Immigration warns would-be 'jihad' warriors

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!"