In Reply to: BOMB found in BALI posted by Baliku on Thursday, 1. September 2005 at 05:00 Bali Time:
Terror scare clears hotel
From correspondents in Denpasar, Indonesia
01sep05
POLICE on the Indonesian island of Bali have evacuated a five-star hotel after staff found a suspicious device.
Bali police chief Made Mangku Pastika said the device found at the Kuta Paradiso Hotel contained two timers, powder, and a battery, but no explosives.
He called the incident a "terror attack" because it was designed to scare people.
The discovery comes just days after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono warned that militants from Jemaah Islamiah, a shadowy group linked to al-Qaeda, were plotting more attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
Mr Pastika said: "From the external appearance, the item could have blown at any time had it contained low explosives."
Jemaah Islamiah has carried out numerous bombings in Indonesia, including the 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
Mr Pastika said police did not yet have suspects and the hotel was now functioning normally.
This week, Mr Yudhoyono warned of possible terrorist attacks in the next two months.
He did not elaborate, but Jemaah Islamiah, seen as the South-East Asian arm of al-Qaeda, has carried out one big bombing in Indonesia each year for the past few years.
Police have also blamed it for a suicide bombing outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta last September that killed 10.
Some security experts have said that despite the arrest of a number of its senior operatives, Jemaah Islamiah still has the capability to conduct bombings.
This was emailed to me by my sister in law. My extended family are now really freaking out. We still intend to go on our trip though even though they are all ringing trying to get us to change our minds.
Balibabe