Major radical and/or terrorist groups in Southeast Asia
Terrorist groups have been reported to be active in at least four countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. Several groups have been accused of having links with Al-Qaeda and several have links with other movements in the region.Jemaah Islamiah (JI) was founded in the mid-1990s and has the grand aim of establishing an independent Islamic state encompassing Indonesia, Malaysia and the southern islands of the Philippines. Intelligence officials (notably from Singapore) have investigated the group since it came to wide attention in January 2002. JI has also been implicated in a number of bombings including those in Manila in December 2000. JI is alleged to be led by a radical Indonesian cleric, Abu Bakar Bashir, who runs a Muslim boarding school in Solo, central Java (Bashir, also sometimes described as the movement’s ‘spiritual leader’, has denied in recent interviews a connection with JI). The plot to stage bombings in Singapore was allegedly organised by a deputy to Bashir, Riduan Isamuddin, also known as Hambali (whose current location is unknown). JI is thought to be associated with other groups including the Kumpulan Mujahideen Malaysia (KMM). Singapore has alleged that JI received some funding from Al Qaeda over three years. Singapore officials have also claimed that Hambali has been seeking to coordinate the activities of JI with Muslim radicals in Thailand and separatists in the southern Philippines, especially the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) into an alliance called Rabatitul Mujaihidin.
Laskar Jihad (LJ) was established as the paramilitary wing of Forum Komunikasi Ahlus Sunnah wal Jammah (Communications Forum of the Followers of the Sunnah), established in Jogjakarta in early 1998. The LJ was formed on 30 January 2000 in response to religious violence in Maluku. The LJ arranged for military training to be given to volunteers at a camp in Bogor, near Jakarta. The LJ sent several thousand fighters to Maluku in the months after April 2000. The Brussels based non-governmental organisation the International Crisis Group has stated that ‘The conclusion is unavoidable that the LJ received the backing of elements in the military and the police. It was obviously military officers who provided them with military training and neither the military nor the police made any serious effort to carry out the President’s order preventing them from going to Maluku’. LJ claims a three part mission – social work, Muslim education and a ‘security mission’ and it has had over 10,000 members, some of whom have been active in eastern Indonesia in communal violence. Laskar Jihad has gained support from Indonesia’s armed forces (TNI) and has also been able to embezzle money from the military (over $US 9 million). Its founder claims to have rejected approaches from Al-Qaeda but supported the September 11 attacks in the US. In mid October, Laskar Jihad announced that it had been disbanded but the veracity of this claim has yet to be determined decisively.
The Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders Front–FPI) is another Indonesian radical Islamic group. The FPI was formed in August 1998 and now claims branches in 22 provinces. Based in Jakarta, the FPI is led by Habib Muhammad Riziek Syihab, a religious teacher who was educated in Saudi Arabia. Like Habib, many of the top FPI leaders have Arab blood. The FPI’s stated goal is the full implementation of Islamic Sharia law, although it supports Indonesia’s present constitution and avoids calling for an Islamic state. The FPI has a paramilitary wing called Laskar Pembela Islam and is well know for organising raids on bars, massage parlours and gaming halls. The FPI justifies these raids on the grounds that the police are unable to uphold laws on gambling and prostitution. Sceptical observers suspect that the police turn a blind eye to, or are complicit in, these activities, knowing that the victims will be encouraged to maintain protection monies to the police. The FPI in late 2001 took the lead in threatening to sweep Americans out of Indonesia because of the US operations in Afghanistan, although the threat was not in fact carried out.
Abu Sayyaf (Bearer of the Sword) is an outgrowth of the long-term struggle for autonomy in the southern Philippines, is opposed to any accommodation with the Christians and believes that violent action is the only solution. Abu Sayyaf has mounted terror and criminal attacks since 1991 and directed a wave of such attacks against Christian civilians in 1993. Its founder Abdurajak Janjalani was a veteran of the Afghanistan conflict who had brought back with him enthusiastic followers of radical Islamic ideology. It has strong Al-Qaeda links – Osama bin Laden is reported to have sent the Pakistani terrorist Ramzi Yousef (who attacked the World Trade Center in 1993) for training with Abu Sayyaf and Al Qaeda has given financial assistance. Abu Sayyaf has also gained extensive revenue from kidnapping – including a $25 million payment from Libya to free hostages in March 2000. The group has recently suffered from serious internal divisions and its factions – whose interests appear to be primarily criminal - are now thought to have possibly about 500 members.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has disclaimed connections with Al-Qaeda but hundreds of its members are reported to have trained with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. MILF split from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) which had led a struggle for autonomy for Muslim areas of the southern Philippines from 1972. The MNLF suffered a series of setbacks in the 1990s, with a number of leaders either defecting to the government or joining MILF. MILF is led by Hashim Salamat who was educated at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University. MILF’s eventual aim is an independent Moro Muslim state and by the 1990s it had become the primary Moro rebel movement. The movement has been able to gain funds from sympathetic Islamic organisation abroad, including in Malaysia, Pakistan and the Middle East. It has had up to 35,000 members and has trained members of other groups, including JI. Major problems confront the goal of an Islamic Moro state, not least the fact that long-term immigration into the southern Philippines means that non-Muslims outnumber Muslims in most provinces of Mindanao.
The New People’s Army (NPA) was declared to be a terrorist organisation by the US government in August 2002 but it is a different kind of group from those discussed above. The NPA is the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and is a further Philippines radical group. Although primarily a rural based group, the NPA has an active urban infrastructure to conduct terrorism and uses city based assassination squads. The NPA derives most of its funds from contributions by supporters in the Philippines, Europe and elsewhere and from ‘revolutionary taxes’ levied on businesses. The NPA opposes any US miliary presence and reports in 2001 suggest that it seeks to target US personnel – its strength is estimated at over 10,000.
The Criminal Behind Laskar Jihad
Abu Bakar Bashir
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from Abu Bakar Ba'asyir)
Abu Bakar Bashir
Abu Bakar BashirAbu Bakar Bashir (also Abubakar Ba'asyir) alias Abdus Somad (born August 1938) is an Indonesian Muslim cleric who is the alleged spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a militant Islamic separatist group. Intelligence agencies have pointed to his supposed links with al-Qaeda. Bashir denies he has anything to do with Jemaah Islamiyah or terrorism. Ba'asyir is also the leader of Indonesian Mujahedeen Council (MMI). He is in poor health.Bashir was arrested for suspected involvement in the 2002 Bali terrorist bombing. On April 14, 2003, he was formally charged by the Indonesian government with treason, immigration violations, and providing false documents and statements to the Indonesian police. The charges are mainly related to the series of bombings against Christian churches on Christmas Eve, 2000, which killed 18 people.
In the Indonesian court, he was found not guilty for treason due to a lack of evidence, but was found guilty on immigration charges. He was sentenced to three years in prison, but the sentence was subsequently reduced to 20 months. If more evidence is found on his involvement, he may be tried again for treason.
On October 15, 2004, he was arrested by the Indonesian authorities and charged with involvement in a bomb attack on the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta on August 5, 2003, which killed 14 people. Secondary charges in the same indictment accuse him of involvement in the Bali bombing, the first time he has faced charges in relation to that attack.
On March 3, 2005, Bashir was found guilty of conspiracy over the 2002 attacks, but was found not guilty of the charges surrounding the 2003 bomb. He was sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment.
On 17 August 2005, as part of the tradition of remissions for Indonesia's Independence Day, Bashir's jail term was cut by 4 months and 15 days.
NOTE:- Observe the Indonesian Justice System in action.
Confessions of an Al-Qaeda terrorist
23 September, 2002
Romesh Ratnesar
For someone interested in quietly leading a terrorist's life, the rainy Indonesian hamlet of Cijeruk is a nice place to settle down. Nestled among lush, green paddies and swaying banana trees, an hour's drive outside the chaotic capital city of Jakarta, Cijeruk consists of a single two-lane road lined by a row of well-kept cottages. It's a good spot to hide from the authorities, if you have reason to be on the run — which may be how Omar al-Faruq, a 31-year-old drifter from Kuwait, ended up living there, in a concrete house that belonged to the family of his Indonesian wife Mira Agustina, 24. After moving to Cijeruk last year, al-Faruq tried to fit in with locals, getting by with functional Indonesian-language skills and an ID card that said he was from the eastern Indonesian city of Ambon. His wife says he read and taught the Koran and stayed close to home — until one day in June, when he vanished. "He called at noon that Wednesday to say he was going to the mosque," says Mira. "I never heard from him again."
If she is to be believed, Mira, like the rest of the world, is only beginning to discover the truth about her husband. On June 5 government agents arrested al-Faruq at a mosque in nearby Bogor. Three days later, Indonesian authorities deported al-Faruq to the U.S.-held air base in Bagram, Afghanistan, where CIA investigators have been interrogating suspected members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist organization. But al-Faruq was no ordinary operative.
According to a secret CIA document and regional intelligence reports obtained by TIME, U.S. officials already had reason to believe al-Faruq was one of bin Laden's top representatives in Southeast Asia, responsible for coordinating the activities of the region's disparate Islamic militant groups and employing their forces to conduct terror attacks against the U.S. and its allies. According to one regional intelligence memo, the CIA had been told of al-Faruq's role by Abu Zubaydah, the highest ranking al-Qaeda official in U.S. custody and a valuable, if at times manipulative, source of intelligence on the terror network and its plans. Initially, al-Faruq was not as cooperative. Though al-Faruq was subjected to three months of psychological interrogation tactics — a U.S. counterterrorism official says they included isolation and sleep deprivation — he stayed virtually silent.
But early last week al-Faruq finally broke down. On Sept. 9, according to a secret CIA summary of the interview, al-Faruq confessed that he was, in fact, al-Qaeda's senior representative in Southeast Asia. Then came an even more shocking confession: according to the CIA document, al-Faruq said two senior al-Qaeda officials, Abu Zubaydah and Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, had ordered him to "plan large-scale attacks against U.S. interests in Indonesia, Malaysia, (the) Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam and Cambodia. In particular," the document continues, "(al-)Faruq prepared a plan to conduct simultaneous car/truck bomb attacks against U.S. embassies in the region to take place on or near" the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Al-Faruq said that, despite his arrest, backup operatives were in place to "assume responsibilities to carry out operations as planned." If successfully executed, such a coordinated assault could produce thousands of casualties. Fearing an attack could come at any moment, al-Faruq's interrogators relayed his revelations to the CIA's Counterterrorism Center in Langley, Va. Al-Faruq's story tracked with several recent intelligence reports from Southeast Asia about an increase in suspicious activities near American embassies. A day later the U.S. issued its code-orange terror alert. Al-Faruq's threatened attacks never occurred.
Omar al-Faruq's confessions, as detailed in the intelligence reports obtained by TIME, are much more than a single operative's warnings about possible plots against U.S. interests; they also provide a wealth of new and unpublished detail about the broad reach of al-Qaeda, its efforts to establish a base of operations outside Afghanistan and its success in pulling disparate militant groups and criminals into its lethal struggle against the West. At the same time, the documents illustrate the speed and determination with which U.S. intelligence agents and their foreign counterparts are working to untangle al-Qaeda's web of terror before the group strikes again.
Investigators are still verifying the credibility of the numerous leads into alleged al-Qaeda conspirators identified by al-Faruq. The intelligence documents, combined with TIME's investigation of al-Faruq's past, reveal that:
With al-Faruq acting as the point man, al-Qaeda received financial and operational assistance from Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a militant group that seeks to establish a pure Islamic state in Southeast Asia and is active in at least five countries — Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. The CIA report states that Abubakar Ba'asyir, 64, the cleric who is the alleged spiritual leader of JI, "authorized Faruq to use JI operatives and resources to conduct" the embassy bombings planned for last week; al-Faruq told the CIA that Ba'asyir dispatched a JI member named Abu al-Furkan to oversee a planned attack on the U.S. embassy in Malaysia. Al-Faruq said Ba'asyir was also behind a 1999 bombing of Jakarta's largest mosque and then blamed Christians for the act. Ba'asyir is wanted by Singapore for his alleged role as the mastermind of last December's foiled al-Qaeda plot to bomb U.S. targets there. Indonesian officials have so far declined to arrest him, saying they have no evidence linking him to terrorist activity.
In a separate regional intelligence report obtained by TIME, a high-ranking JI member now in custody told investigators that he hosted Zacarias Moussaoui — currently on trial in the U.S. for conspiring in the Sept. 11 attacks — during Moussaoui's swing through Malaysia in 2000. According to the source, Moussaoui went by the alias "John" and told the operative to buy four tons of fertilizer, presumably to build a bomb. Moussaoui left the country before giving any further instructions on what to do with the fertilizer.
Acting as an al-Qaeda operative, al-Faruq, the CIA report says, was "the mastermind behind all the Christmas 2000 bombings in Indonesia" — a wave of attacks on Christian churches — which killed 18 and injured more than 100. Earlier that year, al-Faruq "cased the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta to develop a plan to destroy the embassy with a large car bomb." He abandoned the plan when the U.S. hardened the building's security after a separate, credible threat in October 2000.
Increasing numbers of al-Qaeda operatives are moving into Southeast Asia. In May, according to a regional report, six "Middle Eastern terrorists" slipped into Indonesia. Counterterrorism officials say that, based on information provided by al-Faruq, the U.S. believes Southeast Asia now has the world's highest concentration of al-Qaeda operatives outside Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Al-Faruq told the CIA that some of al-Qaeda's operations in the region were funded through a branch of al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, an international charity based in Saudi Arabia, with offices in several Islamic countries. According to one regional intel memo, Faruq told his interrogators "money was laundered through the foundation by donors from the Middle East." Government sources tell TIME that U.S. investigators believe the charity is a "significant" source of funding for terrorist groups associated with al-Qaeda in Southeast Asia. Counterterrorism officials are also investigating possible links between al-Qaeda and top al-Haramain officials in Saudi Arabia.
What does it all mean? al-faruq's confession serves as a reminder that even after losing its base in Afghanistan, al-Qaeda is actively forging and reconstituting ties with violent extremists around the world who are receptive to bin Laden's cause. "They are bulking up," says a U.S. Administration official. "We don't have our arms around them yet."
To a sprawling organization like al-Qaeda, Omar al-Faruq was the ideal operative, a man whose networking skills were at least as impressive as his appetite for destruction. Born in Kuwait on May 24, 1971, he got his first taste of jihad in the early 1990s when he trained at an al-Qaeda camp in Khaldan, Afghanistan. He spent three years at the camp, becoming close to both al-Mughira al Gaza'iri, the camp's leader, and senior bin Laden associate Abu Zubaydah. In 1995, at Abu Zubaydah's suggestion, al-Faruq procured a fake passport and traveled with al-Mughira to the Philippines. There he joined Camp Abubakar, a terrorist-training facility run by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a Philippine-based rebel group fighting for independence from Manila. According to a regional intelligence report, al-Faruq, while in the Philippines, unsuccessfully tried to enter flight school, in the hopes of commandeering a commercial plane and blowing it up.
Al-Faruq maintained close ties with Abu Zubaydah and al-Qaeda. In the late 1990s al-Faruq slipped into Indonesia to take control of al-Qaeda's operations in Southeast Asia. Across a belt of territory stretching from Myanmar (formerly Burma) to eastern Indonesia, radical Islam was on the rise, with militants occupying swaths of the region's steamy jungle terrain. In Indonesia the fall of the dictator Suharto in 1998 left the world's most populous Islamic country in a state of turmoil and turned it into a fertile breeding ground for potential al-Qaeda terrorists. Al-Faruq married Mira, the daughter of a former Islamic activist, and linked up with an Indonesian businessman named Agus Dwikarna, who was active in the Indonesian Mujahedin Council (MMI). A purportedly nonviolent political organization, the MMI was founded by Abubakar Ba'asyir — the Indonesian cleric also believed to be the spiritual leader of JI, which is run by Ba'asyir's former student Riduan Isamuddin, known as Hambali. In addition to his alleged links to scores of bank robberies and murders in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, Hambali is believed to have colluded with al-Qaeda since 1995. Western intelligence officials say he played host to two of the Sept. 11 hijackers during their trip to Malaysia in 2000. Hambali is thought to have gone into hiding, but his organization remains active. In an interview with TIME, JI members said al-Qaeda operatives continue to meet with radical groups in the region, and, according to one of them, JI boasts a cadre of 20 suicide bombers "waiting and ready to carry out attacks if instructed."
While intelligence officials have long believed that Hambali ran the day-to-day operations of JI, al-Faruq told the CIA that Ba'asyir was just as eager to work with al-Qaeda, even dispatching his aides to procure weapons and explosives for al-Faruq and his cronies. Last week Ba'asyir repeated his longstanding denial of connection with terrorist groups. "I don't have any link whatsoever with al-Qaeda," he told TIME, "but if al-Qaeda's struggle is for the best interest of Islam, I support it."
According to a foreign intelligence report, al-Faruq told the CIA he helped Dwikarna establish Laskar Jundullah, a militant Islamic group dedicated to forming an Islamic state and involved in attacks on Christian villages in central Sulawesi province. Beginning in mid-1999, al-Faruq claims, he launched a succession of audacious but generally unsuccessful terrorist plots. In May of that year, al-Faruq met with several potential accomplices at a villa in west Java and hatched a plan to kill current Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who was then a candidate for the presidency. The plot involved buying weapons in Malaysia and the Philippines, but the group failed to get the guns into Indonesia. Last year a second assassination scheme — it involved detonating a bomb at a meeting of Megawati and other ruling party leaders — fizzled when the designated bomber lost his leg and was arrested after the bomb he was carrying blew up prematurely near the Atrium Mall in Jakarta in August 2001.
Around that time, al-Faruq began running into trouble. He had been living near Dwikarna in Makassar, in South Sulawesi province, but because of his poor language ability, he never managed to acquire an Indonesian passport. In mid-2001, immigration authorities detained al-Faruq temporarily and prepared to deport him. Al-Faruq skipped town, heading to Cijeruk with Mira and their baby daughter. After Sept. 11 he stayed in contact with Abu Zubaydah during the U.S. military campaign against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Abu Zubaydah told al-Faruq that he should plan to return soon to Kuwait, but in the meantime, al-Faruq was to set in motion new terrorist missions. Knowing the U.S. Navy was scheduled to conduct joint exercises in the Surabaya harbor in late May, al-Faruq plotted a suicide attack against a U.S. ship, similar to the deadly al-Qaeda operation against the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen in 2000. He drafted a Somali operative named Gharib to help find Arabs willing to participate in the suicide mission. But when he failed to recruit enough operatives to carry out the plan, al-Faruq had to scrap it.
What al-Faruq may not have known was that in early 2002, U.S. and regional intelligence officials had picked up his signal. On Feb. 25, according to intelligence reports, the CIA informed regional counterparts that three Indonesian-based Islamic militants had established a training school for terrorists on the island of Borneo. Indonesian investigators discovered that four MMI operatives, including al-Faruq, had held training exercises at the same location. While al-Faruq initially managed to stay beyond the reach of authorities, some of his closest associates ran out of luck. In March Dwikarna was arrested in Manila after airport security guards discovered plastic explosives and detonation cables in his suitcase; the next month U.S. and Pakistani forces seized Abu Zubaydah in Faisalabad, Pakistan. A regional intelligence brief says on April 27 the CIA reported that the same cell-phone number, 081-2957-6852, had been programmed into the handsets of both Dwikarna and Abu Zubaydah. The number was al-Faruq's.
Investigators soon realized al-Faruq was a man with connections. An al-Qaeda prisoner at America's Camp X Ray in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, also had al-Faruq's number. The same intelligence report says the CIA traced a number dialed by Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, an Indonesian JI militant arrested for suspected involvement in last December's Singapore bomb plot, back to al-Faruq. In May, the report continues, the CIA found that Ibin al-Khattab, the late Chechen commander with ties to al-Qaeda, had once placed a call to al-Faruq on his cell phone. On May 2, shortly after discovering that al-Faruq had acquired a fake Indonesian passport, the Indonesian government authorized agents to arrest him. Intelligence reports say that on May 23, U.S. interrogators questioning Abu Zubaydah showed him a picture of al-Faruq. Abu Zubaydah quickly identified his old friend as "al-Faruq al Kuwait." He then told his inquisitors the tangled tale of al-Faruq's quest to turn Southeast Asia into an al-Qaeda stronghold. Two weeks later, authorities swooped in on al-Faruq at a mosque in Bogor. Says Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the country's chief security minister: "It was quite rapid work."
Though al-Faruq's odyssey has ended, his story finally divulged, the reasons he knowingly risked so much to pursue a life of terrorism remain a mystery perhaps even to those who knew him best. Back in Cijeruk, now left to raise their children alone, al-Faruq's wife Mira insists that she knows nothing about her husband's past — even though, in his testimony to the CIA, intelligence officials say, al-Faruq alludes to Mira's participation in his terrorist plots. She claims al-Faruq never even told her he was Kuwaiti. But she does recall a piece of advice he once gave her. "When we got married, he made me promise that if he disappeared one day, I would not go looking for him," she says. "So I kept my commitment and didn't search."
Fuente: The Time
from GLOBALSECURITY.ORG
Laskar Jihad
Laskar Jihad, a violent Muslim paramilitary extremist group renowned for its fanaticism and brutality that aimed to eliminate Christians from the Moluccas and Sulawesi Island, announced it had disbanded after the October 2002 Bali bombing.
Jaffar Umar Thalib, the commander of Laskar Jihad, was arrested on 04 May 2002 in Surabaya as he was en route from Ambon. Jaffar was charged with inciting violence and threatening the life of the Indonesian President during a speech in Ambon. His followers, who number between 3,000 and 10,000, are well drilled, heavily armed and ferociously loyal. Among the plethora of radical Islamic groups that have formed in Indonesia since the three-decade dictatorship of Suharto collapsed in 1998, Laskar Jihad stands out. According to persistence reports, hundreds of non-Indonesian Muslims - including, it is believed, Al Qaeda operatives – have trained at camps run by Laskar Jihad in the jungles of Sulawesi, and American officials are convinced that Al Qaeda "sleeper cells" still exist there.
The Laskar Jihad is different. Its mission was, and still is, to defend Muslims against Christians, originally in Maluku and more recently in Sulawesi as well. In December 2000, over 500 armed Laskar Jihad militants attacked cafes in Solo and demanded that they close during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadhan. Laskar Jihad members have received training in Afghanistan. Laskar Jihad, Indonesia’s largest radical group, remained a concern as a continuing source of domestic instability.
In May 2000 fighters from the Laskar Jihad - a group based in Java outside of the Moluccas - arrived on the islands, obtained arms, and began attacking Christian villages. Since then, the balance tipped decidedly against the Christian population there. The fighters from the Laskar Jihad, who took control of the other Muslim militia groups fighting on the Islands, had access to sophisticated weapons and communications equipment, and have thus took the fighting to new levels. These more-extremist groups from outside the Moluccas, recruited purportedly to protect the Muslim population, have since declared their aim of "cleansing" the Islands of Christians, and have succeeded in clearing Christians out of villages throughout the Moluccas, either by killing them or driving them away under the threat of being killed. By October 2000, there were reports that hundreds and perhaps thousands of Christians were forced to convert to Islam or be killed, especially on the islands of Seram, Kesui, and Teor. There are allegations also that some, both men and women, have been forced to undergo circumcision as part of their "conversion."
In general Islam in the country traditionally has been moderate. According to leading Muslim scholars and leaders, the Muslim community still is predominantly (80 percent) moderate; however, with the removal of Soeharto-era restrictions on religious organization and expression, there has been a resurgence--or a greater vocalization--of advocacy for an Islamic state. An estimated 20 percent of the country's Muslims consider themselves to be fundamentalists and advocate establishment of an Islamic state, which would make it obligatory for Muslims to follow Shari'a law. The majority of these Muslims (16 to 18 percent) pursue their goal through peaceful political and educational means. A small, but vocal minority (2 to 4 percent) condones coercive measures and has resorted to violence. Fundamentalist groups advocating coercion and resorting to violence include: Laskar Jihad, Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), Hizbullah Front, Laskar Mujahidan, and the Campus Association of Muslim Students (HAMMAS).
In Indonesia, in the Malocas and Posa and Chilewesi, local people have experienced horrifying suffering at the hands of Laskar Jihad, and extremist group trying to impose its brand of Islam on the local people. And both Christians and Muslims, ethnic minorities have had their homes, their villages destroyed when they refused to bow to the demands of Laskar Jihad. And we have heard about this for years.
Not many people cared until recently, when reports suggested that Laskar Jihad has ties with al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. Laskar Jihad still operates in these islands and continues to attempt to impose a Taliban-style version of Islam on the local people.
Laskar Jihad, alive and well in West Papua
Laskar Jihad in Action
March 5, 2003
Islamic militant group Laskar Jihad, which announced it was disbanding last October, is alive and well in Indonesia's eastern region of Papua.
Over 2000 Laskar Jihad Islamic extremist fighters have established themselves in at least twelve different military training camps in Papua (formerly Irian Jaya), according to recent reports from Papuan human rights groups. Laskar Jihad is being armed, funded and protected by the Indonesian military, and is reported to be particularly active in the highlands on the north of the island, along its border with Papua New Guinea. At the border town of Arso, Laskar Jihad members are said to be actively recruiting and training both local Papuans and migrants from the country's more populous western islands such as Java and Sumatra. The latest reports of Laskar Jihad's activities in the region confirm the fears of many Indonesian natives that Laskar Jihad is still very much active despite its announcement that it was disbanding last October.
LASKAR JIHAD IN PAPUA.
The notorious Islamic militant group first began to arrive in Papua two years ago. In 2002 they established an office in Sorong. In the area of Fak Fak over 175 boats carrying Laskar Jihad personnel and equipment are said to have arrived along the coast between April and June 2002. Several Papuans reported discovering stockpiles of weapons. A number of Pakistani and Afghan mujahideen, thought to have come to join in the jihad against local Christians, were sighted. Laskar Jihad's magazine, which contains articles attacking Christians, Jews and the US, began to be sold openly in markets in Papua, together with T-shirts, DVDs and books on Osama bin Laden.
The group began forming links with local authorities, police and army units, and with the pro-Jakarta militia Satgas Merah Putih, which opposes Papuan calls for independence from Indonesia. Laskar Jihad is also believed to be trying to seek favour with the local Muslim population, although the majority of Papuan Muslims reject the Jihad's presence as a dangerous destabilising factor in an already extremely tense region. Locals believe the failure of police and army units to stop Laskar Jihad from expanding its military campaign into Papua further confirms their complicity in the Jihad's activities. Last summer four Laskar Jihad members carrying home-made guns were seized by locals and handed over to the authorities. No action was taken against them. Others who have reported Laskar Jihad activities to the authorities say that they have been harassed, threatened with arrest themselves, and even received intimidating phone calls late at night.
FAILURE TO DISBAND
Laskar Jihad achieved international notoriety for waging a genocidal holy war against Christians in Indonesia's Moluccas and Sulawesi regions for over 20 months from May 2000 until peace agreements were reached for Sulawesi in December 2001 and the Moluccas in February 2002. Even after the peace was formally declared - a peace which was rejected and never accepted by Laskar Jihad - the group continued to launch murderous attacks on Christian villages, homes and churches. Some 10,000 people were killed (some estimates suggest 30,000) and half a million displaced during the conflict. Local Christians were murdered, tortured, forcibly converted to Islam, forcibly circumcised and virtually enslaved. During 2001 and 2002 Laskar Jihad began to expand its activities sending militants to the provinces of Aceh and Papua, at opposite ends of the country. However, in October 2002 in the immediate aftermath of the Bali bombing the group suddenly announced it was disbanding.
Despite overwhelming evidence of the organization's involvement in mass murder and appalling human rights abuses the Indonesian authorities have repeatedly failed to act against Laskar Jihad. In January 2003 the group's leader Jafar Umar Thalib was found not guilty of inciting hatred and religious violence by an East Jakarta court despite overwhelming evidence. Arrested in May 2002, whilst in jail he was visited by Indonesia's Vice President Hamzah Has, and was soon released on bail. His trial was postponed in August 2002 because, as the judge stated, "I see that you're pale. We don't want to examine someone who is unhealthy . I hope you can get well soon". Senior elements in the police, military and government appear to be supporting Laskar Jihad and protecting it from prosecution.
PAPUAN SEPARATISM.
Resource rich West Papua was annexed by Indonesia in 1963, since which time the Papuan people have struggled for their independence from repressive Indonesian rule. The arrival of Laskar Jihad in the region, and its apparent close connection with the army, has prompted fears that the group will be used as a militia by the military to repress the local population and the separatist OPM movement. During its occupation of East Timor Indonesia gained international notoriety for allowing pro-Indonesian militias to brutally terrorise the local Timorese population with impunity. The bloody conflict between Muslims and Christians in the Moluccas and Sulawesi was also seen by many Indonesian Muslims as a Christian separatist conflict in which the Muslim Laskar Jihad was preserving Indonesian national unity. This is an erroneous viewpoint which bears no relation to the realities of the conflict. Now Papua's Christians fear that Laskar Jihad will be given a free hand to wage another bloody campaign in their homeland.
Barnabas Fund
Al Qaeda's new frontier: Indonesia
May 1, 2002
On the steps of a humble mosque, Abu Jibril Abdurrahman quickens his cadence as he approaches the emotional crescendo of his sermon: "Oh God," he implores, "help us to destroy the infidels who have killed our children."
At this, a ragged chorus of "God is great!" goes up from three-dozen armed followers. The Indonesian preacher's voice quavers as he takes up a Koran in his left hand and a battered pistol in his right.
"You can't just have the Koran," he says, extending the pistol skyward, "without the steel. You will bring down the steel."
The sermon, delivered on the island of Halmahera in early 2000 and now on a recruitment video being distributed by the Indonesian Mujahidin Council, is chilling. It's no secret that Islamic militants are part of a religious war in the Maluku provinces that has killed 6,000 people since 1999. But this video, obtained by the Monitor, offers direct evidence of an Al Qaeda connection to this war.
The ongoing conflict between Christians and Muslims, the Al Qaeda ties to local preachers, and the refusal of the government of President Megawati Sukarnoputri to arrest the key figures behind the violence are some of the reasons the US says the country is becoming an Al Qaeda haven. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage testified to Congress about Indonesia last month: "We are really worried that places that have sectarian violence can become the breeding ground [for terrorism].... It is an open, very hospitable country, and it is a Muslim country. It is one we fear that Al Qaeda could operate in relatively freely."
Jihad arrives in Maluku
Mr. Jibril's speech inspired a reorganization of Muslim fighters in Maluku that led to a deepening of the religious war. What had been a local conflict was transformed by the arrival of such jihad groups as Jibril's from outside the province.
Though Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim country, the tiny Maluku provinces are about 50 percent Christian. The jihad groups have kept the fires raging in the country's worst communal conflict for two years and have insisted that they won't leave until the Christians there are wiped out or converted. Some parts of the Indonesian military are sympathetic to the group, which has left it untouchable.
Last Friday, an associate of Jibril, Jaffar Umar Thalib, urged a Muslim gathering to reject a recent peace agreement and go back to war with the "infidels." Over the weekend, 14 Christians were killed in renewed fighting.
While the US is worried that the Maluku war could lead to the arrival of Al Qaeda in Indonesia, both Singapore, and Malaysia say the group has already been here.
Officials in Singapore and Malaysia say that Jibril ran operations for a terrorist group called the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which received money and training from Al Qaeda. Nearly 24 alleged members of the JI were arrested in Singapore and Malaysia last October, according to both governments, and investigators say the prisoners have told them that Jibril was the group's second in command and primary recruiter. Police from Singapore and Malaysia say Abu Bakar Bashir, who leads the Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI), also runs the JI. Mr. Bashir, who lives openly here, says neither he nor Jibril, an old friend and fellow MMI leader, have ties to terrorism.
The Indonesian government says that Singapore and Malaysia's evidence against Bashir and his associates is not compelling. They say that they've seen no evidence that the MMI, which its neighbors say is a local front for the JI, is anything more than a peaceful advocate for the establishment of Islamic law. Yet the revenge attacks that Jibril helped to inspire in the Galela district of Halmahera, where the sermon was delivered, argue otherwise.
In late 1999, Christians in the neighboring district of Tobelo participated in a massacre of about 400 Muslims at Christmas, according to witnesses and aid workers. That massacre inspired a national Muslim backlash, and an outpouring of aid, arms, and fighters to Halmahera and neighboring islands. Jibril, who Singapore officials say received military training in Afghanistan, was in the vanguard. He and other MMI members arrived in Maluku January 2000 to organize a more effective Muslim fighting force.
Jibril's network
The chubby-cheeked Jibril and his colleagues introduced a centralized command structure in the provincial capital of Ternate, delivered money for communications equipment and better weapons, and provided ideological inspiration, according to a Western investigator. By the middle of 2000, the fighters Jibril helped to organize had routed local Christians with a series of well-coordinated attacks on Christian targets using speedboats from Ternate and local militias.
The worst massacre was in Galela on July 19, 2000, which claimed more than 250 lives. "This was self-defense,'' says Fauzan Al-Anshari, a Jakarta-based MMI leader, who acknowledges that the MMI sent fighters to the region in 2000. "We had to strike back."
Mr. Al-Anshari says the MMI wasn't worried whether its actions were illegal.
"When Muslims are attacked by Christians, it's our duty to act. No one else will stand up for us." The reorganization of the Muslim militias by outsiders had profound consequences, turning what had been a balanced and predominantly local conflict fought with homemade weapons into a national issue fought with mortars and M-16s. The fiercer fighting completely separated the Muslim and Christian populations of the two provinces, a separation that prevails today. Suspicion of Christians and other non-Muslims is a key tenet of both the teachings of Jibril and Bashir, a close colleague during most of the 1980s and early 1990s. Jibril's and Bashir's religious vision is of a vigorous, aggressive Islam that brooks no insults from nonbelievers.
"We are not terrorists – the US and the Jews are trying to frame us,'' says Bashir in a recent interview with the Monitor. "They don't like us because we teach true Islam, one that stresses dying a martyr and jihad. The US doesn't like that because it makes Muslims strong. I'm just a teacher. I'm not a violent man.''
Bashir says throughout history, Muslims "never start trouble – we are always attacked first."
Indonesia's reluctance to crack down
US officials view Malaysia and Singapore's claims as credible and have been alarmed by Indonesia's refusal to arrest Bashir. While Indonesia has helped deport some alleged foreign terrorists, it has refused to act against Indonesians who are alleged to have ties to Al Qaeda. Analysts say the government of President Megawati Sukarnoputri is afraid of losing political support from Muslims if she takes a harder line.
"There are people here who, whatever the evidence against them, are clearly a major threat, judging solely by their statements,'' says a Western diplomat. "But there are a lot of people here who feel that some of these groups have legitimate grievances, so that makes the government reluctant to crack down."
Jibril's 2000 sermon was on one of his first visits to his homeland in nearly a decade. After serving a jail sentence here in the early 1980s for promoting the creation of an Islamic state, he exiled himself to Malaysia.
Bashir's vision of an Islamic state
Outside of militant circles, he was not a well know figure. Jibril returned to Malaysia, where police officials allege that he set about arming and financing a group there called the Malaysian Militant Group (KMM). Then in May 2001, two men with ties to Jibril and Bashir were killed and a third was captured in a failed bank heist. The captured man described Bashir and Jibril as leaders of a terror group who had ordered the robbery. Jibril was arrested soon after and is still in custody in Malaysia. Bashir, however, was already living in Indonesia, and Indonesian officials have refused to extradite him, saying they don't feel Malaysia's evidence is strong enough.
Throughout the allegations of terrorism, Bashir has kept an open door with journalists, saying it's been a good opportunity: The time is ripe, he says, to make Indonesia an Islamic state, and he needs to use every avenue possible to make his views known.
By Dan Murphy
Christian Science Monitor
Is Al-Qaeda lurking in Indonesia?January 14, 2001
U.S. intelligence has long known that Usama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network has had its tentacles in Indonesia. In August 2001, it was learned that al-Qaeda had acquired a highly detailed, hand-drawn map of the U.S. diplomatic compound in Jakarta. The discovery stoked immediate fears of a U.S. Embassy bombing similar to those in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Since the 9/11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, signs of al Qaeda activity in Indonesia have reportedly multiplied. U.S. and Indonesian intelligence officials say they believe that hundreds of foreigners who may be linked to al-Qaeda and coming from as far away as Europe visited a secret training camp last year in the jungles of Sulawesi, an island in central Indonesia.
The leader of the country's largest and most-violent Muslim militia has acknowledged to police that he was offered financial backing by a bin Laden aide. And intelligence officials said they have identified links between bin Laden and a prominent Muslim cleric who heads a paramilitary group. U.S. officials also have become increasingly concerned that some al-Qaeda members may have established "sleeper cells" in Indonesia that could become operational now that many of the group's leaders in Afghanistan have been forced into hiding, captured or killed.
But despite such information, U.S. and Indonesian officials said they still are trying to ascertain the scope of al-Qaeda's operations in Indonesia and the network's connections with indigenous extremist groups. The prospect of significant al-Qaeda activity in Indonesia has prompted the U.S. to put Indonesia on a short list of nations to focus on as the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism expands beyond Afghanistan.
In many ways, Indonesia is an easy place for terrorist groups to operate. Composed of more than 17,000 islands, it has some of the world's most porous borders. Law enforcement and banking regulations are lax. Guns and explosives are easy to purchase. Indonesia also is home to several radical Muslim groups, which want the officially secular nation to adopt rigid Islamic laws. Although most Indonesians do not support the local militants, the strength of the groups has mushroomed in recent years, fueled in part by increasing poverty and a surging interest in fanatical fundamentalist Islamic theology.
A sectarian conflict in the Moluccas islands, where for three years Muslim militants have been waging a jihad against Christian villagers, provides foreign trainees exposure to fighting. Indonesian police and military officials have publicly denied that foreign terrorist groups have set up training camps in the country. But privately, intelligence and government officials said they believe al-Qaeda operatives ran a makeshift training facility on Sulawesi last year. The camp, officials said, was located in dense jungle near the port city of Poso, which has been the scene of religious fighting.
The officials said the camp, a collection of ramshackle huts where recruits were taught how to use automatic weapons and build bombs, was operated by al-Qaeda members with the assistance of local Muslim militants. Unlike other paramilitary training facilities in Indonesia, a country where political groups often have armed wings, this camp was a well-kept secret. Indonesian intelligence officials estimated that over the past year several hundred people, many of them from Europe, Pakistan and the Middle East, entered the country posing as aid workers to reach the camp.
The officials said that in August and October, police briefly detained several non-Indonesians traveling in the Poso area, but they were released after showing local officials a letter from a Muslim charity based in southern Sulawesi stating they were going to Poso to help rebuild mosques. A senior Indonesian intelligence official said investigators subsequently discovered that the charity, known as the "Crisis Prevention Committee," had connections to Usama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Police have concluded the foreigners were probably going to or from the camp when they were detained.
The senior official said intelligence agents began looking for the camp after authorities in Spain passed along information that had been obtained in the investigation of eight suspected al-Qaeda members arrested in November. The evidence indicated that hundreds of foreign fighters had traveled to the Poso area for training last year.
U.S. and Indonesian officials say they suspect al-Qaeda is associated with the Laskar Jihad and Laskar Mujaheddin militant groups, but they lack evidence to make a conclusive link. A U.S. official said it remains unclear whether significant numbers of al-Qaeda operatives remain in Indonesia.
Discovery of the hand-drawn map of the U.S. diplomatic compound was confirmed by U.S. officials, who declined to give a full account of the incident, citing national security concerns. After the map was found, already-tight security at the embassy was increased and U.S. counter- terrorism experts mounted an intense investigation into who might be planning an attack, but their efforts yielded no definitive suspects.
The map's existence added to fears for the compound's security in October, after the United States began its bombing campaign in Afghanistan. Thousands of protesters besieged the embassy, causing the State Department to evacuate nonessential diplomatic personnel from the country.
The lack of firm intelligence about al-Qaeda is one of the key challenges facing the United States as it attempts to broaden its campaign against terrorism. For years, Western intelligence agencies paid little attention to Indonesia as a potential base for international terrorists. The country's intelligence services also failed to collect information, because they were distracted by separatist rebellions and almost four years of political turmoil in the capital, Jakarta. Indonesia's economic problems hampered what little intelligence-gathering was attempted. The government cannot afford equipment that is standard in many countries, including devices to monitor cellular phones.
Even if details of al-Qaeda's operations in Indonesia become clearer, pursuing terrorists in the conflict-racked country of 220 million could prove to be a problem. Unlike Somalia or Iraq, Indonesia has a friendly relation- ship with the United States, making unilateral military action by Washington highly unlikely. Cooperating with local forces, as the United States is doing in the Philippines, also is doubtful because of a U.S. law, passed in the wake of the Indonesian army's human-rights abuses in East Timor, that prevents military assistance to Indonesia. U.S. military officials have said the law should be rescinded in the interest of the war on terrorism.
U.S. officials also have quietly expanded the scope of intelligence about terrorist-related issues that is shared with Indonesia, with the hope that it might spur police and military leaders to take more aggressive steps to crack down on extremist groups. But the effort has so far received a mixed reception.
Emergency Response & Research Institute
The illegal Laskar Jihad and its deceitful protector
January 7, 2002
It has been extensively reported that peace agreement had finally established between Moslems and Christians in Poso. It is said that the representatives of several elements of people from both sides had actively took part to reach a mutual understanding but it did not give specific information on those elements involved and how they were chosen. This is crucial because there is a strong favoritism to legalize 'Laskar Jihad Ahlus Sunah wal Jamaah' as one element of local people. If this is evident then the peace agreement will not last. The main reason about the above statement will be explained while what had happened recently in Maluku can be viewed as an example. The Government was overconfident in stating that the condition in Maluku had been brought under control of the Regional Civil Emergency Authority but it turned out otherwise. This proves that without removing the 'laskar jihad' from the area, then secure and peaceful condition is simply an illusion. What had recently happened in the town of Palu, central Sulawesi, should be viewed as a continuation of the conflict of Poso. The destruction of several Church buildings in Palu has revealed the real situation in central Sulawesi. Without sterilizing the area from the carrier of sectarian virus, which is 'laskar jihad', the well published peace consensus set up by the Government of Indonesia is nothing but an insincere propaganda.
In certain conversations about Poso, the term 'illegal residents' was brought up but so far no related action was recorded. In contrast, the Government never touches the problem of unlawful entry of 'laskar jihad' to Maluku, their illegal activities, and illegal occupation over Christian villages in Maluku. Why would the Government be so reluctant to deal with the problems lying on the illegal presence of 'laskar jihad' in Maluku? On what ground then, would Government provide and preserve peaceful condition in Maluku, while law and justice are not fully served? This peculiar attitude of the Government is indeed an interesting question to think about.
The previous writing had enlightened that the essence of 'laskar jihad' who fight Christians in Maluku and Poso was the deserted army personnel, police officers and some International terrorists from Afghanistan, Malaysia, Morothe Philipine, etc. Other reliable sources had indicated that 'laskar jihad' comprises thousands of low-educated and unemployed Moslems from all over the island of Jawa and from other parts of the country. The source also revealed several common recruitment centers such as that in Petamburan and Jelambar areas of Jakarta, where these low-educated and unemployed 'laskar jihad' just sit and wait to be used by politicians, businessmen or any government officials as a ‘hit squad’. This fact is more or less also applied to the so called the 'Islam Defender Forum' (FPI)!
This information explains why 'laskar jihad' had wiped out and occupied Christian villages, and refuse to hand them back to their original owners. They invented untruthful histories and ridiculous arguments to legalize their illegal occupation of Christian villages. They declared that since these villages were invaded through a battle, then Christians would have to get them back them through a battle as well. Contrastingly, they would go on a strike demanding Israel to unconditionally return all Arab’s land occupied trough a shameful ‘7 day war’ which initiated by Arab nations themselves. They could on top of everything, these former Christian villages are in fact, 'the gift of Allah' and their occupation is therefore, completely authorized.
Apparently, this illegal inhabit over Christian villages had been thoroughly arranged and implicitly supported by Government. During his visit to Maluku, a member of National Legislative Council (DPR) who is a chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN), A.M. Fatwa, considered the ruined Christian villages in Maluku, such as in the islands of Seram, Buru, Ambon, etc. as "an opportunity" and therefore urged Moslems from outside Maluku to take this opportunity. Accordingly, he urged Moslems from outside Maluku to take this opportunity, saying that he have seen the situation in Maluku is encouraging to Moslem refugees to return to Maluku. This statement was made even before the Christian village of Waimulang in southern part of Buru island was totally destroyed and the other one, Ewiri, was attacked.
Prior to that, the head of Provincial Department of Mining and Energy had planned to start an oil exploration project in Bula, Seram island, where the miners would be recruited from local people and thousands more will be brought from outside Maluku, mostly from Jawa. Up until now the local people of Bula is Moslems, since Christians have been wiped out from that area. It is too simple to realize that in a long run, not only Christians but also Moslems from Maluku would be drawn away from their land, and this would provide a perfect new habitation for the thousands low-educated and unemployed 'laskar jihad' and their families.In numerous gatherings organized by 'laskar jihad', their attitudes towards Christians is clearly identifiable through the many 'dakwah' (preachings and teachings) of their leader, Jaf’ar Umar Thalib! Moslems minds were loaded with suspicion and hatred toward Christians, who are alleged to be the worst enemies of Allah. Jaf’ar Umar Thalib is deliberately misleading Moslems to view Christians as infidels whose main desire would always be the destruction of Islam and the misery of Moslems. This is systematically carried out by the Republic of South Maluku (RMS) and by the Malukan Sovereign Forum (FKM) in pursuing an Independent Christian State of Maluku, apart from the Republic of Indonesia. Determined by this objective what so called Christian Separatism Movements had initiated the sectarian conflict in Maluku to eliminate Moslems from Maluku. Moslems’ lives would always be in jeopardy unless these distrusted Christians were totally extinguished. Jaf’ar then asserted that assassinating Christians is surely an obligation of faith to every true Moslem, and a responsibility of Moslems to defend the unity of the nation and these are what 'laskar jihad' is called for.
The whole things are, of course, just a huge lie. Both RMS and FKM have comprised Moslems and Christians of Maluku and there was not a single stupid Christian who tried to scare Moslems away by robbing and looting his own house and Church in January 19, 1999 while Moslems are in their full spirit of 'victory day' of Idul Fitri. Even if the above allegations against Christians are definitely true, there is no such law that allows any civilian group to act as National Guards. There is not a single law-abiding country that tolerates any civilian group to perform such a massive attacks and massacres against another civilians in the name of religion. There is no doubt that humanity and justice have been exclusively abused by this 'laskar jihad'! Their deceitful claim as a Moslem and national integration defender can be easily rebuked using one simple fact that they have never been to Aceh, the most Moslem dominated province which also fights for its independence. This fact is very well acknowledged by the Government of Indonesia, but there is absolutely nothing they have done about it.
In many occasions, The Government of Indonesia through its Coordinating Minister of Political and Security Affair, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, had exposed its supports to 'laskar jihad'! One of Yudhoyono’s latest had even provide an excuse for the involvement of what so called ‘Islamic international terrorists’ in 'laskar jihad’s' outlawed activities, claiming that some International (Western and Christian) NGOs were seen to have been supporting Christians ever since the conflict broke out. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono purposely ignored the fact that what these NGOs had supplied were mostly food and medication, even to Moslem refugees. One thing that bothers Yudhoyono and 'laskar jihad' is that these NGOs knew and revealed the true story about the conflicts out to the world. They therefore, described such reports as ‘Western and Christian accusations against Islam’ that call for International involvement such as from North American and European countries or from the United Nations to overpower Moslems in Indonesia. The presence of 'laskar jihad' is therefore, justified (?).
It is a bare truth that 'laskar jihad' had gained a full support from the chairman of the People Assembly (MPR), Amien Rais, who is the founder and the leader of the National Mandate Party (PAN). He addressed the crowd in a special Moslem gathering (tablich akbar) at Monas, Jakarta, November 11, 1999, that since the Government of Indonesia (he meant Abdurachman Wahid, his main political opponent at that time) had failed to restore peace and security in Maluku, then 'laskar jihad' had sensed their duty to defend their Moslem sister and brothers in Maluku from Christian invaders. Amien Rais had publicly encouraged a mob of civilian militia to take the law in their own hands, which made him a prime criminal. Only after Maluku had been devastatingly destroyed did Amien Rais change direction by proposing an equality, a mutual understanding, and a religion based peace attitude as a genuine solution for the conflict he had previously aggravated. This lunatic and criminal remains untouched by the law and so does 'laskar jihad'!
Another important and continuous espousal to 'laskar jihad' was recorded coming from the recent Vice President of Indonesia, Hamzah Haz, who leads the Islamic based United Development Party (PPP). Hamzah Haz was standing next to Amien Rais before the particular gathering (tablich akbar) granting his blessings to 'laskar jihad' to infiltrate Maluku, before he entered the vice presidential palace. It did not make any sense when this man was appointed by the President of Indonesia to deal with the sectarian conflicts in Maluku and Poso, he is emotionally and politically involved in. As a result, Hamzah Haz then made his first most disgraceful move as Vice President by welcoming the 'laskar jihad' at the palace and considered the rioters as Government’s partners in Maluku He irrationally asked 'laskar jihad', the Christians and Moslems slaughters, to restore and uphold peace and justice in Maluku and Poso. Implicitly, Hamzah Haz had confirmed a legitimacy of 'laskar jihad'.
In addition to that, the National Legislative Council (DPR) has verified its total commitment to 'laskar jihad'. In fact, there is some kind of informal mutual agreement between the 'laskar jihad' and the DPR. The DPR has been a conveyor for 'laskar jihad’s' accusations and demands. It therefore reinforced the false story about ‘the Christian separatist movements’ which had initiated the conflict in January 19, 1999. It had illogically linked the January 19, 1999 assault on Christian neighborhoods of Ambon to the FKM which was established in December, 2000, almost two years latter. Why would this House of Representatives appeared to be so unintelligent if there is nothing wrong inside it? It has been in great efforts to legalize the illegal existence of 'laskar jihad' and to authorize the ‘prosper stolen property’ for the better future of the rioters and their families. Should there be any doubt about these comments, just remember that AM. Fatwa had verified them all!
The previous writing had revealed some names from the military and police force who actively involved in supporting and assisting the movements of 'laskar jihad' in Maluku. Just recently, the Chief of Army Staff , General Endriartono Sutarto had put the security disturbances in Aceh and Maluku as an identical problem. His statement was seen to mislead the public in the direction of the untruthful story fabricated by 'laskar jihad' about ‘Christian separatist movement’ in Maluku. The Secretary General of the Indonesian Council of Ulama (MUI), a top level Organization of Islamic priests, Dien Syamsuddin', had also in great efforts to legalize the existence of 'laskar jihad', claiming that there are such 'laskar salib' (cross soldiers) or 'laskar Kristen' (Christian soldiers) on Christian side. This untrustworthy leader had deliberately denied a simple truth that any 'laskar Kristen' had never physically existed. It is actually a spiritual symbol regarding a spiritual battle against the evil spirits. What appeared to be a 'laskar Kristen' in Maluku is just a temporary self-attribute to Christians who fight to defend their lives and their properties. An illustration of another kind of tendency in authorizing the existence of 'laskar jihad' could be clearly seen on one of the national television program which identified the international terrorists attack on WTC twin-towers as a 'holy war'. Consequently, 'laskar jihad' would be considered as 'holy warriors' and from the religion point of view deserves a legitimacy. This concept had, in fact, misled many decent Moslems to accept 'laskar jihad' as their true defender of faith. These confused Moslems would regard any attempt to disarm this ‘Islamic militia’ would be an insult to Islam. Contrastingly, any Islam Countries like Malaysia would considered such militia groups as criminals and surely not a representative of true Moslems. Malaysian Government has therefore banned the Group of Malaysian Mujahidin, while Indonesian Government would love to keep 'laskar jihad' for its special political purposes.
It is clear that the President of Indonesia, Megawati Soekarnoputri, was fully aware of Hamzah Haz’s biased attitude, but she was unenthusiastic to deal with 'laskar jihad' herself. She just tried to put her long awaited top position on a secure side and let the law and the people of Maluku and Poso be sacrificed for it. It is undeniably that Megawati has recognized all the details of the root of conflict in Maluku, but did nothing accordingly. She realized that she would have to face some challenges from the House of Representative and Islamic base politicians and parties she owed a great deal. She knew that army and police officers had taken part in the conflict in Maluku but she is too tightly bound to his father’s dream of the unity of Indonesia which she believes to be dependent upon the role of the arm forces. She recognized the wide spread corrupted statements and crooked political games played by some of her ministers, but she kept herself in silence and let the situation in Maluku became more complicated. In her first New Year speech, she claimed the restoration of peace in Poso as a huge success her Government has accomplished while several Churches are being ruined in the neighboring town of Poso, Palu. She said that her Government is more than able to deal with domestic matters regarding justice and human rights, without the interferences of the international communities. The term ‘international interference’ has been widely used by Government officials to excite the hollowed pride of the people in which many of their filthy tricks would be securely covered. There is almost nothing from Megawati that Maluku can hope for.
Looking back at Maluku, one can find a situation identical to that nationally. The Regional Civil Emergency Situation Authorities (PDSD-Maluku), the Governor, Police Chief and Army Commander, had requently declared that they have had the situation under control, but they strongly suggested people not to travel by boat in Ambon bay due to the repeated assaults that had killed many. What kind of control they really have, if 'laskar jihad' is still capable of attacking and killing people and got away with it? Instead of searching for those murderers, Governor, Saleh Latuconsina, aroused an issue of some gang members who came back to Ambon for Christmas. He accused them for having an intention to disturb the local ecurity behind their Christmas visit. This incapable Governor would then claimed that there was nothing happened because it had been well anticipated. In fact Saleh Latuconsina had just attracted everybody attention toward something that did not exist, so no one would question him about finding the assailants and the slaughterers who are still free to do another series of killings. Since the incident resulted in a total destruction of Christian village, Waimulang, in southern part of Buru island, the attack on another Christian village, Ewiri, the bombing of the ‘California’ boat and the shooting of Christian speedboat that took nine lives, no one, and again, no one has ever questioned let alone brought to justice for these. The PDSD - Maluku has been taking a full measure in protecting 'laskar jihad' since the beginning. One can find the prove by looking at the 'case list' of the local Police or the local Court and see that there is not a single complete Police investigation process and consequently, not a single case ever been brought to Court regarding 'laskar jihad'! Saleh Latuconsina has been playing the Jakarta’s filthy plan on Maluku ever since the conflict broke out. No wonder, he remains that long in his position which seems to be forever, while there is nothing good he had accomplished for Maluku.
The longer the conflict exists, the more complicated the problems would be. One of which is to distinguish who is actually the indigenous people of Maluku and who is not. All the way between Jakarta and Ambon, there has never been a single Government official, Police Chief nor Military Commander who talked about the illegal occupation over Christian villages by 'laskar jihad'. There is not a single record of the PDSD-Maluku, the Governor, Police Chief or Army Commander showing that they ever tried to deal with the problems of illegal existence of illegal civilian militia who had illegally build Mosques on Christians’ properties and illegally brought their families to live on that land. The Provincial Legislative Council (DPRD-Maluku) and the Town Legislative Council (DPRD-Kotamadya Ambon) do not seem to be very enthusiastic in exercising their rights to deal with the problems regarding the illegal existence of 'laskar jihad'. When talking about the Campus of Pattimura University in Poka-Rumahtiga area there has never been a word from the Rector, Mus Huliselan, about 'laskar jihad' who had unlawfully resided in the area. How could the campus ever be rebuild? More importantly, how could peace and harmony be restored and security reinstated in Maluku with indigenous people of Maluku being refugees in their own land?
Any organization in any country should possess legal documents containing legal reasons that justified its existence. The question is, does 'laskar jihad' hold any legal documents stating that they are a lawful organization? What would be the main grounds for its existence if there are any? Who holds the constitutional rights to do the evaluation on that reasons and to legalize the existence of 'laskar jihad'? Although they declared that 'laskar jihad’ is a religion (Islam) based organization, it should have a state authorization like any other religion base organization. This also applies even if Indonesia is a religion base country. In fact it is not! If 'laskar jihad' actually own a legal certificate then the followings would the related consequences one may want to know. Its existence would have to be authorized based on some religion (Islam) arguments. What argument then, shows that 'laskar jihad' has a license to own firearms? Is there any argument concerning 'laskar jihad' being an armed civilian Moslems defender organization? Is there any justified argument that makes 'laskar jihad' such a national guard organization that responsible for the unity of the nation? The conclusion would therefore be, even if 'laskar jihad' owns a certificate, it would just be a false certificate that contradicts the national constitution.
It has been brought to light that when it comes to 'laskar jihad' then all of the comments would be on the subject of ‘illegal matters’. So, why would the Government of Indonesia be so tolerant to 'laskar jihad'? In general, the answer would be because the Government of Indonesia is now terrified of a reality that can no longer be hidden due to a fast and free access to the global information. After being in the dark of accusation and humiliation for fifty years, the truth has finally comes up that Maluku had all the rights guaranteed by the international laws to determine itself as an independent Republic of South Maluku, April 25, 1950. It was the former Republic of Indonesia, as one state in the United States of Indonesia, that violated the international laws and the Indonesian Federal Constitution of 1950.
The present Republic of Indonesia have no legitimacy whatsoever to be like it is now! This truth has really bothered the Government of Indonesia who has absolutely nothing to defend itself. Therefore, Maluku would have to be destabilized using the old colonialist way, 'divide and conquer'. For the second time now, Maluku has been corrupted by the Government of Indonesia. The Government of Indonesia is now utilizing the filthy hands of an illegal civilian militia called 'laskar jihad', which employs deserted military and police personnel, to destroy Maluku. The Government of Indonesia had informally legalized the infiltration of the illegal 'laskar jihad' to Maluku, and had implicitly supported its deceitful allegation about ‘the Christian separatist movement in Maluku’! With this deceitful allegation, Christians and Moslems were aggravated in a suspicion toward each other and were set to fight each other. As a result, people of Maluku would not be strong enough to demand their rights robbed by the Government of Indonesia in 1950, and to defend their lands robbed by 'laskar jihad' just now.It is now understandable, why 'laskar jihad' had never been talked about as far as Maluku is concerned. Poso, Central Sulawesi does not have such history that although some fools have tried to place the Republic of South Maluku in Poso, no one would believe such a lie. It is alright then for the Government of Indonesia to mention 'laskar jihad' when dealing with the conflict in Poso. Lets remember that 'laskar jihad' would always operate on two deceitful basic arguments, which are ‘to defend Moslems’ and ‘to protect national unity’, to cover up their true agenda of ‘forcing Christians to embrace Islam and to compulsorily take over their lands to feed their low educated and unemployed members and their families. That’s why 'laskar jihad' would never present in Aceh but in certain regions where there are considerable number of Christians and especially where there is a challenge to the central Government in Jakarta. It can be easily foretold that the next main target of 'laskar jihad' would be Papua! Formerly called Irian Barat (West Irian), this province had been had been unlawfully occupied by the Republic of Indonesia through a ‘manipulated referendum result’ in 1962. Papua is now demanding a new referendum supervised by the UN, and its voice is getting even louder after the murder of Papuan Presidium Leader, Theys H. Eluway. Government of Indonesia has started sending more military troops to Papua while 'laskar jihad' established its new post in Sorong, Papua, little by little sent its rioters and recruited some locally.
On the other hand, to cover its malicious conduct in Aceh, the Government of Indonesia had betrayed National Ideology of Pancasila, and had broken National Constitution by authorizing the implementation of 'Syariat Islam' (Islamic Laws) in the province. This misleading political act was upheld by the Vice President of Indonesia, Hamzah Haz, saying that the exercise of 'Syariat Islam' in Aceh will prove the effectiveness of the laws to quiet down the rebellion in the province. Some decent Moslems may be well pleased with Haz’s word. They did not realize that Hamzah Haz was just deceiving them since the Aceh Independent Movement never really cared for such laws. It was the greed and unjust of the Indonesian Government that they are fighting against.
In Maluku, the Local Civil Emergency Situation Authority; the Governor, Police Chief and the Army Coommander, the Legislative Council (DPR), and the Rector of the Pattimura University, is allied with the central Government. They would never have words against 'laskar jihad' and they do not care about the people of Maluku. All they have in mind is to please the crooked Central Government of Indonesia, so they would be able to hold on to their position as long as possible and get as much profits out of it.
Peace and order is still far away from Maluku while the country is ruled by some form of ‘religious based evil force’, unless all of the spiritual hypocrites like 'laskar jihad' are totally banned!Joshua Latupatti
See Al-Qaeda involvement in the Diamond Trade in Africa. http://www.globalwitness.org/reports/show.php/en.00041.html
See also this article. BBC NEWS
See also this Report. International Crisis Group
See also this Report. Genocide in West Papua - Sydney University - August 2005
