Doubt cast on JI link in Sumatra
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan
The National Police, praised for their fight against terrorism, have sparked confusion over a recent claim that Jamaah Islamiyah was operating in Sumatra.
Only hours after the National Police announced on Saturday the capture of 10 suspected members of the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) terror group allegedly operating in North Sumatra and Riau as thieves, North Sumatra Police chief of detectives Sr. Comr. Satria Hari Prasetya denied there were any links between the suspected criminals and the regional terror group.
Satria also said that only eight people were arrested. The men are accused of staging last month's robbery of the Medan branch of Bank Lippo.
"They have no link to the regional terrorist group Jamaah Islamiyah (JI). This group of robbers is professional and certainly well-organized.
"We are conducting further investigations, but based on their statements, they have no connection to JI," Satria told a media conference held to respond to the National Police's claim.
The National Police director of the chief of detectives, Comr. Gen. Erwin Mappaseng, said the Medan Police had arrested 10 JI members implicated in the Christmas Eve bombing in 2000 as well as last year's Bali blasts.
North Sumatra Police identified the eight suspects as Fa alias Acin, 21, Ra alias Tono, 30, Sa alias Aan, 30, Ta alias Aryo, 24, Ram, 30 and MU, 30, -- all residents of Medan -- Pu alias Soni, 23, a resident of Pekanbaru, and In alias Togar, 33, from Bengkulu.
Satria said he believed that the group was expanding its network to Medan, Bengkulu and Pekanbaru, the capital cities of three of Sumatra's provinces.
In Jakarta, National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Zainuri Lubis said that the men were suspected members of JI, the militant Islamic group blamed for last year's Bali bombings, which left 202 people dead, mostly foreign tourists.
"It was one of the largest and most violent undertakings that is suspected to have been carried out by this group," Zainuri said. "We are concerned that it happened in Medan, which is near the neighboring countries of Singapore and Malaysia."
"We suspect that these people are still active and gathering funds locally, perhaps from outside sources," he told AP on Sunday, adding that JI leader Hambali had ordered the men to carry out the crimes to collect funds for their activities.
The police seized three handguns, 91 rounds of ammunition, four motorbikes, hundreds of thousands of rupiah, a bank passbook and vehicle ownership documents.