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.