Indonesian police say other arrests in Bali bombing expected soon

Friday, November 8th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) _ The top suspect in the Bali bombings has admitted that he knows the two alleged leaders of an al-Qaida linked terror network and has confessed to taking part in a string of terror attacks in Indonesia, officials said Friday.

After the arrest of an Indonesian man identified as Amrozi _ the first major breakthrough in the inquiry _ police said Friday they expected to capture more of his accomplices soon.

Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang said Amrozi, 40, admitted that he knows two Muslim clerics: Riduan Isamudin _ also known as Hambali _ and Abu Bakar Bashir, said to be the leaders of Jemaah Islamiyah. The Muslim militant group has been linked by investigators to al-Qaida, and has emerged as the prime suspect in the Oct. 12 Bali nightclub bombings that killed nearly 200 people.

Hambali, a known al-Qaida operative in the region, has been named Jemaah Islamiyah's operations chief. He is believed to be in hiding outside Indonesia.

Other intelligence officials in Bali, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said Amrozi admitted under interrogation that he met personally with the two clerics.

The officials said Amrozi admitted that he bought the materials used in the bombs and has confessed to taking part in a bomb blast at the Jakarta Stock Exchange that killed 15 people in 2000. He also acknowledged involvement in the bombing of the Philippines ambassador's residence in Jakarta in 2000 and the bombing of the Philippines consulate in North Sulawesi province on Oct. 12, the officials said.

The developments signaled that the investigation was gaining momentum and lent credence to the assertion that al-Qaida was involved in the bombings, the worst terrorist atrocity since the attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

Maj. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika, who heads an international investigation into the bombings, said detectives believe that six to 10 people were involved in the Bali attack.

Speaking in the Philippines where he is attending an anti-terrorism conference, Pastika said Amrozi had led police to a Bali residence where a forensic unit found residue of the explosives used in the bombs.

Although Australians account for the largest number of bombing victims, Pastika said Americans were the real target.

``They said they want to kill as many Americans'' as possible, he said. ``They hate Americans. They tried to find where the Americans are gathering. That is in Bali. But they were not that happy because Australians were killed in big numbers.''

Aritonang told reporters in Bali that an intensive manhunt was going on in several regions where the perpetrators were believed to be hiding. ``If everything goes according to plan, we should be able to catch more of these people in the not too distant future,'' he said.

On Thursday, national police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said Amrozi, or M. Rozi, had admitted to taking part in the attack.

Bachtiar said Amrozi owned the L300 Mitsubishi minivan laden with at least 110 pounds of explosives that blew up outside a packed nightclub on Bali, and that Amrozi was part of a group that planned and carried out the attack.

``Amrozi was one of the main perpetrators in the Bali bombing,'' Bachtiar said. ``He has disclosed many things and admitted his acts in Bali. Therefore we are pursuing his companions.''

Authorities said the manhunt was focusing on the eastern part of Indonesia's dominant island of Java, which is adjacent to Bali. Amrozi was detained there on Tuesday.

Dzakaria said Amrozi worked in Malaysia during the 1990s, a time when Bashir was living there in exile during the dictatorship of Indonesia's former ruler, Suharto.

On Friday, two security experts _ citing intelligence and militant sources _ said that Jemaah Islamiyah members met in southern Thailand in January and agreed to target tourist venues like the Bali nightclubs.

Zachary Abuza, a security analyst who has written extensively on al-Qaida, said the meeting was convened by Hambali and followed the arrest of several Jemaah Islamiyah members in Singapore and Malaysia for planning attacks on Western interests there.

``One Jemaah Islamiyah member I interviewed said that Hambali was very angry about the arrest of Jemaah Islamiyah members in Singapore and Malaysia,'' he said. ``Instead of going after symbolic hard targets like U.S. embassies, he authorized members to go after soft targets such as tourist spots.''

Abuza said the operative gave ``marching orders'' to his underlings and ``it was up to the different cell members to come up with their operational plans.''

Rohan Gunaratna, who has written book on al-Qaida and is based in Singapore, also said he had intelligence sources who said there was a meeting in Thailand.

But in Thailand, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said there was no evidence that al-Qaida operatives met in Thailand to plot the Bali attack.