Indonesian
police said Sunday they had arrested 25 people suspected of carrying out
a spate of bombings in the capital, including a blast at the Jakarta
Stock Exchange that killed 15 people.
One suspect, armed with a grenade, was
picked up as he was on his way to attack Jakarta's U.S. Embassy and a
nearby crowded department store, said Brig. Gen. Dadang Garnida, who
heads the police information department.
Other senior police officers said most
of the detainees were from the northwestern province of Aceh, which has
been wracked by years of bloody fighting between separatist guerrillas
and Indonesian troops.
There were no military or police
personnel in the group, despite speculation that disaffected elements
within the armed forces, loyal to disgraced ex-dictator Suharto, might
have been responsible for the bombings.
All were arrested in the capital and
the hunt for more suspects was continuing across the city of 11 million
people, police said.
News of the arrests came one day after
President Abdurrahman Wahid installed a new national police chief and
ordered quick action to stop the attacks, which he claimed were designed
to undermine his reformist 11-month-old government.
Police said the first suspect was
arrested on Saturday. After his interrogation, 24 others were detained
on Sunday.
"They are suspected of being
responsible for all the bombings in Jakarta," Garnida said.
"One suspect said he was going to bomb the U.S. Embassy and Sarinah
(department store) next."
Senior Superintendent Saleh Saaf,
deputy national police spokesman, said the group of suspects included
four men believed to be the ringleaders of the bombing operation.
"The people arrested have no
links to military or police," he said. "We suspect terrorists
groups from Aceh are behind the bombings. Most of those caught are
Acehnese."
However, the troubled province's main
rebel group, the Free Aceh Movement, denied any involvement in the
Jakarta bombings.
"It's impossible those arrested
are our members because we have no forces in Jakarta," Ayah Muni, a
separatist spokesman, said.
Since 1975, the Free Aceh Movement has
been fighting for independence from Indonesia, leaving at least 5,500
people dead in the past decade. Although Indonesia is mostly Muslim, the
rebels want to introduce Islamic law and re-establish the feudal
Sultanate of Aceh.
On September 13, a car bomb blew up
and set fire to the basement garage of the Jakarta stock exchange,
killing 15 people and injuring scores more.
On August 1, another car bomb exploded
outside the Philippine ambassador's residence, killing two people and
injuring dozens, including the envoy.
There have also been bomb attacks at
the Malaysian Embassy and the office of Indonesia's attorney general. A
bus was blown up a few weeks ago as well.
The blasts have coincided with
developments in a corruption case against ex-dictator Suharto and many
have speculated that the attacks were the work of his supporters opposed
to Wahid's democratic reforms.
The accusation has been denied by
Suharto's family and lawyers, who maintain the ex-leader is too sick
after three strokes to attend his trial, which began on Aug. 31. Suharto
underwent court-ordered medical tests on Saturday.
Suharto was ousted from office in 1998
amid pro-democracy protests and riots.
The U.S. State Department warned U.S.
citizens last week that American companies and interests might be
targeted by the bombers. Anti-American sentiment in Indonesia recently
has risen.
On September 18, visiting U.S. Defense
Secretary William
Cohen warned that economic sanctions might be imposed on the world's
fourth-most populous nation unless Jakarta reined in militia gangs that
continue to cause havoc on Timor island.
The warning came after militia gangs
killed three U.N. humanitarian workers, including a U.S. citizen, in
Atambua in Indonesian West Timor on September 6.
The militias are the same gangs that
devastated neighboring East Timor after its people voted to break free
of Indonesian rule in a U.N.-supervised ballot a year ago.
There have been several anti-American
demonstrations and U.S. flag burnings since Cohen's threat.
U.S. Embassy officials declined to
comment Sunday.