Ba'asyir's verdict should not ruin state foundation
Ba'asyir's verdict should not ruin state foundation
The four-year prison sentence handed down to Islamic cleric, Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, has elicited many comments, not only from Indonesia but from other countries as well.
Ba'asyir, chairman of the Indonesian Mujahidin Council, has been implicated in cases of terrorism in Indonesia. Witnesses even said that the leader of the Al Mukmin Ngruki boarding school is part of the Jamaah Islamiyah militant group.
Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer has expressed dissatisfaction over the court verdict on Ba'asyir. He wanted Ba'asyir to be sentenced to 15 years in jail, as sought by prosecutors.
For the Indonesian judiciary however, it is dangerous to bow to foreign pressure.
The accusation that the Jamaah Islamiyah is a cell group of the al-Qaeda terrorist network has had a psychological impact on Indonesian Moslems. If the accusation is true, terrorism in only the act of certain irresponsible people. Most Moslems condemn terrorism.
This nation should thus see the legal process against Ba'asyir as part of common efforts to uphold the law. It is unnecessary to feel oppressed, as the feeling will only disturb relations among people from different faiths and in the long run, ruin the state foundation -- the "Unity in Diversity".
-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta
;; ANPAk..r.. Othersop-US-troop-Iraq American troops in Iraq JP/6/troop
American troops in Iraq
The Bush administration is under growing pressure to increase the number of troops in Iraq amid an upsurge in deadly terrorist attacks and general lawlessness.
At the same time, a new Newsweek magazine poll found that 48 percent of Americans want U.S. troops brought home. ...
The administration line continues to be that troop strengths are adequate, but it is lobbying hard for other countries to send troops and appears ready to push for a U.N. Security Council resolution to formalize that appeal. ...
Clearly, the administration was ill-prepared for postwar demands in both Iraq and Afghanistan, assuming, as Vice President Dick Cheney put it, that U.S. troops "will be greeted as liberators." ...
America should be pressing ahead to restore Iraqi political and police control. And it should redouble efforts to keep the United Nations engaged in Iraq and other countries, assisting the U.S. with security, humanitarian and economic needs. But until those efforts pay dividends in the form of boots on the ground, America will need additional forces to restore order before the situation spirals out of control in an ever-mounting cost of blood and treasure.
-- The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania