Indonesia can't ban Jamaah Islamiyah: VP

Indonesia can't ban Jamaah Islamiyah: VP

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Vice President Yusuf Kalla said on Sunday the government cannot
ban Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), an Islamic militant group blamed for a
series of terror bombs in Indonesia, arguing that it has never
been recognized under the law in the first place.

Kalla was asked to respond to Australia's demand that
Indonesia outlaw JI following the second bomb attack in Bali,
which killed at least 23 people including three suicide bombers.

Police have said the suicide bombers were a "new generation"
of JI, which the Vice President said was a "formless
organization".

"For us, the existence of that organization (JI) is not
organized, so how can we disband it," Kalla told the press after
closing a batik event at the Jakarta Convention Center.

"If we have not recognized it and do not know its members, how
can we ban it," he stressed.

However, despite its "formless" existence, JI has often been
linked by police investigators with bombers who carried out
terror attacks in the past few years.

Kalla said the government would take firm action against any
organization found guilty of violating prevailing laws.

Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander
Downer is to travel to Indonesia this week and is expected to
lobby the government to ban the regional terrorist network.

JI was blamed for the first Bali attack in 2002 which killed
202 people including 88 Australians, and its alleged religious
leader Abu Bakar Ba'asyir was jailed for conspiracy over the
bombing, but no action was taken to outlaw it as his terror trial
failed to link him with the organization.