Doubt cast on JI link in Sumatra
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.