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