Australians detain six Indonesians amid antiterror crackdown
Australians detain six Indonesians amid antiterror crackdown
Agence France-Presse, Sydney
Australian police arrested six Indonesian men for visa violations Thursday amid a broader crackdown on suspected sympathizers of a radical Indonesian Islamic group accused of plotting terrorist attacks, officials said.
A spokesman for the Department of Immigration and Cultural Affairs (DIMA) said the six were arrested for working illegally in the northern Sydney suburb of Dee Why and were not suspected of any links to terrorist activities.
"All those detained were found working in a factory in Dee Why," an immigration department spokesman said.
"Two of them had their visas canceled because they were working in breach of the visa conditions and the other four were on expired bridging visas," he said.
The arrests came on the fifth day of wide-ranging anti- terrorist operations by federal police (AFP) and agents of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organization (ASIO) targeting suspected members of Jamaah Islamiyah, an Indonesian group held responsible for the October 12 bombing in Bali and other terrorist attacks.
"There's no connection with the other activity that's been happening yesterday with ASIO and the AFP, no connection at all," the immigration official said.
"This is an occurrence which happens quite regularly with our compliance officers who usually get community information and check it out," he said.
Police and ASIO agents have raided several homes of Indonesian Muslims across Australia since Sunday in search of possible members of Jamaah Islamiyah or al-Qaeda.
The most recent raids took place Thursday in Melbourne, but there has been only one arrest reported, of a Sydney resident detained for overstaying his visa.
Jakarta Thursday protested against the raids, which have targeted Indonesian Muslims who have been living in Australia for years, and warned the move could hamper cooperation in the fight against terrorism.
"We have conveyed to Australia our concern about reports that Indonesian citizens there have been treated heavy-handedly," foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said.
"The point is we don't want these incidents to spoil the already excellent relations between Indonesia and Australia in the investigation of the Bali bombing," he added.