October 15 2002
Indonesia detains two over Bali terror
attack
Indonesian police were on Tuesday questioning two men in connection with the
weekend bombings in Bali, as foreign forensic teams fanned out across the
remains of the nightclub destroyed in the terrorist attack searching for clues.
According to a national police spokesman in Jakarta, both men being questioned
were Indonesian. One of them had admitted to being at the scene of Saturday
night's blast, which killed almost 200 people. The other was a relative of a man
whose identification card was found at the scene.
As investigators from the FBI, Australian Federal Police, Scotland Yard, and
even a Japanese forensic team began work at the site of the now destroyed Sari
nightclub, Indonesian intelligence sources said they had uncovered traces of
C-4, a plastic explosive commonly used by the military, at the scene.
Police said they had also detained two other Indonesians in connection with a
separate bombing over the weekend at the Philippines consulate on the island of
Manado. A police spokesman declined to call them suspects and said their status
would be determined later.
The progress in the investigation came as John Howard, the Australian prime
minister, called for Jemaah Islamiya, the Indonesian terror group with ties to
Al Qaeda accused of carrying out the attacks, to be proscribed by the United
Nations as a terrorist organisation.
Most of the more than 180 people killed in the bombing are thought to be
Australian.
Alexander Downer, the Australian foreign minister, and Chris Ellison, justice
minister, toured the bomb site in the beachfront town of Kuta after flying in
from Canberra early Tuesday. Grim-faced, the two politicians laid a wreath of
Australian native plants at the site.
Mr Downer told reporters he was concerned that the integrity of the site had
been compromised by lax security in the crucial early hours after the bombing.
The scene was finally cordoned off by local police Monday and was being heavily
guarded by Indonesian soldiers on Tuesday after being open to casual onlookers
in the first 24 hours. Some visitors to the site took rubble and debris as
macabre souvenirs and floral tributes were left at the scene.
Despite his evident frustrations and the crowds of foreign investigators
crawling over the scene, Mr Downer stressed the investigation was being led by
Indonesian officials. But analysts have raised questions over the capacity of
the Indonesian authorities to mount an effective corruption.
Formed only in the last five years after it was split off from the once
all-powerful military, the Indonesian police is renowned for both its corruption
and lack of adequate resources.
In recent years the police has also been hampered by a running feud with the
military. Late last month, for example, eight policemen were killed after up to
100 soldiers opened fire on a police station in north Sumatra as a result of a
dispute over competing business interests.