Indonesian police said yesterday they had made two more arrests in connection with this month's suicide bombings in Bali, a day after an angry crowd stormed the island's main jail to demand death for those convicted over the 2002 blasts.
It was not clear whether those arrested Wednesday in Banten Province on the island of Java were believed to have been directly involved in the attacks on crowded restaurants which killed 20 people plus the three bombers.
"The two men in Banten were detained for questioning for seven days," a police spokesman for the Bali investigation, Sunarko Danu Ardanto, said.
In Jakarta, the national police spokesman Arianto Budiharjo confirmed the arrests and said that the first suspect in the bombings, who was detained on Sunday, had been released because he was found to have no links with the case.
News of the fresh arrests emerged after a public display of anger and frustration in Bali, where officials and relatives of the dead gathered Wednesday to commemorate the third anniversary of the 2002 bombings.
A crowd of more than 1,000 ripped down the large steel gates that guarded Kerobokan prison and demanded that the the three key bombers on death row -- Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra -- be executed.
The three were sentenced to death by firing squad for the 2002 nightclub bombings which killed 202 people and dealt tourism on the resort island a heavy blow.
Police said yesterday they were reviewing security at the prison.
"We are continuing to provide security around the jail and there is a plan to build a police post at the front," police spokesman A.S. Reniban said, without elaborating on other measures under consideration.
A second protest in front of Bali's provincial parliament in Denpasar has been called for Monday.
Passions are running high following this month's bombings in Bali, a Hindu enclave in mainly Muslim Indonesia.
Before Wednesday's protest the mood had been one of grief as some 1,000 guests, many blinking back tears, observed 202 seconds of silence in memory of those killed on October 12, 2002 in attacks on two nightclubs.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, whose country lost 88 people in 2002 and four more on Oct. 1, reiterated his condolences yesterday for the latest attack and pledged his country's help.
"To all of the people of Indonesia we'd like to express our condolences for the loss of lives as a result of the Bali bombings," Downer said after meeting Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta.
"It's a very sad thing for the people of Bali who are so often wonderful hosts to Australians.
"We fear that the economy will suffer somewhat from this. We'll obviously do what we can to help."
Downer also said he was impressed by the Indonesian government's determination to strengthen counter-terrorism laws.
Australia has urged Indonesia to ban Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a regional extremist group blamed for a series of deadly attacks including the Bali bombings.
Indonesian officials have argued that banning JI is unnecessary because the government has never recognized the group's existence.
Canberra has also urged Jakarta not to give further sentence remissions to convicted 2002 Bali bombing conspirator Abu Bakar Bashir and other jailed militants.
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