$93,000 offered for JI leader

$93,000 offered for JI leader

Agencies

Following the escape of self-confessed terrorist Fathur Rohman
al-Ghozi from a prison in Manila, the Philippines, Indonesian
police have heightened security at airports and seaports across
the country.

"We have instructed police officers stationed in areas
bordering the Philippines to be vigilant for the possible entry
of Fathur Rohman into Indonesia," National Police chief of
detectives Comr. Gen. Erwin Mappaseng said here on Tuesday.

Mappaseng said security measures had been heightened in North
Sumatra, Riau, West Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, North Sulawesi,
Maluku and Papua. He did not elaborate.

The Philippines announced on Tuesday a US$93,000 bounty for
Fathur's recapture, alive or "dead and torn to pieces".

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has sacked the
three guards who were watching Fathur's cell.

Embarrassingly for the Philippine government, the escape came
as Australian Prime Minister John Howard was visiting the country
in a move to increase cooperation in antiterrorism measures.
Howard described it as a major setback.

Fathur, who was serving a 17-year-jail term for his role in
bombings that killed 22 people in 2001, escaped from the heavily
secured intelligence building at Camp Crame, Manila, early Monday
with two other terror suspects.

Fathur, the alleged chief bomb-maker of the radical Jamaah
Islamiyah (JI), a regional terrorist network, slipped out of
prison early on Monday along with two other local militants.

Details of how he managed to walk out of the special detention
center in Manila's heavily guarded national police headquarters
were also scant, but police said there were no signs of a forced
break-out.

"I personally think money changed hands one way or the other,"
Philippine police chief Gen. Hermogenes Ebdane was quoted by
Agence France Presse as saying Tuesday.

Fathur's escape came just days after Indonesian police
arrested a number of alleged JI members. The network is blamed
for the deadly Bali bombings in October 2002 and bomb explosions
across the country from 1999 through 2002.

Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Zainuri Lubis said on Monday that
some 3,000 JI members were still at large in the country waiting
for an opportune time to launch terrorist attacks.

Mappaseng said National Police had coordinated with the
Indonesian Military and immigration offices in order to help
Philippine authorities capture the most wanted terror suspect.

Fathur escaped with two Filipino rebels believed to be members
of another radical group, the Abu Sayyaf. Both groups have been
linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

Howard, in Manila as part of a three-nation tour of Asia, said
the Bali bombing, which killed 202 people, many of them
Australian, and attacks elsewhere in Indonesia and the
Philippines showed "that the threat from JI and other terrorist
groups remains extremely high."

"The investigation revealed that Jamaah Islamiyah's network is
more extensive than first thought.

"The JI and other groups are still likely to have capacity to
mount further terrorist attacks .... We continue to receive
reports of terrorist planning in the region."

Ports and airports have been put on alert to prevent the three
from fleeing the Philippines. A nationwide manhunt has been
launched and mugshot photos of the three fugitives distributed to
police intelligence offices across the country.