Posted on 11/13/2002 3:50:30 PM PST by knighthawk
A LEADING member of terror group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) helped mastermind the Bali bombings, Indonesia's police chief has said.
Imam Samudra was implicated in the Bali blast and in other bombings in the country by detained suspect Amrozi, police chief General Da'i Bachtiar said.
Foreign governments have previously voiced strong suspicion but given no proof that Jemaah Islamiah, which is believed to have connections to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, played a role in the deadly attack.
Bachtiar did not identify Samudra as a JI member. But top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last month described Samudra, who like Amrozi is an Indonesian, as one of JI's leaders.
The police chief, who earlier met Amrozi at Bali police station, also gave chilling details of how the plot to bomb Bali nightspots was hatched.
He played a taped message in which Amrozi apologised to his family for the problems his arrest had caused - but not to the families of the more than 190 people killed in the blast.
Bachtiar also described how Amrozi, an apparently carefree village youth, was radicalised by sermons in Malaysia from Indonesian Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir and others whom he "idolised".
The arrest of Amrozi at his remote farming village in East Java on November 5 was the first breakthrough in the high-powered multinational probe.
Police say they are searching for 10 other people, all Indonesians and including Samudra.
The police chief said Amrozi met Samudra in the Central Java city of Solo in 2000. Samudra allegedly asked him to make bombs which were sent to Ambon island, the scene of Muslim-Christian clashes at the time.
Bachtiar said that following their face-to-face meetings in Solo, they communicated by SMS mobile phone messages.
When the plan to bomb Bali was made Amrozi was promised money and a vehicle, he said.
A man called Idris allegedly visited Amrozi and gave him rupiah, US dollars, Singapore dollars and Malaysian ringgit.
Amrozi is said to have admitted preparing the van used to carry the huge bomb, buying and preparing the chemicals used in the explosives and taking the van to Bali. He was not there on the night of the blast.
Bachtiar said Amrozi went to Bali on October 6 and met several people, including Idris and a man called Umar. He stayed in three places on the island.
At one point, according to Bachtiar, Amrozi asked where the van was. "But Imam Samudra told him it was not his business any more."
Amrozi was at home in East Java when he heard about the blast. "He felt very happy that the bomb successfully exploded in Bali," Bachtiar said.
Bachtiar also confirmed that mobile phones were used to trigger the bombs. Amrozi had seen two Nokia handphones wired to a bomb, he said.
Dozens of alleged JI militants have been arrested in Singapore and Malaysia over bombing plots.
Police say Amrozi has admitted his motive was to kill as many Americans as possible because of alleged US oppression of Islam. Australians were in fact among the main victims, with around 80 feared dead.
The police chief described Amrozi as "a mischievous young man" who increasingly came under the influence of hardline Islamic preachers while working as a labourer in Malaysia and also in Indonesia.
Bachtiar said Amrozi's elder brother Mukhlas, also known as Ali Gufron, was the first man to steer him along the path of religious devotion. He said police would travel to Malaysia to try to trace Mukhlas.
Asked about an Indonesian called Hambali who is JI's alleged operations chief, Bachtiar said that, according to witnesses Hambali had left Malaysia for Pakistan after the September 11 attacks.
"There's a possibility that someone else replaced him, maybe Mukhlas, but we cannot yet confirm that."
Amrozi also received religious instruction from Abu Bakar Bashir, now detained by Indonesian police as a terror suspect in cases unrelated to Bali. Singapore and Malaysia say that Bashir is JI's spiritual leader.
Amrozi is aware he may now face a death sentence, Bachtiar said.
"He knows and he is aware and he said it was time for him to seek forgiveness from God almighty."
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