'Communists want Islamic state'

PURWOKERTO, Central Java: Chief of the local military Col. Lintang Waluyo reconfirmed his belief that the five alleged extremists arrested last week are "communists".

The five were arrested after police found in their possession documents about their plan to turn Indonesia into an Islamic state.

Waluyo said the extremists were followers of the late Kartosuwirjo, who led a rebellion in West Java between 1949 and 1962 to set up an Islamic state.

"They had been jailed between 10 and 20 years for their involvement in communist activities," Waluyo told journalists.

Indonesia barred the Indonesian Communist Party in 1965 following its involvement in a bloody coup attempt. Many of its core leaders were sentenced to death and thousands of others sent to hard labor camps on Buru Island, Maluku, without trial.

Waluyo said they also confiscated brochures on how to mobilize support from the public, mostly poor people. (wah/pan)