The Jakarta Post, October 12, 2005
Gus Dur links police, military to 2002 Bali bombings
SYDNEY (AFP): Indonesia's former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid has
said his nation's police or military officers may have been involved in the 2002 Bali
bombings which killed 202 people.
As Australia Wednesday marked the third anniversary of the nightclub attacks in
which 88 Australians died, Gus Dur told SBS television's Dateline that he fears there
are links between Indonesian authorities and terror groups.
On the program, which is due to air later Wednesday, he said that while terrorists
were responsible for the first bomb which went off on Oct. 12, 2002, the second blast
may have been organized by the authorities.
Asked who had planted the second bomb, he said: "Maybe the police... or the armed
forces."
He added: "The orders to do this or that came from within our armed forces not from
the fundamentalist people."
The 2002 bombings on the Indonesian resort island have been blamed on the Islamic
group, Jamaah Islamiyah.
Jamaah Islamiyah has also been fingered as being behind the latest Bali bombings
which killed 20 people, plus three suicide bombers, on Oct. 1.
Gus Dur was sacked as president by the national assembly in July 2001 for unproven
allegations of corruption and incompetence.
He was replaced by his vice president, Megawati Soekarnoputri who has since been
replaced by former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
The 64-year-old Wahid is practically blind, diabetic and has suffered strokes. (**)
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