Australia raids Indonesians' homes in anti-terrorist crackdown

Agencies Sydney/Jakarta

Heavily-armed Australian federal agents raided homes of Indonesian Muslims on Wednesday in a nationwide hunt for members of an Islamic radical group held responsible for the Oct. 12 bombing in Bali, AFP reported.

Indonesia quickly expressed its concern over the raid, which was part of a crackdown on possible Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) members operating in Australia. A foreign ministry official in Jakarta said Australia should have notified Indonesia of the raid beforehand, citing international rules that require prior notification when a government proceeds with legal steps against foreign nationals.

Australian police and intelligence agents armed with submachine guns and wearing helmets, flak-jackets and masks smashed their way into two homes in pre-dawn raids in the Perth suburb of Thornlie in Western Australia.

Also on Wednesday agents in Sydney arrested a 31-year-old man on visa offenses during the search of a home belonging to another Indonesian, Ali Basri, whose son Jaya was targeted by a similar raid on Sunday.

Officials also confirmed two other homes were raided on the weekend by members of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) and federal police in a hunt for agents of JI, an organization which has been put on the list of terrorist groups by the UN Security Council.

The raids are the first since the Bali bomb blast in which more than 190 people, half of them Australians, were killed.

No arrests have been made but videos, computers, computer discs, mobile phones and other material including passports were taken in the raids, police said.

Attorney General Daryl Williams said the operations were "part of a wider and ongoing investigation into the possible presence of Jamaah Islamiyah in Australia."

"We are doing what is necessary in the interests of the Australian community, and it will be done under proper legal means," he said.

But neighbors of the targeted homes, civil libertarians and Muslim community leaders questioned the level of force used in the raids.

"The federal police hit the fence in the front, hit the security door and ... broke the door on the side to go through to the back yard as well," said Jan Herbert, whose home was one of the two raided in Perth.

Herbert told the Australian Associated Press that police asked him about his ties to the alleged spiritual leader of JI, Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who was arrested by Indonesian police on Oct. 20.

"I meet him when he was giving a lecture in Sydney when he was in Sydney eight or nine years ago, something like that," he said. "(I was) just a normal visitor. The main topic (of his) lecture was he disagreed with (the) Indonesian government," he said.

Indonesian foreign ministry Spokesman Marty Natalegawa said his office had reminded Canberra through its embassy here of the international convention Australia had also to comply with when it takes legal measures against Indonesian nationals residing there.

"We have been informed that our citizens received heavy handed treatment from Australian authorities," Marty told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

"They have to inform Indonesian representatives if an Indonesian national has to go through legal proceedings."

Marty said Canberra had never notified Jakarta prior to or after the raids.

"Fighting terrorism should not inadvertently violate civil rights," he asserted.

In its official complaint to the Australian Embassy here, Jakarta also expressed concerns about remarks made by some Australian newspapers regarding a certain religion in Indonesia.

"We noted that there were unfriendly remarks against a certain ethnic group and religion in Indonesia made by some Australian media," Marty added.

Jaya Basri, 30, who has lived in Australia since 1994 and whose Sydney home was raided on Sunday, held a press conference on Wednesday to deny any links to terrorism and express fears about persecution by Australian authorities.

"I know what the consequences are," he said. "I want to make it clear to you I have not supported any terrorist activities or organizations."

Cameron Murphy of the Council for Civil Liberties condemned the raids as an over-reaction.

"One of the people involved in these raids had simply attended a lecture," he said.

"Many of these people have innocently gone along to lectures (to hear speakers who had been) let in by the government, let in by Islamic religious groups that were not considered terrorist groups at the time," he said

"There's no evidence of terrorist groups operating in Australia, no information of any terrorist activity at this stage."

A spokesman for the Lebanese Muslim Association, Keysar Trad, said the wider Muslim community was afraid of victimization in the crackdown.