January 21, 2002, AFP, Jakarta seeks clarity on Indonesian terror suspect in Philippines,

January 21, 2002, AFP, Jakarta seeks clarity on Indonesian terror suspect in Philippines,

JAKARTA, Jan 21 (AFP) -

Jakarta is trying to clarify the status of a man, said to be an Indonesian, arrested in the Philippines and linked by police there to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, the foreign minister said Monday.

"We are still seeking clarification because our information from the Singapore media said that this man has long lived there (in Singapore) and took a wife from Malaysia," Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said.

Philippine police said Saturday they had arrested an Indonesian, Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, in connection with a series of deadly bombings there in 2000.

They said he was arrested based on information from Singapore that he was a key leader of the Jemaah Islamiya, an Islamic "terror group operating in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia."

Philippine police also said they believed al-Ghozi had links to al-Qaeda.

Wirayuda told reporters the man had lived longer in Singapore than in Indonesia and cautioned against hastily labelling him as connected to al-Qaeda.

"We should not link everything with al-Qaeda," Wirayuda said.

Philippine police said al-Ghozi's arrest on January 15 led police in the southern Philippines on January 17 to seize a cache of explosives and weapons meant for attacks on Southeast Asian countries and to arrest three Muslim Filipino associates.

The police said al-Ghozi had provided funding and bomb components to a principal suspect in an investigation into bombings in Manila in December 2000 that claimed more than a dozen lives.

The Indonesian had been an explosives expert with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a Muslim separatist group that has since opened peace talks with the government, the police said.

The Philippine police said al-Ghozi went to Singapore in October to "assist in the preparation for the bombing of the US and Israeli embassies, the Australian and British high commissions, US companies and military installations."

Earlier this month Singapore revealed that it had arrested 13 people linked to Jemaah Islamiya who were planning attacks on US military personnel and US navy ships. Eight of them were confirmed to have received training in al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan.