Indonesia seeks access to JI leader
Indonesia seeks access to JI leader
Agence France Presse
Jakarta
Indonesia on Friday pressed for the resumption of full military
ties with the United States and access to top terror suspect
Hambali, an official said.
The request to interview Hambali was made by Foreign Minister
Hassan Wirayuda in talks with U.S. Secretary of State Colin
Powell on the sidelines of a regional security forum in Jakarta.
"He (Powell) listened and promised to bring it up with his
government in Washington," said Dino Pati Djalal, director for
North and Central American affairs at the Indonesian foreign
ministry.
Djalal said access to Hambali has become more urgent following
the arrest of suspects blamed for bomb attacks in recent years.
Hambali has been in U.S. custody at a secret location since his
arrest in Thailand last August.
The Indonesian is believed to have been Al-Qaeda's Asian
representative as well as a leading figure in the Jemaah
Islamiyah (JI) militant group.
JI is blamed for a string of attacks, including the Bali
blasts in October 2002 which killed 202 people and the Marriott
bomb in Jakarta last August which killed 12.
Indonesia is preparing to put JI's alleged former chief Abu
Bakar Bashir on trial for terrorism.
Indonesian and Filipino militants caught in the southern
Philippines have also told prosecutors in Manila that Hambali
funded a spate of bomb attacks in Manila that left scores dead in
2000.
Djalal said Jakarta is also seeking "full normalization of
military relations" with the United States following the end of a
joint investigation which Jakarta says cleared its army of
involvement in the killing of two American teachers in Papua
province in August 2002.
"We hope this will happen soon. Our military relations have
been neglected for long," he told reporters.
U.S. justice authorities last month charged Free Papua
Movement rebel Anthonius Wamang with the murders. The movement
has been fighting a sporadic separatist guerrilla war since 1963
in Papua.
The two teachers were among a group 10 Americans and one
Indonesian who were ambushed near a huge gold and copper mine
operated by a U.S. firm.
Washington halted most military-to-military contacts after
Indonesian troops ran riot in East Timor in 1999. U.S.
legislators have said they wanted an accounting for these and
other abuses before ties can resume, but the Papua case was seen
as the major immediate obstacle. Initial investigation suggested
that Indonesian troops may have been involved.
Powell was in Jakarta to attend the annual meeting of the
ASEAN Regional Forum, the only security and political forum in
the Asia-Pacific.