Govt denies report on TNI-terror links

Govt denies report on TNI-terror links

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government refuted on Wednesday a report which detailed the
Indonesian Military's (TNI) involvement in establishing terrorist
groups in the country, and branded it as baseless.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa criticized the
International Crisis Group (ICG), which released the report, for
being "overly imaginative" and that it was "unacceptable" to link
the TNI with militant Muslim groups which had developed in the
predominantly Muslim country.

"The report was nothing less than the product of overfertile
imaginations and a clumsy attempt to discredit the Indonesian
government," Marty told The Jakarta Post.

In an apparent move to clear the way for the restoration of
the military ties with the U.S., which have been limited since
1999 following the East Timor mayhem, Marty said the report was
unethical.

The government has contacted the Brussels-based think tank
country director, Sidney Jones, regarding the report.

"We have been talking to Sidney Jones today (on Wednesday) to
express our resentment over the ICG report," Marty said but did
not elaborate on her responses.

"By concluding that the Indonesian Military is behind the
groups is unacceptable and it needs to be further verified," he
remarked.

The ICG released the report earlier this week and concluded
that Indonesian military intelligence or (BIN) had set up a group
in the 1970s, and that had developed into what is now the Jemaah
Islamiyah, accused by many countries of being a terrorist
organization.

The report spells out how former president Soeharto used the
group to discredit Muslim opposition activists as well as to
contain infiltration of suspected "communists".

As the hardliners grew in confidence, they were arrested by
Soeharto who accused them of seeking to establish a
fundamentalist state.

The activists included Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who according to
many is the founder of the Muslim radical group Jemaah Islamiyah,
which has been accused of having links with the notorious al-
Qaeda terrorist network and plotting bomb attacks in several
Southeast Asian countries.

Marty speculated that the accusation was intentionally made in
conjunction with the ongoing process to fully restore military
ties between Indonesia and the U.S.

"The attempt to discredit the Indonesian government was made
when the international community was increasingly recognizing
TNI's role in the war against terrorism," he underlined.

Marty further added that the report had tainted the good
democratization process in the country, which recently amended
the 1945 Constitution. The amendment stipulates the exit of the
TNI from politics by 2004.

Indonesia has been trying to convince the U.S. to lift its
military ban as Jakarta needed to give its military more
firepower to contain the various conflicts within its borders
which have come to a head in the wake of the 1998 reform
movement.

President George W. Bush's administration has confirmed its
support for normalization of military ties with Indonesia, which
depends much on the U.S. Congress rescinding the law that was put
in place after widespread accusations of military-sponsored human
rights violations in East Timor.

Jakarta is expecting to have the full military relations
revived by the end of this year.