- JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian
police said on Thursday the owner of a minivan used in last month's car-bomb
attack in Bali had admitted being a key figure in the group that carried
out the atrocity, and had given police plenty of information.
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- In the first big breakthrough in the multinational probe
over the October 12 blasts that killed 184 people, national police chief
General Da'i Bachtiar identified the man as Amrozi and told reporters he
was on the resort island at the time of the attacks.
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- Asked if Amrozi parked the explosives-laden van in front
of a nightclub packed with foreign tourists, Bachtiar said: "The group
has several people with a division of labor, certainly including Amrozi,
who admitted going there and dividing up tasks."
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- Amrozi is the first suspect named over the three blasts
that rocked Bali, presenting President Megawati Sukarnoputri with the biggest
challenge of her presidency and appearing to confirm fears that the world's
most populous Muslim nation was Southeast Asia's weakest link in the war
on terrorism.
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- The car-bomb was by far the biggest of the blasts, destroying
the Sari nightclub and killing mainly foreign revelers.
-
- Bachtiar said Amrozi resembled one of four sketches of
possible suspects police have released. He did not say if Amrozi was Indonesian
or if he had any links to radical Muslim groups.
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- No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts but
speculation has centered on Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian Islamist
group which intelligence agencies say has planned attacks throughout the
region and have linked to al Qaeda.
-
- Without prompting by reporters, Bachtiar said that if
any information pointed in the direction of Abu Bakar Bashir, a Muslim
cleric who is the suspected spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah, this would
be cross-checked.
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- "We have gathered lots of information from (Amrozi)
but we still have to cross-check it with other evidence," Bachtiar
said.
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- Bashir has not been tied to Bali. He denies any wrongdoing.
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- Police had announced the capture of Amrozi in East Java
earlier in the week. He was moved to Bali on Wednesday night.
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- A CRACKDOWN ON MILITANTS?
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- Police earlier released the sketch of the fourth suspect
in the Bali probe as Jakarta came under fresh international pressure to
find and prosecute those responsible for the atrocity.
-
- Police released sketches last week of three Indonesian
men.
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- Singapore said on Thursday plenty was at stake in the
probe.
-
- "We hope that the Indonesian government will prosecute
this (Bali) investigation vigorously, get to the bottom of it, find out
who is responsible and the culprits punished," Singapore Defense Minister
Tony Tan said on a visit to Australia.
-
- "Because if you don't do that you are sending a
signal to terrorist groups, to the rest of the world, to Indonesians, about
your attitude toward terrorism."
-
- In a sign Jakarta might be cracking down on Islamic militancy
in the wake of the blasts, a radical Muslim group notorious for raiding
nightclubs and making threats against Westerners said it had suspended
its militia's activities indefinitely.
-
- Prior to Bali Jakarta had been accused of resisting pressure
to tackle militants among its mainly moderate Muslim populace.
-
- The move by the radical Islamic Defender's Front (FPI)
follows another militant group, Laskar Jihad, which broke up only days
after the Bali tragedy.
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- SUPPORT FOR BASHIR
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- A senior Indonesian security source said both groups
-- which diplomats have said could not have existed without support from
elements within the security forces -- had come under pressure from the
military and police to shut up shop.
-
- But working against the perception of a crackdown is
widespread support given to Bashir, detained over a series of church bombings
and an alleged plot to kill Megawati, along with near silence from her
and other senior officials about the problems posed by Islamic militancy.
-
- The senior security source said the declining fortunes
of the Islamic Defender's Front and Laskar Jihad was no coincidence.
-
- "You can see with FPI, every (militia) will eventually
disband. This is due to pressure from the military and police," said
the source, who declined to be identified.
-
- Australia -- which lost some 90 citizens in Bali -- meanwhile
brushed aside criticism from Asian neighbors of its treatment of Muslims,
adamant that its ties with Asia were good but stressing that national security
came first.
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- Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have accused Canberra
of over-reacting by advising Australians to leave Indonesia in the wake
of the blasts and not to travel in Southeast Asia.
-
- The criticism reached a crescendo after Australian intelligence
officers and police, wielding sledgehammers, raided several Muslim homes
to hunt down supporters of Jemaah Islamiah.
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- Indonesia's acting ambassador to Australia, Imron Cotan,
said if the raids did not stop, Jakarta might have to pull out of a joint
investigation into the bombings.
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