JAKARTA, Oct 25: Indonesian efforts to arrest those behind the Bali blasts appeared mired in turf battles on Thursday with the intelligence agency, BIN, the police and the military each going its own way in pursuit of the terrorists.

In the central Java city of Solo, meanwhile, suspected Jemaah Islamiyah leader Abu Bakar Bashir was too ill to be questioned about his alleged links to terrorist acts, doctors said.

A spokesman for BIN Muchyar Yara told local media that intelligence agents are hot on the trail of the Bali bombers, and hoped that they would be arrested ‘soon’.

But Police Brigadier General Edward Aritonang denied that the BIN had shared any information with it on the Bali culprits, saying that the police investigators are going on clues found on the scene of the blasts and their own intelligence gathering personnel.

“I’ve no information from BIN. We don’t have suspects in mind yet,” he said.

Adding to the confusion and highlighting the rifts that prevent Indonesia’s intelligence and security agencies from cooperating efficiently, top military officers said earlier that their operatives had known about terrorist activities here for “a while.”

General Ryamizard Ryacudu, Army chief of staff, said: “Our intelligence network detected terrorist cells in Indonesia a long time ago. We didn’t act because it is no longer within our jurisdiction to do so.”

He added that the police, since its formal separation from the military chain of command two years ago, are now responsible for arresting criminals.

Since the Bali blasts, Indonesia’s security officials have blamed one another for failure to prevent the terrorist act.

The picture that is emerging, said analysts, is that the military, BIN and the police are competitive, instead of cooperative with each other.

Before leaving for Mexico to attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, President Megawati Sukarnoputri consolidated all intelligence gathering personnel and activities under the control of BIN chief AM Hendropriyono.

Analysts, however, remained skeptical that such a move could get the various agencies and their competitive chiefs on the same page of the anti-terror agenda.—The Straits Times/Asia News Network