Amrozi, the owner of a minivan used in last month‘s car bomb attack on Bali, is seen here in an undated family photo. Indonesian police said Amrozi, who was detained on Tuesday, has confessed November 7, 2002 to being part of the group who planted powerful bombs outside a popular Bali nightclub which left nearly 200 people dead. PHOTO – REUTERS

JAKARTA – Indonesian police said on Thursday the owner of a minivan used in last month‘s car-bomb attack in Bali had admitted being a key figure in the group that carried out the atrocity, and had given police plenty of information. In the first big breakthrough in the multinational probe over the October 12 blasts that killed 184 people, national police chief General Da‘i Bachtiar identified the man as Amrozi and told reporters he was on the resort island at the time of the attacks. Asked if Amrozi parked the explosives-laden van in front of a nightclub packed with foreign tourists, Bachtiar said: „The group has several people with a division of labour, certainly including Amrozi, who admitted going there and dividing up tasks.“

Amrozi is the first suspect named over the three blasts that rocked Bali, presenting President Megawati Sukarnoputri with the biggest challenge of her presidency and appearing to confirm fears that the world‘s most populous Muslim nation was Southeast Asia‘s weakest link in the war on terrorism. The car-bomb was by far the biggest of the blasts, destroying the Sari nightclub and killing mainly foreign revellers. Bachtiar said Amrozi resembled one of four sketches of possible suspects police have released. He did not say if Amrozi was Indonesian or if he had any links to radical Muslim groups. No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts but speculation has centred on Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian Islamist group which intelligence agencies say has planned attacks throughout the region and have linked to al Qaeda.

Without prompting by reporters, Bachtiar said that if any information pointed in the direction of Abu Bakar Bashir, a Muslim cleric who is the suspected spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah, this would be cross-checked. Bashir has not been tied to Bali. He denies any wrongdoing.

Police earlier released the sketch of the fourth suspect in the Bali probe. Singapore said on Thursday plenty was at stake in the probe.

In a sign Jakarta might be cracking down on Islamic militancy in the wake of the blasts, a radical Muslim group notorious for raiding nightclubs and making threats against Westerners said it had suspended its militia‘s activities indefinitely. The senior security source said the declining fortunes of the Islamic Defender‘s Front and Laskar Jihad was no coincidence.

Reuters