LEAD: Indonesian-Australian forensic team reidentify bodies

Asian Political News, Oct 21, 2002

DENPASAR, Indonesia, Oct. 15 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH HOSPITAL PRESS CONFERENCE, NEW FIGURES, INFO ON MISSING JAPANESE COUPLE)

The speaker of Indonesia's People's Consultative Assembly urged the government Tuesday to cooperate with foreign intelligence agents to catch the perpetrators of a massive bomb explosion on Bali that killed at least 181 people.

''I firmly believe the only way to arrest the perpetrators is to cooperate with other countries,'' Amien Rais said at a news conference after a meeting with Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer at Sanur in Bali.

''Soon after my return from Bali, I will consult with the president and the military and the police chief to open the door for cooperation with foreign intelligence agencies,'' Rais, head of the country's highest consultative assembly, said.

Indonesia is widely considered a weak link in the U.S.-led global war on terrorism and reluctant to collaborate with other countries.

''I think we can no longer delay,'' Rais said, ''because after the act of terrorism in Bali, there is no other way except that we have to work harder, and quickly, so the world can see us as very, very serious in cracking down on terrorists.''

Asked whether he discussed with Downer the possibility of a link between Jemaah Islamiyah, an alleged terrorist group in Southeast Asia, and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, Rais said, ''There is a kind of 'assumption' (on the part of Australia) of a possible link between Jemaah Islamiyah and al-Qaida.''

''I told (Downer) to prove it...they have to apply the principles of presumption of innocence (in the investigations),'' he added.

Earlier Monday, Defense Minister Matori Abdul Djalil said the deadly blast outside the Sari Club discotheque at Kuta Beach, which was packed with Australians and other foreigners, ''has convinced me that the (al-Qaida) network exists in Indonesia.''

But no other senior government officials echoed his remark.

In another development, police in Bali have questioned 10 Pakistanis for ''having a meeting and making speeches without permission.''

Bali Police Spokesman Yatim Suyatmo told Kyodo News they were not arrested, but ''we are monitoring them.''

''So far, we haven't found any relationship between their activities and the bombing,'' he added

The explosion Saturday night killed at least 181 people and injured more than 300.

Of those killed, the bodies of only 38 have been identified so far, according to the results of the body re-identification by a joint forensic team from Australia and Indonesia.

The confirmed dead are 12 Australians, eight Britons, eight Indonesians, two Singaporeans, two Swiss and one citizen from each of Equador, France, Germany, New Zealand and the United States. The nationality of another body is still unknown.

Most of the victims died from burn and blast injuries, according to the medical team.

A forensic team from Germany will also come to Bali to assist the Indonesian medical team and Singapore sent three surgeons and the U.N. Mission in East Timor (UNMISET) sent an orthopedic surgeon.

The governments of Australia and the U.S. have also offered help to treat victims with burn injuries in their burn centers.

About 30 minutes after the first blast, another explosion erupted in a different tourist area on the island, about 100 meters east of the U.S. Consulate General in Sanur. But no casualties were reported there.

Nine Japanese were hurt in the disco blast and resulting fire, two seriously, a Japanese consulate official said. The two were flown Monday to Singapore for skin graft surgery.

Meanwhile, a Japanese couple -- a 34-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman -- who are believed to have been in the discotheque have been reported missing, the consulate said. Their families arrived in Bali on Monday to possibly identify them among the bodies at the hospital.

The Bali authorities have opened coordinating posts for the families of the victims. Inquiries and questions can be made at 62-361-243576, 224671 and 257500.

The Bali Police Headquarters also open a hotline service at 62-361-751596, while the Foreign Ministry's coordinating group can be contacted at 62-21-3856014.

Police said the bomb, presumably planted inside a car parked in front of the nightclub, is believed to have utilized a highly sensitive, plastic high explosive used almost exclusively for military purposes.

So far no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, and Indonesian authorities have named no particular suspects. But Singapore and Malaysia are blaming the attack on Jemaah Islamiyah.

The radical Muslim cleric believed behind Islamiyah, Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, accused foreigners Sunday of carrying out the attack, saying, ''Indonesians can't make that powerful a bomb.''

Bali, until the blast, was considered one of the safest places in Indonesia, but Saturday's bombings are likely to change that view, at least for a time.

Bali Gov. I Made Dewa Beratha said the government plans to build a monument at the scene of the blast with the names of the victims written on it to say to the world that such a tragedy should never happen again.