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November 13, 2006
Indonesia: Muslim's Bomb Attack Was Not An Islamist Bomb Attack
On Saturday (November 11) a bomb went off at an American-franchised A & W fast food outlet in Plaza Kramat Jati Indah shopping mall, in the eastern subdistrict of Bidara Cina, in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital. The bomber was burned in the blast, which was caused by a pipe-bomb filled with gunpowder and buckshot pellets.
Reuters and Antara News quote Senior Commander I Ketut Untung Yoga Ana, a Jakarta police spokesman, who maintains that the bombing was not an act by the known Islamist groups who have bombed in the past, most notably Jemaah Islamiyah, who carried out the Bali bombings of 2002 and 2005.
Yoga said: "He did it alone because none of the explosive materials are the same as in other previous bombings....Investigators are coordinating with the medical team about when (they) can interrogate him."
The 36-year old man's motives were unknown, though he was reported to have acted strangely before the bomb went off, at around 6 pm. He pretended to faint. Latest reports state that he had asked staff at the A & W restaurant for medical help. The Jakarta Post and AKI report that the security in other public spaces has been stepped up.
The bomber, who is known by his neighbors in East Jakarta's Bidara Cina as a quiet electronics repairman, regained consciousness on Saturday evening. Yoga claims that the suspect did not intend to be a suicide bomber, as the device was not strapped to his body.
11 people have so far even questioned by police, including the bomber's relatives. One relative said that the man had been upset and had been acting strangely since his mother died earlier in the year.
President George W. Bush is due to visit Indonesia in a week's time, a move which has proved to be deeply unpopular with many Muslims in Indonesia, whose population is 85% Muslim. It will be the US president's second visit to Indonesia. He visited then-president Megawati Soekarnoputri in Bali in 2003. President Bush's current visit is a courtesy visit, reciprocating that of Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who visited the White House last year.
The latest news is that the bomber has earlier today spoken from his hospital bed. According to Jakarta police chief Major General Adang Firman, the man has said that he was trying to commit suicide.
Firman announced: "He was trying to cause a sensation. He said if he killed himself in a normal way it would not be cool."
A police representative said that the man will be given a psychiatric analysis.
It seems that despite causing alarm amongst security agencies, Saturday's bomb blast was more a desperate act by a distressed Muslim man, who wanted his suicide to be seen as a an act of Islamic defiance against the superpower that Muslims love to hate.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 13, 2006 6:44 AM
Comments
I'm inclined to believe that explanation - it was certainly incompetent, which the jihadis generally are not.
Posted by: Sir Henry Morgan ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.westernresistance.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at November 13, 2006 8:15 AM
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