INDONESIA: Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visits site of Bali blasts while police say evidence points to suicide bombers having carried out the bomb attacks

Record ID: 359074

  • Title: INDONESIA: Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visits site of Bali blasts while police say evidence points to suicide bombers having carried out the bomb attacks
  • Date: 3rd October 2005
  • Summary: HINDU PRIESTS GIVING BLESSING AT KUTA SITE (3 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 18th October 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Indonesia
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA34OOXL60RHFG64GCHLRC0K2AI
  • Story Text: Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Sunday (October 2) that suicide bombers were likely behind the three attacks in Bali which killed 26 people and wounded 122 others the previous day.
    Three bombs tore through restaurants packed with evening diners on Saturday (October 1), two at outdoor seafood eateries on Jimbaran Beach and one at a steak bar at Kuta Beach in an area surrounded by shops and jammed with pedestrians, including children.
    The attacks were the latest in a number of bomb blasts in Indonesia in recent years, several against Western targets, which have hurt tourism and raised concerns among investors about security in the world's fourth most populous nation.
    "So far our investigation could say that these attacks were done by suicide bombers both in Jimbaran and Kuta Square," Yudhoyono told a news conference on the resort island, after visiting the site of one of the bombings.
    " ... they did not use a vehicle, rather their own bodies, we have some evidence as in parts of bodies at the location," Yudhoyono said.
    Yudhoyono who finishes his first year in office later this month, pledged: "We will do more in our national effort in fighting terrorism. We will continue to conduct evaluation to ensure that our effort is proper to deter and combat terrorism."
    Earlier on Sunday in Jakarta, a sprawling city of 12 million people, police said the capital was on top alert following the Bali attacks, with some 18,000 officers on standby to guard pivotal points such as embassies and other public places.
    The nearly simultaneous explosions came almost three years after al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah militants bombed nightclubs in Bali, killing 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.
    Bali police chief Made Mangku Pastika told a news conference on Sunday, a day after the blasts, that police had concluded that they were suicide bombings.
    He said there was evidence that the explosive materials were attached to the body and that that was an indication of suicide bombing.
    "The three suicide bombers consisted of one man in Kuta and 2 other men in Jimbaran," said Pastika, "I strongly believe that there are others who were involved in the planning and the preparing of the explosives and they are ones we are pursuing."
    He said the severed heads of three people believed to be suicide bombers had been recovered, including one with the face intact.
    Pastika said that the bombings were exactly like Paddy's Club, in an apparent reference to the more deadly nightclub bombings on the island in 2002 blamed on Jemaah Islamiah.
    Security experts have said the latest strikes also bore the hallmarks of the group.
    In Bali on Sunday, a forensics team picked through the debris in the Jimbaran area. Chairs and tables had been blown apart but the buildings appeared largely undamaged.
    Experts speculated about the possible involvement of Malaysians Azahari bin Husin and Noordin M. Top, key members of the Jemaah Islamiah network.
    However, Pastika said police had no solid intelligence to suggest either man was in Bali or linked to the latest attacks.
    Some have speculated the attacks could have come from others seeking to destabilise Yudhoyono's presidency or upset with massive fuel price hikes his government has pushed through.
    Pastika denied that the police had been unprepared. He said that "It is relatively easy to enter Bali. Our coast is quite long and it's no hassle to cross through Gilimanuk port but it's impossible to make our police force and other authorities check on every detail and everybody therefore we don't feel that we have been caught off guard."
    Bali hospital officials said so far 16 of the dead had been identified -- 12 Indonesians including a six-year-old boy, three Australians and a Japanese.
    The Bali police chief, however, disputed the hospitals' death toll of 26, saying that only 22 people had been confirmed killed, of which five were foreigners.
    Hospital officials have said the wounded included 64 Indonesians, 20 Australians, seven South Koreans, four Americans, three Japanese, one French, and one German, with other nationalities unknown.
    Police said a family unwittingly captured one of the bombers on video.
    During the news conference, police played the video showing a figure clad in a black shirt and jeans and wearing what looked like a small backpack walking into the cafe in Kuta before an explosion.
    Bali, 960 km (595 miles) east of Jakarta, is Indonesia's most popular destination for foreign tourists.
    Jakarta experienced deadly car-bomb attacks on a luxury hotel in 2003 and outside the Australian embassy in 2004.
    The attacks were the latest in a number of bomb blasts in Indonesia in recent years, several against Western targets, which have hurt tourism and raised concerns among investors about security in the world's populous Muslim nation.
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