Legal protection sought for Indonesian detained in RP

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Human rights activists have called on the government to ensure legal protection for all Indonesians being detained in the Philippines on charges of terrorist acts and to demand Manila to present evidence for the charges.

"Every citizen, including suspected terrorists, deserve government assistance," noted lawyer and rights advocate Todung Mulya Lubis told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

The government must ensure that Indonesia citizens who face criminal offense charges abroad are not abused during interrogation, said Todung.

Munir, a noted human rights activist and co-founder of the National Commission on Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), urged the government to ask for clarification from the Filipino authorities on whether the four Indonesian citizens had links to terrorist groups.

"Calling these men terrorists could mean slander if the police fail to provide evidence of their allegations. Or, may be the Philippines wants to humiliate our country?" Munir remarked.

The spokesman for the Indonesian Embassy in Manila, Triyogo Djatmiko, confirmed on Tuesday the arrest of Uskar Makawata, 40, on charges of involvement in a mall bombing in General Santos city in the southern Phillipines on April 21. Triyogo also said the government would provide legal assistance to Uskar and three other Indonesians being held in Manila.

"Uskar is currently being detained at the Police Headquarters. Two Filipino suspects in the bombing case have identified him as a member of a group which planned the attacks," Triyogo said without elaborating.

The three other Indonesians, Rahman Yanis, 22, Jaka Antarani, 27 and Julkri Letombobo, 18, were being held at the immigration center and were awaiting deportation due to the lack of proper documents, according to Triyogo.

"We have visited them and will give legal assistance during the legal process," he said.

Meanwhile, deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives A.M. Fatwa urged the government not to be trapped into the way the U.S. conducted the war on terrorism.

"The U.S. has thus far failed to prove whether or not our citizens have a link with al-Qaeda," Fatwa said as quoted by Antara.

Earlier this year Philippine authorities arrested Agus Dwikarna and businessman Tamsil Linrung for alleged possession of explosives.

Another Indonesian, Fathur Rohman Al Ghozi, is currently serving a 12-year jail term in the Philippines after being declared guilty of possessing illegal explosives.

In a related development, Al Ghozi testified before a Philippine prosecutor that he was part of a plot by an Islamic militant group to conduct a bombing campaign in Singapore.

Al Ghozi said top leaders of the Jamaah Islamiyah group came to Manila in December 2000 and ordered him to "buy five to seven tons of explosives and to take them to Singapore to be used there."

He identified the leaders as Riduan Isamuddin, an Indonesian Islamic teacher, and Faiz Abu Bakar Bafana, a former Singaporean who is now a Malaysian national.

Al Ghozi said he went to Singapore in November 2000 on orders from Faiz Abu Bakar to see the latter's brother Fathi Abu Bakar Bafana.

"While I was there, we went to scout the U.S. and Israeli embassies which are our main targets," he said as quoted by AFP. "This was one of the reasons why I was sent to the Philippines to buy explosives."

Police took Al Ghozi from his cell and escorted him Thursday to the justice department to submit his written deposition taken by police investigators here in July.

The prosecutor, Roberto Lao, is conducting a preliminary hearing on a police recommendation to indict Fais Abu Bakar Bafana and Isamuddin on explosives charges.

Filipino police allege that Isamuddin, who is at large and is known to Southeast Asian intelligence officials by his alias "Hambali", is one of the top leaders of Jemaah Islamiyah.

Fais Abu Bakar Bafana was among 13 Islamic militants detained by Singapore in late 2001 in connection with the bomb plots on the foreign embassies there.

The Jemaah Islamiyah is a Southeast Asian Islamic militant group outlawed in Malaysia and Singapore.

Authorities in the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia allege Jamaah Islamiyah has ties to the al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, the main suspect in the September 11 attacks in the United States.

Al Ghozi said he met his two alleged superiors after completing guerrilla training in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The two men funneled the funds used to buy explosives through three bank accounts in the Philippines in Al Ghozi's name, the detainee said.

He said he bought 70 kilograms (154 pounds) of explosives in the central city of Cebu in November 2000, and that some of the material was used to bomb the Manila light rail system on December 30, 2000, killing 22 people and injuring more than 100 others.

After that, Al Ghozi said he bought 1.2 tons of explosives and took them to the southern city of General Santos.

The huge cache was seized by Filipino police last January 17, shortly after Al Ghozi was arrested in Manila.

Hambali and Faiz Abu Bakar Bafana provided Al Ghozi "with funds to finance the purchase of the said explosives which were intended for their Jihad program in the region," said Chief Inspector Guillermo Danipog of the police intelligence group.

Singapore detained 21 suspected terrorists last month as well as specific targets they were looking at. Some of them had allegedly undergone military training at al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.

Their arrest brings to 34 the number of suspects held under the city-state's tough Internal Security Act.

The original 13 were said to be targeting the U.S. embassy and other Western targets, as well as a busy underground railway station.