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
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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