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".