21 members of Islamic state movement arrested

21 members of Islamic state movement arrested

JAKARTA (JP): Police have arrested 21 men who declared
themselves members of the banned Indonesian Islamic State
movement in a raid Tuesday at a house in Pondok Gede, Bekasi.

City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Hamami Nata said the suspects were
detained based on evidence that they had allegedly undermined the
state and its government by spreading stories that an Islamic
state had been founded to replace the Republic of Indonesia.

"They were listening to a speech delivered by their leader
when the police raided the place.

"In his speech, the leader said that an Islamic state has been
founded here, thus only Islamic values and regulations were to be
obeyed," Hamami said.

The man who acted as the leader of the group was identified as
Wardiman, said Hamami after a ceremony promoting 260 Jakarta
police officers.

Bekasi police chief Lt. Col. Adjie Ramdja, who also attended
yesterday's ceremony, said the suspects were now being detained
at the City Police Headquarters for further interrogation.

Preliminary police investigations revealed that the men had
stayed together at the house for about four months, said Adjie.

Both Hamami and Adjie, however, refused to identify the other
suspects.

According to Adjie, the house where the suspects were busted
Tuesday afternoon was only 70 square meters in area and located
in a public housing complex, which is also home to many military
and police personnel.

Adjie declined to identify the complex. "I don't remember the
name," he said.

He said police initially disbelieved where the members of the
banned Indonesian Islamic State movement, better known as NII,
were staying.

"No one could believe that such a group could exist in a
neighborhood where many military and police members also live,"
he said.

"Their activities were also hard to be detect because the
house had been equipped with devices to reduce noise so that
other people would not be able to hear any of the discussions or
speeches delivered daily by their leader."

Police also confiscated several religious books and a leaflet
from the group.

"The leaflet contains the text of the 1949 proclamation of the
movement with the initials SMK printed in the lower part of it,"
Adjie said.

SMK is likely to be an abbreviation of Sekarmadji Maridjan
Kartosuwirjo, the founder of the movement, he said.

According to the government-sponsored book 30 Tahun Indonesia
Merdeka (30 years of Indonesian Independence), Kartosuwirjo
proclaimed the birth of NII in Tasikmalaya, West Java, in
1949.

The book says that he led his group of extremists, mostly from
West Java, to a number of provinces across the country in an
attempt to persuade Indonesian Army members to destroy the
republic and set up an Islamic state.

During police questioning, Wardiman confessed that he and his
members had never made any contact with their neighbors, Adjie
said.

Wardiman said there was another man who he called guru. But he
said he had no idea where the guru was, said Adjie, who refused
to disclose the name of Wardiman's guru.

Wardiman said that he often sold dolls or children's clothes
when not giving speech, Adjie said.

Hamami said the police would bring the case to the court soon.

"The men will be charge under Article 169 of the Criminal Code
for participating in an illegal organization."

If found guilty, each of the arrested men faces a maximum of
six years imprisonment.

"So far, we have yet to relate the men's activities to acts of
subversion," Hamami said. (cst)