Indonesian leaders ask U.S. to exercise restraint

Indonesian leaders ask U.S. to exercise restraint

JAKARTA (JP): U.S. President George W. Bush's pledge to
retaliate against the terrorists who attacked America on Tuesday
prompted Indonesian leaders to call for restraint.

Vice President Hamzah Haz and People's Consultative Assembly
(MPR) Speaker Amin Rais warned on Thursday that the U.S. should
conduct thorough investigations before taking any retaliatory
action.

Hamzah said that the American government should not attribute
the terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center and
Washington's Pentagon to Islam.

"These (terrorist) acts were not in line with Islamic
teaching," said Hamzah as quoted by Imam Addaruqutni, chairman of
the Islamic Muhammadiyah organization, after meeting with the
Vice President.

Hamzah and Amien said that if the U.S. turned out to be wrong
again, like when it prematurely blamed the 1995 Oklahoma office
block bombing on Middle Eastern Islamic groups, religious harmony
all over the world would be in jeopardy.

They agreed that all terrorist acts must be condemned but also
that the U.S. should avoid inflicting violence on the Islamic
world.

"To retaliate is America's right, but I would just like to
remind them that they once made a big mistake," said Amin,
recalling the time when U.S. agents tracked down two Arab youths
they suspected of the Oklahoma bombing to as far away as
Amsterdam.

In the present situation, American officials should keep cool
and not take any action that could tarnish the country's image,
said Amien, who is also chairman of the National Mandate Party
(PAN) and a former chief of Muhammadiyah.

Words of caution also came from the secretary-general of the
Yogyakarta Interfaith Brotherhood Forum (FPUB), Abdul Muhaimin
and La Ode Abdul Rauf, the leader of the Indonesian Muslim
Intellectuals Association (ICMI) in Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi.

"If America continues to terrorize other nations, it will only
worsen radicalism in the world," Muhaimin said. "Based on what I
heard from the VOA, there is a growing opinion in the U.S. that
the attack should not be linked to any religious groups," he
said.

Rauf warned the U.S. against mindlessly attacking Muslim
countries suspected of collaborating with the perpetrators of
Tuesday's attacks on New York and Washington.

"I personally condemn these inhumane terrorist attacks but
hope that America will not respond by brutally taking revenge on
Islamic countries," he said.

Rauf, who is also a professor of socio-political science at
Haluoleo University in Kendari, said he could not imagine how
many innocent people would become victims if the U.S. were to
retaliate on a large scale.

"Such indiscriminate revenge would also increase animosity
against the U.S.," Rauf told Antara.

He said he believed Tuesday's attacks on the World Trade
Center and Pentagon were carried out by well-organized,
international terrorist groups.

"In the history of terrorism, only Islamic and Japanese groups
have had such capabilities, so it's understandable if America
points the finger at fundamentalist groups."

He added that Washington should not use the terrorist attacks
as a pretext for pressurizing the Arab world to succumb to
America's wishes.

Indria Samego, a military analyst from the Indonesian
Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said that while the world would
agree that terrorism should be condemned, any retaliatory
measures should be measured.

"The retaliation should not cause misery to many innocent
people," Indria said.

Kusnanto Anggoro of the Centre for Strategic and International
Studies (CSIS) also theorized that economic sanctions were an
alternative to military action against countries suspected of
harboring terrorists.

"The U.S. should follow diplomatic norms by asking the country
it believes to be harboring the suspects to extradite them to the
U.S. Economic sanctions may be able to force the country to
comply with such a request," Kusnanto added. (23/02)