Ba'asyir's devotees stage protest
Sri Wahyuni and Tarko Sudiarno, The Jakarta Post, Surakarta/Yogyakarta
Hundreds of alumni from Al-Mukmin Islamic Boarding School went on strike in Yogyakarta on Wednesday to protest the police arrest of their headmaster and terror suspect Abu Bakar Ba'asyir.
Calling the methods used by police to forcibly remove the suspect an "abduction", the protesters gathered at the state-run radio station RRI in the city. After demanding that Ba'asyir be released immediately, the protesters marched to the nearby Yogyakarta provincial legislature building.
They accused the U.S. of waging war against Islam and Muslim people ever since President George Bush's government and its allies began to notice that many terrorist acts had been the work of Muslim figures.
"As Muslims and citizens, we declare that we will continuously fight against the U.S.'s arbitrary policy aimed at discrediting Islam," said Fachrurrozi who led the demonstration.
Meanwhile, the situation in nearby Surakarta has been tense, but relatively calm in the last two days despite a violent clash between the police and the disciples of Ba'asyir during his forced removal from Surakarta to Jakarta.
The students from the Al Mukmin Islamic Boarding School in Ngruki, who had been on guard at the Muhammadiyah hospital in the town to block the police from arresting him, have reportedly gone back to their campus.
The police, however, have made a concerted effort to strengthen security in several areas of the city, especially in Sebelas Maret University's campus and the Islamic Boarding School in Ngruki, Sukoharjo.
"We are here in anticipation of possible violence amid strong rumors that Ba'asyir's supporters will disturb the security in the town to protest Ba'asyir's detention in Jakarta," said one policeman.
Hundreds of Ba'asyir loyalists were involved in a bloody clash with security personnel when the police took Ba'asyir from the hospital by force on Monday.
Several security personnel and protesters were injured in the incident.
Beforehand, Ba'asyir's followers also staged a demonstration in the city to protest the police's decision to declare Ba'asyir a suspect in the alleged plot to kill President Megawati Soekarnoputri and the bombing of several churches in the 2001 Christmas.
On Tuesday, some 100 members of the Muhammadiyah Student Association (IMM) went on strike in the town to protest Ba'asyir's arrest with a call for Megawati to ask for "divine inspiration", instead of bowing U.S. President George Bush's demands, in fighting terrorism.
Ba'asyir became sick and checked himself into the hospital on Oct. 18 with an unspecified illness when he was declared a suspect for masterminding series of bombing attacks in the country and a plot to kill the president.
Ba'asyir has denied the charges for which he could face the death penalty, saying the charges were manufactured by the U.S. and its allies to discredit Islam.
According to Ba'asyir, his arrest was illegal as doctors had not yet recommended that he was healthy for the police interrogation.
The police, however, claimed he was fit enough to be taken to Jakarta.
Ba'asyir is now in the National Police Hospital in Jakarta, where doctors have examined him and declared him physically fit for police interrogation.
A number of politicians, including Vice President Hamzah Haz, who was once a vocal Ba'asyir defender, has expressed his support for the police investigation of Ba'asyir.