Immigration warns would-be 'jihad' warriors

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government warned on Monday that it would revoke the citizenship of Indonesians traveling as volunteers to Afghanistan to fight against a possible American military operation.

Muhamad Indra, director of supervision and enforcement at the Immigration Office, said the government would be within its rights to invoke the provisions of Article 17 of Law No. 62/1958 on Citizenship as these Indonesians would be engaging in overseas military action without the consent of the government.

Indra pointed out that clause F of the article stipulated that permission from the Ministry of Justice was required if an Indonesian citizen wished to join a foreign military campaign.

When asked why the government did not take similar action against volunteers who fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union's occupation in the 1980s, Indra said that the reports about this were unsubstantiated.

"If there were any, the government didn't know about them," he said.

In reaction to a possible military strike by the United States against the Taliban regime, several religious groups in Indonesia have been campaigning for the launching of a jihad (holy war) in defense of Afghanistan.

One of these groups, the Islam Youth Movement (GPI), has even started registering volunteers.

While the logistical capabilities of these groups to actually send a large number of volunteers to Afghanistan remains dubious, the government is making its stance clear.

Immigration offices nationwide will be ordered to refuse to issue the travel documents needed for such purposes.

"This country is not declaring war against another country. Letting them enter Afghanistan and join military groups to fight the U.S and its allies is tantamount to us declaring war on the U.S.," Indra told The Jakarta Post and Koran Tempo at his office.

Washington has identified Osama bin Laden as the primary suspect in the Sept. 11 attack. With the Taliban regime continuing to harbor the alleged terrorist, the U.S. seems poised to take military action in Afghanistan.

This in turn has sparked strong anti-American sentiment across the Muslim world, including Indonesia, with many groups claiming that Washington is vilifying Muslims.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri, fresh from her trip to the United States, has pledged Indonesia's support in the fight against terrorism and regretted the radical wave of anti- Americanism which has suddenly appeared.

But GPI chairman M. Iqbal Siregar brushed aside the government's threat, claiming that 625 people in Jakarta alone had signed-up for the jihad in Afghanistan.

"It could reach thousands if you include our branch offices in places such as Sulawesi, Irian Jaya, Aceh, Surakarta and Yogyakarta in Central Java, and East Java," Iqbal said.

One volunteer, 31-year-old Sabaruddin from Bekasi, affirmed his defiance against the government threat as he was registering at the GPI office in Central Jakarta on Monday.

"I leave it all to Allah (God) ... I'm defending Islam," Sabaruddin said. "Not only am I willing to lose my citizenship, I'm ready of to lose my life!"