Sat, Aug 09, 2003 page1

• Indonesian police identify Jakarta Marriott bomber

  SUICIDE ATTACK Authorities say Asmar Latin Sani was recruited by two alleged terrorists closely linked to last October's Bali bombing

  • REUTERS
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  The suicide bomber who blew up a luxury hotel in Indonesia's capital has been identified and was the recruit of two men arrested in raids linked to the militant Muslim group blamed for the Bali bombs, police said on yesterday.

  Initial investigations showed Tuesday's blast, which killed 10 people and wounded 150 at the US-run Marriott Hotel, could be linked to the shadowy Jemaah Islamiah (JI) group, the national police chief said.

  "It is certainly heading in that direction," General Da'i Bachtiar told a news conference when asked if JI was responsible.

  The breakthrough in identifying one perpetrator came as President Megawati Sukarnoputri, in her first public comments on the attack, said yesterday that the blast showed Southeast Asia's cooperation in the war on terror was inadequate.

  Further complicating the task of counter-terrorism police was a recent move by their prey to avoid detection, Bachtiar said.

  "One obstacle is that in the past they used communication equipment so that we could check them continuously," he said. "But recently they don't any more. We can't detect their signals."

  The driver of the car, packed with explosives and fuel, was identified as Asmar Latin Sani, 28, from Lampung in the south of Sumatra island, Erwin Mappaseng, head of the police criminal investigation division, told reporters.

  "He was known by two terrorist members who ... we had arrested," he said. "He was certainly recruited by them."

  Mappaseng sidestepped questions on whether the two detainees were members of the JI network, which has been blamed in last year's Bali bombings and linked to al-Qaeda, although he did use JI terminology to describe the role of the three men.

  "He [Asmar] was certainly recruited by this group. And certainly from the Bali terrorist group and their friends. But I didn't say they were members of which wakalah," Mappaseng said, using the JI word for a state-level cell.

  Mappaseng named the two "terrorist" detainees as Sardono Siliwangi and Mohammad Rais.

  A day earlier, police released grisly photos of the reconstructed head of the suicide bomber showing a youngish man with a small goatee beard.

  The two men who identified the head were arrested in Jakarta and in the Java town of Semarang where police last month arrested at least four people along with 1,200 detonators, weapons and 900kg of bomb ingredient potassium chlorate, said deputy national police spokesman Edward Aritonang.

  Investigators have already highlighted similarities between Tuesday's bomb and the Bali nightclub blasts, particularly the composition of the explosives used in the latest strike.

  A mobile phone was used to detonate the bomb, as in at least one of the Bali bombs. The Bali bombs were made from a cocktail composed essentially of potassium chlorate and TNT. Police said the Marriott bomb contained TNT and a "black powder."

  Tuesday's attack followed a spate of global terror warnings, and officials have said they fear more strikes.

  Addressing diplomats from ASEAN at a public lecture in Jakarta, Megawati said no nation or group of countries could ever overcome the threat of international terrorism alone.

  "In Indonesia's view, which is shared by the rest of ASEAN members, it will take a global coalition involving all nations, all societies, religions and cultures to defeat this threat," Megawati said.
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