Are world terrorists targeting Southeast Asian capitals?
Are world terrorists targeting Southeast Asian capitals?
By Wong Chun Wai
KUALA LUMPUR: Shortly after terrorists bombed the World Trade
Center in New York in 1993, the FBI and CIA started an intensive
global search for Islamic militant Ramzi Yousef and his
accomplices.
The Kuwaiti-born fugitive traveled from country to country,
under different names and different guises, but finally settled
in Manila a year later, where he plotted to kill Pope John Paul
II, who was about to visit the Philippines.
With him was his conspirator, Afghani-born Wali Khan Amin
Shah, a stocky man with two fingers missing on his left hand.
Wali was caught by the Philippine police after his rented
apartment caught fire while he was making home-made bombs. Yousef
escaped. But Wali, too, mysteriously escaped three days later
from police custody. He showed up in Kuala Lumpur but the
Malaysian police were more alert. While strolling along Chow Kit,
he was arrested. The press then merely reported the arrest of a
West Asian man, without giving details. The man was Wali, one of
the most dangerous terrorists. He was handed to the U.S. police.
In his possession were four passports: Pakistani, Saudi
Arabian, Afghan and Norwegian.
Wali, who was nicknamed The Lion in Afghanistan, was regarded
as one of the best masterminds in the world of terrorism.
His arrest was certainly one of the biggest scores in the
history of Malaysian police who decided to keep out the fanfare
for political and diplomatic reasons.
Wali and Yousef were both responsible for plotting to blow up
12 U.S. passenger airplanes.
In 1994, they blew up a cinema in Manila and, in 1995, planted
a bomb on a Philippine Airline bound for Tokyo. The blast killed
a Japanese passenger.
That was not all. According to court indictment papers in USA
vs Yousef, made available to the press, Wali had also earlier
made a trip to Kuala Lumpur from Singapore, using a ticket issued
to "W. Khan".
The next day, he flew to Manila via Singapore, this time,
using the name "Grabi Ibrahim Hahsen" to meet Yousef.
The reason for his Kuala Lumpur visit isn't clear although
Simon Reeve, the author of Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden and the
future of terrorism -- the New Jackals quoted U.S. investigators
as saying Wali was "probably in Malaysia to buy raw materials".
Yousef was finally arrested in Pakistan and extradited to the
United States, where he was sentenced to a 240 years in jail.
In fact, U.S. investigators reportedly believed Yousef had
connections in Malaysia although there were no details nor
evidence. Like the members of the local militant group KMM,
Yousef, too, visited Afghanistan. During the summer of 1988,
while as a student in England, he visited Afghanistan, joining
25,000 foreign jihad fighters from over 35 countries.
The Afghan war broke out in 1979. By the time Yousef turned
up, most of the 115,000 Russian troops had started pulling out.
Like most of the 10 KMM militants, Yousef, too, never saw
action in Afghanistan, but declared themselves to be religious
fighters.
But Afghanistan was the turning point for Yousef, like the
KMM. It was at the training camps where he picked up bomb-making
skills, learned to use weapons and, more importantly, established
contacts with other terrorist groups.
Those present at that time were Saudi Arabian Osama bin Laden,
regarded as the financier of terrorist groups worldwide, and
Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, the founder of Abu Sayyaf of the
Philippines.
The United States has blamed Osama's followers for the attacks
on the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, killing
224 people. For the police investigating the KMM, their areas of
concentration would include the origin of the group and, if it
exists, its network of international contacts.
This point is crucial and no one should underestimate the
brotherhood of such dangerous organizations.
The police would probably also want to find out the agenda of
the shadowy group, whether it is religious militancy or plans to
topple the government by force.
Experts said there were hundreds of groups including those in
Malaysia with "specific national agendas."
Last week, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Zainal Abidin Zin told
Parliament eight of the 10 KMM members arrested were PAS members,
including Nik Adli Abdul Aziz, the son of Kelantan Mentri Besar
Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat.
Nik Adli was said to have been elected leader by the KMM at a
meeting of 12 members in Kampung Seri Aman, Puchong, in early
1999.
The 34-year-old teacher supposedly made frequent trips to
Afghanistan, as admitted by Nik Aziz himself.
The KMM, if it truly exists, is certainly a new challenge to
our police, as it represents a new breed of terrorists.
The public will certainly want to know whether these militants
were also responsible for several heinous crimes in Malaysia and
whether innocent lives had been mindlessly sacrificed in pursuing
their purported religious zeal.
More importantly, there must be answers to whether the KMM was
responsible for hoarding a large cache of firearms and ammunition
from their alleged hideout in Puchong.
The cache included an M16 assault rifle, five magazine clips
loaded with 5.56mm ammunitions, a revolver and a pistol, home-
made bombs, several half-assembled home-made bombs and an
assortment of chemicals and paraphernalia in assembling bombs.
The recent arrest of a Universiti Institut Teknologi Mara
(UiTM) graduate, who allegedly bombed two churches and a shopping
mall in Jakarta, has also added a new dimension to alleged
terrorism acts involving Malaysians.
It is not clear whether he is linked to the KMM although it
has been confirmed that he is a Malaysian but the public would
certainly want to know the role of Malaysians who fought in
Ambon, the Maluku islands.
Our authorities must now step up its efforts to monitor groups
with militant tendencies, as they represent a new challenge to
our security system.
There must be no compromise with groups which attempt to
overthrow a legally elected government by force.
-- The Star/Asia News Network