Police Carry Out Bali Bombing Reconstruction

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:A reconstruction related to events leading up to the Bali bombing was carried out at the Bali Police headquarters (HQ) in Bali on Saturday morning (4/1). The reconstruction consisted of events that took place in three different places: at the Leuwipanjang bus terminal in Bandung, West Java, at the Kampung Rambutan bus terminal in Jakarta and a meeting held at the rented house of Idris, a Bali bombing suspect, in Surakarta, Central Java. The reconstruction was carried out by the National Police HQ investigation team to clarify the involvement of Bali bombing suspects Rauf, Dedi Amin, Agus and Imam Samudra aka Abdul Azis. Bali bombing investigation team spokesperson Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang said that no information on new evidences or suspects was uncovered in the reconstruction. Regarding why the reconstruction was held at the Bali Police HQ, Aritonang said that the place was chosen due to security and technical reasons, such as the distances of the real locations. This kind of reconstruction is not a must and the police only carried it out to verify the information given in the case, Aritonang told reporters at the National Police HQ in Jakarta. Aritonang gave an example of the meeting at Leuwipanjang bus terminal in Bandung. In the investigation report, it was originally said that the meeting was to plan the robbing of a goldsmiths shop in Serang, Banten. However, it turned out that the meeting was to discuss a plan to carry out a holy war (jihad). As the meeting at Kampung Rambutan bus terminal in Jakarta, Bali bombing suspects Rauf , Dedi Amin, and Agus reported the robbery they committed to Imam Samudra. They reported the results of the robbery, amounting to Rp5 million in cash and about 2.3kg of gold, said Aritonang. As for the third event in the reconstruction, this was supposed to have been carried out sometime ago in Surakarta. The bombing suspects were brought to the scene. But, they failed to remember the exact location of Idris rented house, said Aritonang. The content of the meeting in Surakarta was to discuss the result of meeting previously carried out at the house of other suspect Hernianto regarding the suspects departure to Bali. Regarding the trial on Bali bombing suspects, the investigation report on bombing suspect Amrozi is scheduled to be delivered to the prosecutor on January 6, 2003. As for the pursuit of the 11 other suspects in the Bali bombing, there is as yet no progress. However, Aritonang said he was convinced that the fugitives are still in Indonesia. ( Purwanto Tempo News Room )