Bali restaurants 'were advised to step up security'

Restaurants on a Bali beach hit by terrorists ignored warnings they could be targeted following the discovery of a partially made bomb, a police official said today, as investigators took DNA samples from suspected relatives of the bombers.

Cafes along the Jimbaran Bay were told a month before the attacks to station guards and to check bags and cars entering the area, but decided to wait until after a Hindu holiday that was celebrated on the resort island yesterday – four days after the bombings, Captain D. Dharmada said.

“If those measures had been implemented, this attack probably wouldn’t have happened,” he told The Associated Press. “I’m disappointed. Security is very important and the loss here is so big. It’s a big sacrifice,” he said.

Dharmada added that police stepped up security, but because of their limited number of officers, hotels and restaurants – including 28 cafes in the area - were told to help out.

“We gathered all their security chiefs and briefed them about ways to prepare.”

The al-Qaida linked Jemaah Islaiyah terror group is suspected in Saturday’s near simultaneous attacks on three crowded restaurants – two on Jimbaran beach and another in the nearby tourist area of Kuta.

Twenty-two people were killed, including the bombers, and more than 100 wounded.

Police so far have announced few breaks in the investigation, but said today they have taken DNA samples from several suspected family members of the suicide bombers – whose severed heads were found yards from the blast sites.

Photographs of their bruised and swollen faces have been circulated nationwide and police have called on the public to help identify the men.

Police spokesman Brigadier General Sunarko Danu Artanto said he could not provide any information about the suspected family members who were being tested, but the The Java Pos newspaper said they were from east Java, Bali’s neighbouring province.

“I cannot mention their names,” he said. “But the police have done that.”

Identifying the bombers could help police track down the masterminds of the attacks.

Anti-terror officials say Malaysian fugitives Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top – believed to be key Jemaaah Islamiyah leaders – are the main suspects.

The two have been linked to the nightclub bombings on Bali in 2002 that killed 202 people, most of them foreigners, and the August 2003 and September 2004 blasts at the J.W. Marriott hotel and the Australian Embassy, both in Jakarta, that killed 22 people.

Victims of the triple suicide blasts, meanwhile, expressed anger at the failure by restaurant owners on Jimbaran Bay – where 14 people died – to heed police warnings about a possible attack.

Dharmada, the police official, said Jimbaran village leaders were told last month about the discovery in early August of bomb parts at the Kuta Paradiso and agreed with a proposal to boost security. But he said they asked that it be delayed until after Galungan, one of the island’s biggest religious festivals, that was celebrated yesterday.

Nyoman Soka, chief of the village that includes the beachfront cafes, acknowledged attending a meeting between police and local leaders but insisted there was no firm security proposal made ahead of the bombings.

He said: “Obviously, I feel responsible. After this bombing, the first thing we plan to do is implement this security plan.”

Pande Wayan, whose wife Wayan Ani worked at a cafe near the blast and remains in hospital with shrapnel in her neck and back, said he was angry and disappointed over the failure to improve security.

“We’ve discussed this security for a long time. The village was too slow in responding,” said Pande, who works at the same cafe and represented the business at the security briefing. He confirmed that police warned the establishments.

Indonesia, meanwhile, widened its search for suspects in the triple suicide attacks.

“All regional police chiefs are investigating suspicious activities in their areas,” said police spokesman Major General Ariyanto Budiharjo. “The suicide bombers did not work alone. Someone must have ordered them. Someone must have made the explosives.”

Police completed forensic investigations at the three bombing sites today and reopened them to the public.