday over weekend bomb blasts in Bali as an international team of investigators hunted for clues that might link the attack to radical Islamic groups.
Under intense international pressure, President Megawati Sukarnoputri's government has spoken of enacting emergency anti-terror measures but there was no indication when these might go into effect. No special government meetings were planned for Thursday.
In a separate development, police in Jakarta have detained the leader of a militant Muslim group over violent raids by his followers on several nightspots in the capital, an official said on Thursday.
As police in Bali questioned the pair over the blasts, national police spokesperson Saleh Saaf said two other Indonesian men had been formally detained on Wednesday over another blast in the city of Manado on Sulawesi island to the north of Bali.
A bomb exploded in the front yard of the Philippines consulate in Manado several hours before the blasts in Bali, causing some damage but no casualties in an attack officials blamed on terrorists.
In an interview with the BBC, Australian Prime Minister John Howard described Islamic extremism as "dangerous and evil", but urged his compatriots to show tolerance towards moderate Muslims in the wake of the bombings.
Australia bore the brunt of the casualties from the car bomb blast that ripped through several nightclubs. Two smaller bombs went off in Bali around the same time on Saturday night.
Howard said on Thursday he would travel to Bali to attend a memorial service for the victims.
"I hope in a small way to express the feelings of the rest of the Australian community towards those people who have suffered and lost so much."
No group has claimed responsibility for the blasts, but suspicion has fallen on al-Qaeda and an Indonesian-based group, Jemaah Islamiah, which some link to Osama bin Laden's network.
Investigators said the C4 plastic explosives that demolished Bali's Sari nightclub and nearby bars on Kuta Beach were packed into the roof of a minivan.
They said that type of explosive was not made in Indonesia.
Prior warning
In Washington, officials said on Wednesday the United States had warned the Indonesian government prior to the Bali blasts that tourist areas might be targeted by terrorists with possible links to al-Qaeda.
US ambassador to Jakarta Ralph Boyce delivered the latest warning just a day before the carnage in Bali.
In a series of meetings between September 30 and October 11, Boyce urged Megawati and her senior advisers to act against extremists.
But US warnings did not include specific details or intelligence about when or where attacks might occur.
An authority on al-Qaeda, citing documents from a US interrogation of a member of the network, said an unidentified Saudi supplied funds to Jemaah Islamiah to buy explosives that could have been used in Bali.
The information was gathered in US interrogations of Omar al-Faruq, a Kuwaiti linked to al-Qaeda who was arrested in Indonesia in June and later handed over to US authorities in Afghanistan, said Rohan Gunaratna, author of the book "Inside Al-Qaeda: Global Network of Terror".
Gunaratna said the explosives were bought from Indonesian army officers who sold the material illegally.
The C4 explosives are the same material used in the al-Qaeda-linked bombing of the USS Cole in the port of Aden in Yemen two years to the day before the Bali attack.
Australia said it could take weeks to identify many of the charred and mutilated victims and Howard said his one-day trip would give him a chance to assess the situation as criticism mounts about the slow pace of identification.
Australia indicated on Thursday that the final Australian death toll could reach 80. The government has offered a A$2m (US$1.1m) reward for information leading to the killers.
With the nation in shock and angry over the blasts, there are fears of a backlash against Muslims living in Australia.
But Australia's Howard told BBC World Television he did not expect that to happen.
"Australians are a very tolerant, open people and I encourage them to remain so," he said. "What they're angry about is militant Islam and so are ordinary Muslims, and they should be."
Bashir blames 'infidels'
In her strongest move yet against extremist Islamic groups, Megawati is planning to bypass parliament and issue the anti-terrorism decree that would give police stronger powers to act against suspects.
With the United States and jittery Asian neighbours piling pressure on Indonesia to take firm action, a top presidential aide said the anti-terror decree would be issued "as soon as possible".
Asian countries point a finger at a Muslim cleric living in Indonesia, Abu Bakar Bashir, as leader of Jemaah Islamiah which they say has planned acts of terror throughout the region.
Bashir denies any knowledge of the group or links to terrorism, and on Wednesday he told reporters "the bombings were engineered by infidels to launch war against Islam". He has previously blamed the United States.
Chief security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he could not give details of the decree as it was still being prepared by the justice minister.
- Reuters
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