ICG urges Indonesian government to do more to uncover JI operations

ICG urges Indonesian government to do more to uncover JI operations

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia should reopen investigations into previous bombings
across the country and strengthen its intelligence resources to
uncover the operations of the regional Jamaah Islamiyah (JI)
terror network, the International Crisis Group (ICG) says.

It also urges the government to "get far more serious than it
has" in taking control of weapons, ammunition and explosives
thefts from the Indonesian Military (TNI) in order to know how
the JI network was operating.

In its latest report dated Dec. 11, the Brussels-based non-
governmental organization says that to achieve the goal, the
Indonesian government should adopt a new strategy involving
international assistance and previous confessions by suspects,
which were allegedly extracted through torture.

"Investigations into all previous JI operations need to be
reopened, with the highly effective combination of international
investigators working alongside their Indonesian counterparts
under Indonesian direction," the report said.

"Intelligence resources need to be strengthened but the
resources need to go the police, not to the National Intelligence
Agency (BIN), nor to Army intelligence," it added.

The ICG said some of the weaponry and explosives used by JI in
Indonesia may have been obtained from domestic elements.

Documents from trials for previous bombings, including those
of churches on Christmas Eve and the Jakarta Stock Exchange
between 2000 and 2001, showed that arms trade was flourishing in
the industrial island of Batam in Riau and the West Java capital
of Bandung, it said.

"The Indonesian government might want to consider setting up a
commission with advice and input from some of the international
investigators working on the Bali (bombing) case about how this
trade can best be curbed," the group added.

National Police have said the alleged mastermind of the Oct.
12 Bali bombings, Imam Samudra, was also charged with playing a
key role in the previous bomb attacks.

Samudra is a suspected member of JI with Abu Bakar Ba'asyir,
arrested last October for his alleged involvement in the 2000
bombings, serving as its top spiritual leader.

The police here have said JI cells were operating in Indonesia
and blamed them for a series of bombings in Indonesia, Malaysia,
and the Philippines since 1999.

In Indonesia, JI is suspected of bomb attacks on Christmas Eve
two years ago, in which at least 19 people were killed and
hundreds of others injured.

The bombings destroyed or damaged 38 churches and priests'
houses in at least eleven cities: Jakarta, Bekasi, Bandung,
Sukabumi, Ciamis, and Mojokerto, all on Java; Medan, Pematang
Siantar, and Pekanbaru on Sumatra; Batam, and Mataram on the
island of Lombok.

The ICG revealed that JI was also operating in the country's
restive province of Aceh, where the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has
violently been campaigning for independence from Indonesia.

It said a number of Acehnese figures, who are close to the JI
leadership, are also close to the TNI intelligence. "More
importantly, Aceh is where, in a bizarre way, the interests of JI
and the Indonesian Military intersect because both oppose GAM,"
it added.

The international group said that historically, JI started the
establishment of relations with Aceh's Darul Islam rebellion
between 1953 and 1963 and with its leader Teungku Daud Beureueh
and his associates.

The Acehnese see Daud as a hero, GAM considers him the pioneer
of the Aceh independence movement and JI leaders call him the
champion of an Islamic state.

The ICG further said that one of the JI members based in Aceh
has continued to "maintain regular communications with Maj. Gen.
Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin and is known to be close to head of the
National Intelligence Agency Hendropriyono".

However, Sjafrie, the current spokesman for the TNI accused of
widespread human rights abuses in Aceh and several other
provinces, denied on Saturday the ICG's accusation, saying the
report "has no legal basis and is not accountable."

Nevertheless, the group said that such links needed to be
explored more fully because "it does not necessarily mean that
military intelligence was working with JI, but it does raise a
question about the extent to which it knew or could have found
out more about JI than it has acknowledged".