Bali Bombings Expected To Be Start Of New Terror Wave

by Fabio Scarpello

(IPS) BALI -- With experts fairly certain that the Oct. 1 bombings were a repeat of the October 2002 attacks on this tourist resort by the Jemaah Islamiyah, the big question is when will the group, said to have links with the international al-Qaeda network, strike next.

"There are really no doubts that the Jemaah Islamiyah (or Islamic Community) is behind the attacks," Ken Conboy, security expert and author, told IPS, adding that the trouble with Bali was that it was impossible to protect against such attacks.

Three bombs exploded in two popular tourist resorts in Bali on Saturday evening, just days before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Hindu Galungan festival. The death toll was set on Sunday at 32, with over 100 injured but doctors said more fatalities are expected.

The first two bombs detonated at about 7:40PM local time and ripped apart the Nyoman Cafe and the Menega, along Jimbaran, a popular beach resort some 18 km south of Kuta, Bali's main holiday destination.

The third bomb exploded 20 minutes later in the Raja steakhouse, a busy, middle budget restaurant situated in Kuta Square, the explosion devastating the entire the ground floor and much of the first floor. Glass and pieces of tables were still strewn about the street on Sunday and the absence of any crater outside suggested that the bomb was planted inside.

Police said nine more bombs were found and defused in other parts of the resort.

One Australian is confirmed among the 32 dead. Forty nine Indonesians, 17 Australians, six Koreans, three Japanese and two Americans are counted among the injured treated at Denpasar's Sanglah Hospital, where doctors are struggling to identify the bodies.

Kuta was painted red with blood when 202 people, who were partying at the Sari Club died, as two bombs exploded on Oct. 12, 2002.

Officials said at a press conference on Sunday that there was little doubt that suicide bombers were behind the blasts and screened video footage, obtained from a family, that showed someone with a large backpack entering a cafe in Kuta before the explosion.

The Jemaah Islamiyah, which wants to create a pan-Islamic state in Southeast Asia and is deemed responsible for a series of deadly attacks that have rocked Indonesia, almost every year since 2000, is widely believed responsible.

Jakarta has received the brunt of the attacks. The Marriott Hotel, on Aug. 5, 2003, and the Australian Embassy, on Sept. 9, 2004, were both targeted by car bombs. The blasts killed 12 and 11 people respectively and maimed many more.

Conboy, who is soon to release a book on Southeast Asia's terrorism, said that Saturday's "modus operandi" was similar to the bombings carried out against 11 churches across the country on Dec. 25, 2000.

"It looks like they have gone for small, easy targets to get maximum casualties, rather than a big, symbolic one as they have done in the past two years," he said.

However, as the Balinese pick up the pieces and clean the shredded glass off the floor, the attention moves to how to prevent such attacks from happening again.

"To prevent these sort of attacks is almost impossible. You can do a screening at the entrance of places like the Hard Rock Cafe, but you cannot do much in small establishments like the ones that have just been targeted. In this case you either shut them down or you have to live with the risk," Conboy said

Small restaurants are at the core of Bali's tourism industry, which is the backbone of the island's economy. Tourism had just begun to pick up after a drastic drop following the 2002 bombing.

In the wake of the latest attacks, Tourism Minister Jero Wacik has predicted a sharp drop in number of tourists arriving over the next few months, but hoped that the island will bounce back once more.

Jimmy, who sells temporary tattoos at Kuta beach, demands the government do more against the terror threat.

"They keep attacking -- why is the government not doing anything?" he asked angrily.

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has asked people to be vigilant and vowed to find the culprits.

"We will hunt them down and bring them to justice," he said, soon after the news of the bombing reached the capital.

Only a month ago, Yudhoyono had warned of possible attacks, showing the near helplessness of the government in preventing what they knew was coming. "I received information at the time that terrorists were planning an action in Jakarta and that explosives were ready," he said Saturday, referring to his earlier warnings based on information gleaned by international and Indonesian intelligence agencies.

So far, though, Indonesia's fight against terrorism has had mixed results.

Indonesia is considered both a target and a breeding ground for terrorists. Jemaah Islamiyah, which means "Islamic community" in Arabic, is not deemed an illegal group in the archipelago where 85 percent of the 220 million people are Muslim.

The organization is believed to have a fair-sized following in the Islamic schools in Java.

The government has been active in pursuing terrorists and can pride itself in having caught, charged, brought to trial and condemned or even awarded the death sentence to some of the last bombings' suspected operatives. Yet, Jakarta has been unable to nail the big fish.

Abu Bakar Bashir, considered the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, is currently serving a 30-month prison sentence for having instigated the Bali bombings. His short sentence is considered a failure of the Indonesian prosecutors who could not bring sufficient evidence to court on two occasions.

Still at large are Azahari bin Husin and Noordin M. Top, two Malaysian extremists, believed to be the organization's main bomb makers and the brains behind all the major latest blasts.

The Malaysians have been named prime suspects in Saturday's bombings by top intelligence official Maj. Gen. Ansyaad Mbai. The two are also believed to have been behind the 2002 nightclub incident.

Conboy emphasized that the arrest of the two fugitives were imperative. "It has been a long time. The government must find and arrest these two people. There is really no alternative," he said.