Arrest me, not clerics says VP

Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Vice President Hamzah Haz challenged the authorities on Wednesday to arrest him in place of Muslim clerics charged with having links to a terrorist network.

"There are no terrorists here. I guarantee that. If they (terrorists) exist, don't arrest any Muslim clerics, arrest me," he was quoted as saying by his aide Said Budairy.

Said told The Jakarta Post that Hamzah said he would be the first man to issue an arrest warrant if the predominantly Muslim country harbored any terrorists.

The Vice President made the statement during an unexpected meeting with Abu Bakar Ba'asyir in Central Java, a controversial Muslim cleric linked by Singapore and Malaysia with a regional terrorist network.

The more than one-hour meeting defied earlier criticism of Hamzah's close ties with hard-line Muslim groups.

Hamzah's aides said the Vice President arrived at 2 p.m. in the Al-Mukmin Islamic boarding school run by Ba'asyir at Ngruki in the town of Sukoharjo, Central Java.

The Vice President sparked widespread criticism for his unpopular move earlier this month to visit Ja'far Umar Thalib, the detained leader of the Laskar Jihad hard-line group.

Ja'far is being held for allegedly inciting a massacre of Christian villagers in the Maluku islands.