Posted on 11/26/2002 4:12:35 PM PST by knighthawk
INDONESIAN police said overnight that in addition to the two main suspects in last month's Bali bombings, they also have detained 13 accomplices who were indirectly involved.
Seven alleged accomplices were picked up in different parts of Indonesia yesterday, said police spokesman Brigadier General Edward Aritonang.
They included a man, identified only as Agus, who was arrested in West Java province on suspicion of having robbed a jewellery shop, the proceeds of which were later used to finance the October 12 attacks, said Aritonang.
The other six suspects were taken into custody in Riau province, said Aritonang. Four of them assisted the main suspect in the blasts, Imam Samudra, to obtain fake identity papers, he said.
Other detainees were villagers who hid weapons or chemicals later used to build the bombs, police said.
Samudra was arrested last Friday. Police say he has admitted to having planned the bombings. He has also confessed to at least two other deadly bomb attacks in Indonesia over the last two years, officers say.
Samudra's arrest came more than two weeks after police apprehended another suspect, Amrozi, who has confessed to providing the vehicle and chemicals used in the attack.
"In total there are 15 people (in custody)," said Aritonang. "Only two have been named suspects in the Bali bombings."
Police are hunting at least five other men believed to have been directly involved in carrying out the bombings.
Many of those killed in the Bali attack were Australian tourists, and Australian police have formed a joint investigative team with their Indonesian counterparts.
On Monday, a police search of two houses rented by Samudra and his accomplices uncovered recordings of speeches by Osama bin Laden and military training clips, together with traces of chemicals possibly used to build the Bali bombs.
5 in suicide pact
A SUSPECTED suicide bomber thought to have detonated one of the Bali blasts was part of a group of five men who had formed a suicide pact, Australian police have revealed.
The five had formed the pact as a show of commitment to the alleged ringleader of the Bali bombings, Imam Samudra, Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty said today.
He said Indonesian and Australian police last night arrested one of the five, named Agus.
Agus is believed to have been involved in the robbery of 400 million rupiahs ($90,000) from a jewellery store in Serang that financed the October 12 attack in Kuta Beach.
Three others from the suicide group were already in custody, while the fifth man was believed to be the dead suicide bomber, he said.
"One of the more significant arrests that we confirmed last night was a person called Agus," Mr Keelty told Channel 9.
"Agus was one of four people the Indonesians were working to try and arrest.
"Agus plus the person Iqbal (the alleged suicide bomber) were a group of five who were committed to Samudra.
"These five were so committed to Samudra that they had in fact formed a suicide pact.
"Agus and three others who have been arrested, and in fact are in custody now, bring us closer to that group."
He said Iqbal was the man thought to have detonated the blast in Paddy's Bar which launched the attack on the Kuta nightclub strip in Bali.
Mr Keelty said DNA samples were obtained yesterday from Iqbal's mother and were on their way to Canberra for analysis.
"They'll be brought here to Canberra and we will actually process them here in Canberra and hopefully positively confirm that it was Iqbal who detonated the blast in Paddy's Bar," he said.
"The arrest yesterday of the last of that group brings to a closure the group we thought were the ones who had formed this suicide pact."
Mr Keelty said he was aware of reports terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah (JI), widely blamed for the Bali attack, had formed links with al-Qaeda nine years ago and had sleeper terrorist cells around Asia.
But he said it was not the job of police to hypothesise about groups operating in the region.
"The work of the police ... in these type of incidents is to actually provide evidence of who's responsible and what they have in fact done," Mr Keelty said.
http://www.dailytelegraph.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,5569465%255E401,00.html
I suspect that the military leadership who run Indonesia from behind the scenes was quite aware of what most of these terrorists have been doing, and approved of it, as long as they restricted themselves to bombing churches and killing native Indonesian Christians. The Bali bombing crossed a line, because it has severely damaged tourism and threatens the economy.
The same is probably true of Saudi Arabia. They have been funding and supporting terrorists for years, and it was OK as long as it was African Christians, or Copts in Egypt, or Jews in Israel, or similar hapless victims. In Sudan alone, 2,000,000 Christians were murdered. But bin Ladin went too far, and now their support for terrorism has recoiled on them.
Those responsible have to be hit, and hit hard, so the lesson is driven home.
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