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| Southeast Asia |
| Wahid: Indonesian police or military may have played role in 1st Bali bombing |
| 2005-10-12 |
| CHAOTIC scenes marred yesterday's third anniversary of the Bali bombings as a former Indonesian president suggested his country's military or police may have been behind one of the 2002 bombings. A violent mob of 2000 angry protesters stormed Bali's Kerobokan jail, breaking down a wall outside the prison and demanding the execution of three of the Bali bombers. Chanting "Kill Amrozi, kill Amrozi", the crowd removed part of the jail's main steel door before riot police stopped them from entering the prison where some of the Bali bombers are held. The violence co-incided with the claim by former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid that Indonesian police or military officers may have played a role in the first Bali bombing. Wahid told SBS's Dateline program that he had grave concerns about links between Indonesian authorities and terrorist groups and believed that authorities may have organised the larger of the two 2002 Bali bombings which hit the Sari Club, killing the bulk of the 202 people who died. Officials and experts were quick to play down his claims which, if true, would have grave diplomatic consequences for Australia's relationship with its nearest neighbour. Asked who he thought planted the second bomb, Mr Wahid said: "Maybe the police ... or the armed forces." "The orders to do this or that came from within our armed forces, not from the fundamentalist people." Speaking in Jakarta last night, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said "it's just rubbish". Singapore-based terrorism analyst Rohan Gunaratna said the report had "absolutely no credibility". "The Indonesian police have been doing a great job of hunting down the terrorists." He said Indonesia's political leaders were committed to combating terrorism and there was "no evidence to suggest TNI (Indonesian military) involvement, either". "I can't understand why a man of his standing would be raising such issues," Mr Gunaratna said. Greg Fealy, an Indonesian expert at the Australian National University, said Mr Wahid's claim was a "bizarre suggestion". "There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that the Indonesian police are in cahoots with the terrorists." Mr Wahid's claims will not help the investigation into last week's Bali bombings, which left 23 people dead, including four Australians. The protesters who tried to storm Kerobokan jail yesterday were seeking the three ringleaders of the 2002 bombings - Amrozi bin Nurhasyin, his elder brother Mukhlas and Imam Samudra. But the three were moved for security reasons to Batu prison on Nusakambangan, an island south of Java before yesterday's third anniversary of the attacks. Dateline also reported claims that Indonesian intelligence had close links with many local terrorist groups. "There is not a single Islamic group either in the movement or the political groups that is not controlled by (Indonesian) intelligence," said former terrorist Umar Abduh, who is now a researcher and writer. He has written a book on Teungku Fauzi Hasbi, a key figure in Jemaah Islamiah, who had close contact with JI operations chief Hambali and lived next to Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir. He says Hasbi was a secret agent for Indonesia's military intelligence while at the same time a key player in creating JI. Documents cited by SBS showed the Indonesian chief of military intelligence in 1990 authorised Hasbi to undertake a "special job". And a 2002 document assigned Hasbi the job of special agent for BIN, the Indonesian national intelligence agency. Security analyst John Mempi told SBS that Hasbi, who was also known as Abu Jihad, had played a key role in JI in its early years. "The first Jemaah Islamiah congress in Bogor was facilitated by Abu Jihad, after Abu Bakar Bashir returned from Malaysia," Mr Mempi said. "We can see that Abu Jihad played an important role. He was later found to be an intelligence agent. So an intelligence agent has been facilitating the radical Islamic movement." Meanwhile the investigation into the second Bali bombings appears to have stalled. Bali police chief Made Mangku Pastika yesterday denied the detention of 45-year-old construction worker Hasan was significant in the investigation into the triple suicide bombings, while senior police refused to confirm speculation in the local press that a man named Yanto was one of the three suicide bombers. |
| Posted by:Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World |
| #1 I taken to reading the jakarta Post online. There is clearly a lot of tension between the military and police, as the newly democratic government tries to rest control of the levers of power from the military without triggering a coup. BTW, I think the reference to police is a misquote. Anti-terrorism responsibility was taken away from the military and given to the civilian police shortly before Bali (I believe), and it wouldn't put it past the military to have facilitated the bombings to prove the new policy was a mistake. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-10-12 21:21 |