Indonesian police vow to speed up Bali bombers' identification

0 Comments | Asian Political News, Oct 11, 2005

KUTA, Indonesia, Oct. 3 Kyodo

Indonesian police pledged Monday to speed up the process of identifying three suspected suicide bombers whose intact heads were found on the scenes of Saturday's blast attacks on Bali that killed 22 people.

''If we can identify them, we can immediately disclose their group, their domicile, etc.,'' National Police Spokesman Soenarko told international media in a press conference.

Meanwhile, the Australian Associated Press reported that doctors at Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar, lowered to 22 the total death toll from the blasts, bringing hospital numbers into line with police.

Kuning Atmadjaya, the head of trauma at the hospital, reportedly said authorities had counted body bags rather than matched body parts, leading to claims 27 people had been killed including the three suicide bombers. ''But now we are sure there are only 22 bodies,'' he was quoted by AAP as saying.

A Japanese and an Australian are among the fatalities. Another 122 others were injured, including four Japanese.

According to AAP, five Australians are in critical condition in Singapore, and five other victims -- three Australians, one Japanese man and an Indonesian patient -- have life-threatening injuries in Darwin, in northern Australia. Some 23 patients -- 12 serious or critical -- had been taken to Darwin Hospital, among them 10 who were discharged by Monday afternoon.

Soenarko provided details of the suspected suicide bombers, including their facial structures, hair color, possible height and ages, ranging from 20 to 25.

On Sunday, Bali Police Chief I Made Mangku Pastika had said the faces of the suspected suicide bombers were still intact, but their torsos had been totally destroyed.

He released photographs of their heads along with video footage showing one of them walking inside a restaurant on Jimbaran Beach, the scene of one of the three explosions, passing people who were enjoying dinner, followed soon afterward by an explosion.

Traces of TNT were found at the blast scenes, he said.

Soenarko said 18 witnesses have been questioned.

He said police have increased security at open-air restaurants like those targeted by the blasts, and intensified checks of vehicles at hotels, cafes or restaurants, along with physical checks of customers.

They have also opened a 24-hour hot line service during which the public can report anything related to the suspected bombers or the bombing itself.

The first two explosions occurred at open-air restaurants on Jimbaran Beach, close to the Four Seasons Hotel. Around the same time, another blast hit the Raja Restaurant at the Kuta Matahari Town Square on Kuta Beach, near where the deadly nightclub bombings occurred in 2002.

In October 2002, Bali was also the scene of terrorist bombings that left 202 people dead, many of them Western holidaymakers, including 88 Australians.

The 2002 nightclub bombings were blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah, the alleged Southeast Asian arm of the al-Qaida terror network, and some experts have suggested the Saturday blasts have the hallmarks of those extremists.

Nearly 30 suspects in the 2002 Bali bombings have been arrested and three sentenced to death for terrorism. Twenty-six others have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from three years to life.

Indonesian courts have also sentenced other Muslim militants to death and jail for involvement in a terrorist attack on the Australian Embassy in South Jakarta in September 2004 that killed 10 people and for an attack on the J.W. Marriott Hotel in the capital in August 2003 that killed 12 people.

Police have been looking for two Malaysian nationals -- Azahari and Noordin Mohammad Top -- who have allegedly masterminded the series of bombings in the country.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Monday in Kuala Lumpur that the two Malaysians are believed to be hiding in Indonesia.

''If these people are within our country, we have no problem cooperating with Indonesia. The problem is these people are supposed to be in Indonesia,'' he told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of ASEAN member countries.