Arrest of terrorist suspect sparks rampage in Maluku

Arrest of terrorist suspect sparks rampage in Maluku

M. Azis Tunny, The Jakarta Post, Ambon

Enraged by the arrest of terror suspect Syarif Tarabubun,
hundreds of people attacked and burned down on Monday a Muslim
boarding school believed to have been harboring terrorists.

The residents of the Muslim subdistrict of Haya, Central
Maluku, went on a rampage after they learned that the school
principal, Batar, had allegedly harbored Syarif and other
terrorists who had been involved in terror activities in the
formerly riot torn city of Ambon.

Central Maluku Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Ngurah Gunawan said
that no fatalities had been reported in the incident.

The police officer said Batar was not in the school at the
time of the incident as he had already left the area last year
after he became the target of a police investigation for his
alleged key role in an attack in Wamkana subdistrict, Buru
regency in May last year, leaving three civilians dead.

Of five suspects in the case, only Batar and another person,
Nurdin, are still at large while three other suspects have been
arrested. These three have admitted to police
investigators that they were involved in series of attacks in
Maluku, particularly Ambon city. "Batar has been our priority. We
received a tip-off that he already recruited other persons to
mount terror attacks," said Ngurah Gunawan.

In a separate development, police investigators in Ambon are
still questioning Syarif Tarabubun, who is also a police
officer, for his role in an armed attack on a cafe in Ambon that
killed two people. Syarif and 16 other people were arrested on
Friday last week for their alleged roles in attacks in Ambon city
over the past year.

Syarif was also named a suspect in February two years ago for
allegedly masterminding the killing of civilians Tengku Fauzi
Hasbi, Edy Saputra and Achmad Saridu.

The three were abducted from a hotel in the Waihaong area,
Ambon city, and were then murdered. Syarif and the three dead
people were believed to have all been members of a radical group
affiliated to regional terror network Jamaah Islamiyah, but an
internal rift led Syarif to commit the murders. Syarif was
arrested in May 2003, but was released after a court found him
not guilty.

The preliminary investigation into Syarif and the other 16 persons
arrested recently in Haya subdistrict, Central Maluku, has found
that they knew leading terrorists Azahari, Noordin M. Top and
Imam Samudera. Azahari was killed in a raid in Malang, East Java,
recently while Noordin is still at large. Imam Samudera was
convicted for the first Bali bombings and he is now on death row.

During questioning, Syarif and the other gang members admitted
that the three terrorists had trained them in Haya in 2000 when
sectarian conflict was tearing Maluku apart.

Ambon and other islands in Maluku were the scene of Muslim-
Christian violence between 1999 and 2002 that left thousands of
people dead. The conflict also drove hundreds of thousands of
people from Maluku province. A government-sponsored peace pact in
2002 has restored a semblance of normality in the area but
sporadic bombings and attacks still persist.