|
The Indonesian police claimed a significant breakthrough has been achieved in the Bali blasts probe with the identification of a suspect, believed to be a bomb expert, the daily Jakarta Post reported Friday.
Indonesian Police chief Da'i Bachtiar told the House of Representatives' Commission One on foreign and security affairs on Thursday that information provided by the public after the sketches of three men were released one day earlier had led to the identification of the chubby East Javanese man wearing a pale green shirt.
The police chief said the man, after confirmation from various sources, is a bomb expert who has fled his home and is still at large.
"When we traced him to his house soon after we got the information, he had run away. We vow to hunt him down," he said.
Earlier on Thursday, the police chief said that in addition to the three men who have been sketched to the public, investigators have identified another man who is believed to have driven the vehicle containing the bomb to the Sari Club of Bali, where at least two bombs exploded in the late night of Oct. 12, which killed almost 190 people, injuring 310 others.
"We have identified that person .... The person is somewhere in the country," Da'i noted.
The police chief said that police believe these suspects are only field operators, not the brains behind the blasts.
"They use TNT, RDX, HDX and ammonium nitrate. Some of the materials like RDX is not available here (in Indonesia). It shouldhave been smuggled in by the perpetrators," Da'i said.
RDX is a component used in making C4 plastic explosive, which is produced in the United States and difficult to find in this country. So some quarters in Indonesia have accused the United States of being behind the bombings, but US Ambassador to Indonesia Ralph L. Boyce firmly rejected the allegation, saying these reports are inaccurate and unhelpful.
(Xinhua News Agency November 1, 2002)
|
