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Police knew
06/08/2003 16:35 - (SA)
Chris Brummitt
Jakarta - Police on Wednesday said they seized documents last month showing terrorists had planned to target the area around Jakarta's Marriott Hotel, where a powerful car bomb this week killed at least 10 people and injured nearly 150.
The revelation came as Indonesian and Australian authorities warned that more terror strikes were possible and investigators linked Tuesday's attack to last year's Bali bombings that have been blamed on the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah group.
After the documents were found, security forces increased patrols in the Marriott area. But the precautions weren't enough to prevent the suspected suicide attack, which has underscored the continuing threat of terrorism in the world's largest Muslim nation.
"There was a warning that there were some targets and we have been anticipating an attack," said Jakarta police spokesperson Prasetyo, who like many Indonesians uses a single name.
He said the documents were seized in the central Java town of Semarang last month, when police arrested seven alleged members of Jemaah Islamiyah.
Police on Wednesday released a composite sketch of one of two men who allegedly purchased the vehicle used in the bombing. Police said the man is believed to be the car's last owner.
Also Wednesday, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah - Indonesia's largest Muslim groups - condemned the bombing, and offered condolences to the victims.
"The attack on the Marriott constituted a cruel and uncivilised crime against humanity, and ran against religious values," the groups said in a joint statement.
"It not only hurt the people at the scene but hurt the whole Indonesian nation," they added.
The government said the confirmed death toll was 10, after the Indonesian Red Cross retracted an earlier claim that it was 14.
JI claims responsibility
Jemaah Islamiyah allegedly claimed responsibility for the hotel bombing in remarks published by Singapore's Straits Times newspaper.
"This is a message for ... all our enemies that, if they execute any of our Muslim brothers, we will continue this campaign of terror in Indonesia and the region," the paper quoted an unnamed Jemaah Islamiyah operative as saying.
It couldn't be immediately determined if the claim was authentic. Bloody warning
Derwin Pereira, the Straits Times correspondent in Jakarta, told The Associated Press that two weeks ago he received a call from a "well-placed informant" saying there would be a major strike in Indonesia this month.
Pereira said the informant said he got the information from an unnamed Jemaah Islamiyah operative. After the Marriott blast, Pereira said he pressed the informant to link him up with the source.
The operative later called Pereira at his Jakarta office.
Pereira said the alleged operative refused to identify himself but said the explosion was a "bloody warning" from Jemaah Islamiyah to President Megawati Sukarnoputri, demanding that she not crack down on the group's members in Indonesia. Bali blast
The blast came two days before a verdict in the trial of a key suspect in the Bali nightclub bombings last October 12 that killed 202 people. Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, an alleged Jemaah Islamiyah operative, faces a possible death sentence if convicted.
Tuesday was also the first day of testimony in another bombing case by the alleged leader of Jemaah Islamiyah - a shadowy group said to be fighting to install a pan-Islamic state in Southeast Asia.
On Bali, the alleged mastermind behind last year's blasts said he was happy about the hotel attack in Jakarta.
"Thank God, I am thankful," Imam Samudra shouted after he testified in Bali in a peer's trial. "I am happy, especially if the perpetrators were Muslims." More attacks
Indonesia's top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday warned of more terrorist attacks in the archipelago, saying the two court cases were reasons enough for Muslim extremists to lash out.
"The government would like to remind the people ... of the possibility of more terrorist attacks," said Yudhoyono.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said his government had acquired intelligence in the hours after the bombing that there could be more terrorist attacks in Indonesia in the coming days. He did not say what the intelligence was.
"We think there is a real risk that there could be further attacks, including in central Jakarta," Downer said.
The Chase Plaza building in Jakarta, which house JP Morgan Chase Bank, was evacuated on Wednesday morning following a bomb threat. No further details were immediately available. Inferno
The Marriott - a frequent venue for US Embassy functions and a popular destination for foreigners - was transformed into a bloody inferno when a vehicle packed with explosives blew up on the driveway leading to its front entrance at about midday on Tuesday.
National police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said the bomb was a mixture of low yield explosives and TNT, while cans containing petrol were packed around it to create a fiery blast.
Indonesian police said RDX and TNT - common high yield military
explosives - were found at the scene. Both explosives were also used in the Bali bombings.
Bachtiar said the bombers had tried to erase serial numbers on the vehicle's engine and chassis, just as had been done in the Bali car bomb. However, police were able to retrieve all the necessary numbers, he said.
Indonesia's chief of detectives, Erwin Mappaseng, said it was too early to conclude that the evidence constituted a definitive link between the Marriott and the Bali blasts. But Bachtiar said the similarities have led police to focus their investigation on Jemaah Islamiyah.
Badly burnt head
Mappaseng said officers had found a badly burned head close to the vehicle. "We strongly suspect that (this person) is linked with the bomb."
Police also found two dismembered hands at the site, which could provide fingerprints of the suspected suicide bomber, said Bachtiar.
The governor of Jakarta, Sutiyoso, said the attack was "very likely" carried out by a suicide bomber. Bachtiar confirmed the vehicle was moving at the time of the explosion.
Health Minister Achmad Suyudi said there were 10 confirmed deaths and 147 people had been wounded. Those reportedly injured included at least 10 foreigners, including two Americans. A Dutch citizen was the only foreign fatality.
Keenly aware of the potential economic fallout from the latest blast - the Bali bombings wrecked tourism - Indonesia moved quickly to bolster security.
Yudhoyono said the government had ordered strict checks at the airport and other public places, and said officials would announce even stronger security measures on Wednesday.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard, whose country lost 88 citizens in the Bali blasts, offered to send investigators to help Indonesian authorities.
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