The Jakarta Post, 3/6/2007 3:20:55 PM
Bomb plant in Ambon shopping center has no link with terror
network
MALANG, East Java (Antara): A bomb planted Monday in shopping center, Maluku
provincial capital of Ambon was nothing to do with a terror network related to sectarian
conflicts there, National Intelligence Agency (BIN) Chief Syamsir Siregar said
hereTuesday.
"It was only the result of an inter-village quarrel. It had nothing to do with any terrorist
network related to the past sectarian conflict," Syamsir was quoted by Antara news
agency as saying.
He said the unexploded bomb which was found at the Ambon Plaza shopping mall
Monday had been assembled by villagers who had a grudge against residents of
another village.
The bomb was planted by an unidentified person in an empty lot near the plaza before
it was discovered at 4 p.m. local time.
"It is a home-made bomb and anybody can make it. Thus, it has nothing to do with
any terrorist network," Syamsir said, adding that security officers were continuing to
investigate an explosion at the Yos Sudarso port in Ambon last Saturday.
The bomb blast at the busy port which at 9 a.m. local time injured at least 12 people ,
including two small children who were identified as nine-year-old Martia and
two-year-old Yunus. Ambon police had so far questioned five witnesses in relation
with the Yos Sudarso bomb blast.
Maluku police spokesman Adjunct Senior Commissioner Tommy Napitupulu said
police had so far collected evidence and questioned five witnesses but none of them
has been named a suspect.
He said most of the witnesses were vendors and motorbike-taxi drivers who were at
the port when the explosion occurred not long after a passenger boat, the MV
Siguntang, from Bau Bau in Buton island, Southeast Sulawesi, docked at the port.
Napitupulu said the low-explosive bomb was placed in a cart right in front of the exit
and entry gate of the port.
Although it was a low-explosive bomb, the explosion was quite harmful as it flung
around such objects as nails, needles and broken glass fragments. One of the
wounded victims had to undergo surgery after his calf had been torn open by a nail.
A sectarian conflict that raged in Ambon and several islands in Maluku province
between 1999 and 2002 caused the death of more than 5,000 people before a
government-sponsored peace pact basedon the traditional "Pela Gandong" principle
took hold. (**)
All contents copyright © of The Jakarta Post.
|
