Philippine police said on Friday that a Malaysian arrested last year at a southern port turned out to be an Indonesian suspected to have played a role in the bombing outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta last year. Chief Superintendent Ismael Rafanan, the police intelligence chief, said a team of anti-terrorism experts from Indonesia helped them identify Didi Deskiarna, a suspected member of the regional Muslim militant network Jemaah Islamiah (JI). "Without the help of our Indonesian friends, we would not be able to identify a key suspect in the Jakarta bombings," Rafanan told reporters. "Deskiarna had identified himself as a Malaysian when he was caught in Zamboanga City."The Indonesian experts are in the Philippines to interview three foreigners suspected of links with Jemaah Islamiah. Deskiarna, who initially identified himself as Ted Yolanda, was arrested at the Zamboanga City port last December along with Indonesians Mohammad Yusuf Karim, Mohammad Nassir Hamid and Filipino Muhair dela Merced, a suspected member of the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group. "Deskiarna was forced to admit his real identity after our friends from Jakarta confronted him," Rafanan said. Deskiarna was also suspected to have played a key role in the bombing of the Philippine embassy in Jakarta in August 2000 that injured a Filipino diplomat.
Police authorities said the three Indonesian militants and a Filipino contact were on their way to a JI training camp at the jungle base of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in central Mindanao region. Some $7,000 in cash and manuals for making car bombs were seized from them, the police said.