The Jakarta Post

Exhumed body in RP not Dulmatin: Police

Matheos Messakh , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 03/25/2008 11:20 AM

The National Police said Monday a body exhumed in Tawi-Tawi, the Philippines, was not that of wanted Bali bomber Dulmatin.

"The team has returned from the Philippines and we affirm that the exhumed body was not that of Dulmatin," National Police deputy spokesman Brig. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam said.

However, Bachrul Alam said the official results of a DNA test would be released by the Philippine National Police.

"We just have to wait, and it will be prove that the exhumed body is not that of Dulmatin," he said.

The National Police previously sent a Disaster Victim Identification team to the Philippines with DNA sample from Dulmatin's family to try and identify the slain member of an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist.

Dulmatin is an Indonesian national and Jemaah Islamiah (JI) militant wanted for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed some 202 people.

Two suspected Bali bombing plotters, Umar Patek and Dulmatin, are believed to have fled to the southern Philippines in 2003.

Philippine military officials believe Dulmatin, whose wife identified him as Ammar Usman, may have been killed in a clash with government forces in the country's southernmost province of Tawi Tawi in January.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation started forensic examinations on Feb. 19 to confirm if the body recovered by the Philippine military in Tawi-Tawi belonged to Dulmatin, who is believed to have been plotting terror attacks and training Filipino militants in the southern region of Mindanao. The results were scheduled for release after a month.

The United States announced on Feb. 26 it was prepared to release $10 million as part of the bounty allocated for Dulmatin, should forensic experts from the FBI and the PNP confirm the body exhumed in Tawi-Tawi was indeed that of the Bali bomber.

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