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| Southeast Asia |
| A conspiracy of silence |
| 2003-01-23 |
| Click on the link to read the full article After arresting 17 Islamic fundamentalists, including five accused major plotters who face the death penalty, police have yet to resolve the central criminal act of the Bali bombings: who detonated the bomb outside the Sari Club, the bomb which did most of the killing? So far, police say, three terrorists - Amrozi, 39, his brother Ali Imron, 30, and the operational commander Imam Samudra, 35, a veteran terrorist who had spent two years in Afghanistan - have confessed to roles in the bomb attacks on October 12, but all have denied they exploded the Sari bomb. Although they are otherwise boastful about what they did, none is claiming this poisoned chalice. Ali Imron and Samudra were in action that night. They were the men in command. Are they protecting themselves? The Sari bomb was the biggest and most destructive of three detonated, 1000 kilograms of explosives packed into a filing cabinet which was put into a van which was driven to Jalan Legian, the tourist strip at Kuta, and parked outside the packed nightclub around 11.30pm. It was a Saturday night, and across the narrow street, jammed with tourists, motorbikes and cars, Paddy's Bar was also doing a roaring business. The bomb had four triggers, three of them backups to the first-choice device, a mobile telephone. Whichever trigger was used, the result was a catastrophe which replaced Australian complacency with fear and suspicion. The blast and the resulting conflagrations destroyed the Sari Club and Paddy's, killing almost 200 people were killed that night, almost all tourists, including 88 Australians. The next morning, according to police, Samudra, Ali Imron and another plotter, Idris, 35, drove to the smouldering ruins and observed with satisfaction their handiwork. Police said Ali Imron told them he "felt happy" that so many had died. Yet when it comes to naming the man who detonated the bomb, he is not helpful, although there can be little doubt that he knows the culprit. So far, police have one suspect, Dulmatin, a 32-year-old Javanese electronics wizard who is allegedly a bomb maker for Jemaah Islamiah (JI), the regional terrorist group which is blamed for ordering the attack. Dulmatin was named as the triggerman by Amrozi, the first suspect arrested, on November 5, who gave police the names of most of the key conspirators and their roles. But Amrozi was not in Bali on October 12, having returned to East Java several days earlier after performing his mission - buying the van and the explosives and delivering them to Bali. Amrozi was at home in Tenggulun, a village 200 kilometres from Surabaya, watching boxing on television when the bombs were detonated. Another expert, Wayan, 35, who had previous experience assembling bombs for JI, helped Dulmatin. Amrozi claimed Dulmatin punched in the three SMS messages which individually activated the three mobiles, sending electrical charges to the detonators, exploding the bombs. Dulmatin, Wayan and Idris, key players, have yet to be captured and their versions still to be told. But when police tested Amrozi's testimony against that of his brother and Samudra, they found inconsistencies which strongly indicate the plotters are telling the truth only when it suits them. It's every man for himself when you are facing the death penalty, and they are not so eager to be martyrs When it comes to events on the night of the attack, important elements of Ali Imron's testimony are hard to believe. Police say Ali Imron told them that Samudra, the overall commander, remained in the safe house in Denpasar. Ali Imron described himself as the "field commander". He said he and another plotter drove the van with the bomb to Jalan Legian. Who was the other man? Ali Imron wasn't sure. He thought his name was Jimmy, which might be an alias for Iqbal. This is farce. Police have never heard of Jimmy before. Ali Imron was the "field commander" of a conspiracy about to commit mass murder, he was transporting the bomb - and he didn't know the identity of the man sitting next to him. "He's lying," police said. Imam Samudra, when caught on November 21, boasted that Iqbal was a suicide bomber, which Indonesian police never tire of denying, justifiably afraid of allowing the conspirators to claim a martyr as a role model for their "Jihad". Police claim Ali Imron's account supports their version of an accidental early detonation. This is that Samudra used a mobile phone to detonate the third bomb near the American consulate in Denpasar. The signal prematurely detonated the Sari and Paddy's bombs, catching Iqbal unawares. But there is no evidence to back this theory, and even the police have no idea how one mobile could activate three mobiles simultaneously with a single message. Another version is that the mobile message to activate the consulate bomb somehow "crossed over" into the two other mobiles, although police once again are unable to explain how this could happen. These attempts at explanation lack credibility, especially since Amrozi is insistent that the three mobiles had to be activated individually. The consulate bomb harmed no one. It was clearly a symbolic attack on the United States. "Destroy America," Samudra shouted when he was arrested. But Samudra has made no reference to this bomb. So is Ali Imron telling only part of the truth to conceal a greater guilt by his mentor? Why give only this pathetic gesture to Samudra? He was their inspirational leader, the toughest and most experienced terrorist among them, a religious zealot who had fought in Afghanistan, and who, police say, has confessed to participating in a series of bomb attacks in Indonesia in December 2000. Why give Samudra only one bomb, and the least important? Why not all three, especially the Sari bomb, which was what the plot was all about? He was the fittest, the most deserving to deliver such a devastating message to their enemies. He was also in command, the man most willing and able. More light needs to be shone into this world of shadows, to establish what are truth, deception and lies. In only three months, the Indonesian police have done a remarkable job, and there is every reason to accept their confidence that they will arrest the suspects still at large, especially those they want most: Idris, Dulmatin, Wayan and another bomb expert, Dr Azhari, a Malaysian. The arrests give an alarming insight into JI's capabilities. The group was able to provide a cadre of committed, experienced terrorists with sophisticated technical skills, along with the resources to finance and plan the operation. But they exposed a fatal weakness: a reliance on passionate amateurs to be the ground troops, in recruiting Islamic fundamentalists from religious schools. Mukhlas recruited two blood brothers, Amrozi - whose carelessness in buying the van in his own name gave police their initial breakthrough - and Ali Imron, plus two stepbrothers. A difficult task for JI will be replacing the veterans Mukhlas and Samudra. But there is no shortage of eager volunteers among the fundamentalist Islamic religious schools of Indonesia and Malaysia. |
| Posted by:Paul |