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Australia's Howard in Bali
18/10/2002 08:19 - (SA)
Joanne Collins and Jerry Norton
Jakarta, Bali - Australia's prime minister visited the site of the Bali bomb blast which killed up to 119 of his compatriots, as Indonesia prepared to announce an anti-terror decree and summoned a hardline Muslim cleric for questioning.
Police said Abu Bakar Bashir, who foreign intelligence officials believe to be a key player in a regional terrorism network with al-Qaeda links, has been summoned for questioning on Saturday but his lawyer said this was unconnected with the Bali attack.
Lawyer Mahendradatta said on Friday that police documents showed Bashir was a suspect over a bomb attack in the country in 2000.
"I underline this has nothing to do with the Bali blast. There is no connection with the Bali bombing," he added.
With Indonesia under intense international pressure to clamp down on militant Islamic groups, President Megawati Sukarnoputri and top officials were putting the finishing touches on Friday to a new anti-terrorism decree that would include the death penalty.
Prime Minister John Howard visited the scene of Saturday's deadly blasts that ripped through nightclubs crowded with foreign tourists, killing more than 180 people.
The distraught Australian leader, wearing an open-necked shirt with the sleeves rolled up, walked among the twisted and charred remains of what once had been the Sari nightclub, one of the most popular nightspots for tourists in Bali, particularly for young Australians after a day at the beach.
"I wonder how anyone survived. The people who did it wanted to inflict the maximum amount of chaos possible... it shows a very depraved and cruel view of humanity," Howard told reporters after the visit.
Officials say the true death toll may never be known because the force of the huge Sari nightclub explosion, the biggest of three at around the same time in Bali, is believed to have completely destroyed some of the victims.
It was not known if the anti-terror decree would be signed on Friday. But the measure is Indonesia's strongest step yet against hardline Islamic militant groups after months of criticism from its neighbours that it was not playing its part in the US-led war against terror.
Apart from the death penalty, the decree would also allow brief detention of terrorism suspects even in the absence of strong legal evidence, media say.
Saturday questioning
Police said Bashir was being summoned as a suspect over statements from a self-confessed member of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda, Omar al-Faruq.
Al-Faruq has reportedly outlined extensive terrorist plans and activities he was involved in or knew about in Indonesia and Southeast Asia in recent years.
Bashir has denied any terrorist links and says he has no knowledge of the regional terrorism network identified as Jemaah Islamiah but was prepared to meet the police on Saturday.
"I will come to the police office for questioning," he said.
Indonesian police said they were intensively questioning at least four men over the Bali blasts and had interviewed 65 witnesses. They said the explosives that demolished the Sari nightclub were packed into a Mitsubishi van.
As an international team of investigators hunted for clues that might link radical foreign and Indonesian Islamic groups to the Bali attacks, the United States, Great Britain and Australia advised their citizens to consider leaving Indonesia.
All three cited security concerns and were evacuating non-essential staff and family members from their embassies.
Underlining Southeast Asia's vulnerability to militants, at least seven people were killed and more than 162 wounded on Thursday when bombs believed planted by Muslim extremists hit the main shopping area of a mostly Christian city in the southern Philippines.
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