AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Tuesday October 15, 2002 4:15 PM
International police task force formed to hunt down Bali bombers
An international police task force has been assembled to hunt down the terrorists
responsible for the bomb blast that killed more than 180 people here, two Australian
ministers announced here.
It includes more than 40 Australian officers, as well as experts from the US Federal
Bureau of Investigation, Britain's Scotland Yard and units from Germany and Japan,
many of whom began sifting through the devastation on the resort island of Bali on
Tuesday.
"What I've seen today is enough to break anyone's heart, a simply shocking sight,
utterly appalling, and it drives home to anybody the evil of terrorism, of mass murder,"
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told reporters Tuesday after visiting the site of
Saturday's explosions.
He said the Indonesian government had expressed suspicions with which Australia
could identify that al-Qaeda, possibly operating through an indigenous organisation
like Jamma Islamiya, may have been responsible.
"But at this stage we really just don't know."
Australian Prime Minister John Howard earlier said there was a "strong suspicion" but
no proof al-Qaeda was behind the bombing and vowed to press ahead with a
campaign against the attackers.
Downer said there was no evidence suggesting Australian lives had been deliberately
targeted in the attack.
"We think more likely foreigners more generally were deliberately targeted," he said.
"This strikes us as being yet another example of very carefully planned, ruthless,
inhumane terrorism against foreigners and we have no evidence that Australians in
particular were targeted."
Downer was accompanied during his visit by Justice Minister Chris Ellison, who said
they told Bali's chief of police Australia would provide all the help it could.
The two backed away from earlier Australian criticism of Indonesian authorities for
insufficient action against terrorists, saying they were now working with Jakarta.
"We have forensic experts, people skilled in victim identification and bomb blasts here
in Bali," Ellison said.
"They will be working with the Indonesian police and other police from the UK,
America, Germany and Japan in what is really an international effort in bringing to
justice those who were responsible for this outrageous attack."
Downer and Ellison earlier laid wreaths in a simple ceremony amid the blackened
devastation of Kuta's Jalan Raya Legian, the street where a large and sti unknown
number of Australians died.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack at the popular Sari Club,
which also left more than 300 people injured, many seriously burned.
Downer said many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition while others had
disintegrated in the blast.
"The Indonesians have told us that so far they have got reasonably close to identifying
about 40 bodies out of the 182 or so that are in the morgue," he said.
"On the other hand there are likely to be others killed beyond the 182, people who
were simply blown to pieces by the blast."
The wreath-laying ceremony was also attended by leaders of all Bali's major religious
faiths, which Downer described as an "appropriate and very thoughtful" tribute.
"No single religion should be taken as being responsible for terrorism," he said.
The two ministers had earlier met Bali's governor, Dewa Made Brapha, and senior
police officials to ask what help they needed and to offer assistance, both medical
and forensic.
Downer and Ellison later met families of some of the Australian victims and were to
travel later Tuesday to Jakarta for talks with key Indonesian officials Wednesday.
Copyright © 2002 AFP. All rights reserved.
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