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Woman Arrested In Jakarta Tourist Park With Eight Time Bombs
JAKARTA (News Agencies) - Police found eight bombs at a tourist attraction in the Indonesian capital on Friday and arrested a woman allegedly linked to the family of former president Suharto.
The woman, Eliza Maria Tuwahatu, 33, was arrested at the "Indonesia in Miniature" recreation park in East Jakarta while rushing for a taxi.
She ran for the cab after putting three bombs in a plastic bag on top of a van belonging to a person visiting the park, Chief Brigadier Ahmad Saleh of the Jakarta police said.
Police later found five more bombs in the park, Saleh said, adding that all the devices, weighing two kilograms each, contained trinitrotoluene (TNT).
The timers show the devices, which were found at 11.00 a.m., were set to detonate at 2.30 p.m. (0730 GMT).
News of the arrest sent already-depressed Jakarta stock prices tumbling, and the Jakarta Stock Exchange composite index closed 1.2% or 4.787 points down at 411.558.down, brokers said.
Saleh said the arrested woman told police that the eight bombs were to be planted at the central tax office, the attorney general's office, customs office and ministry of trade and industry.
Earlier, Haloman Silalahi of the local police said the woman was apparently at the park to hand the bombs over to someone else.
"The bombs were not to be exploded there [in the park]. They met there for the transaction," Silalahi said.
Later Friday, police went to the suspect's modest home in the plush central Menteng area of Jakarta, one block from the luxurious residence of former Indonesian president Suharto.
At the house police found three more homemade bombs, nine explosive firecrackers, and 12 non-explosives firecrackers, Saleh said.
Police took her mother, Sonya Tuwahatu, and a man in for questioning.
The arrested woman was running a seafood restaurant at the house, where neighbors said she was known as a fortuneteller.
Tuwahatu's uncle had told the Detikcom news portal she was a former medical student at a private Jakarta university.
A local Menteng policeman, who refused to be identified, told journalists that she was known to be a spiritual advisor of Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, Suharto's youngest son who is now on the run after being sentenced to serve an 18-month jail sentence for corruption.
"She's not a fortuneteller. She's a spiritual advisor to Tommy's family," the Suhartos, he said.
By late Friday there was no indication that police had been able to track the person or persons who were to have collected the eight bombs from the park - popularly known as "Taman Mini."
Suharto's late wife built the park, and the former dictator still has a mansion there.
Indonesia was rocked by a series of bomb blasts the past year, including one at the stock exchange, the latest of which took place on Christmas Eve. Police have yet to solve the bombings.
The Christmas Eve blasts in several Indonesian cities killed at least 18 people and injured more than 100.
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