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)