'Militant groups recruit new members, plan more attacks'

'Militant groups recruit new members, plan more attacks'

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said on Wednesday that
militant groups continued to recruit new members and warned of
more terror attacks in the country.

"There are new recruits in these groups. We have yet to find
out entirely about their recruitment system, but for sure there
are new members of the group," Da'i said on Wednesday.

He cited as examples several new names involved in the recent
JW Marriott Hotel bombing which were not mentioned as part of the
group responsible for the Oct. 12 Bali bombings last year.

Da'i said names such as Asmar, who carried out the suicide
bomb at the Marriott attack, and Tohir, who is still on the run,
are indications of the presence of new recruits in the group.

"These are for us indications that they continue to recruit
new militants willing to commit acts of terror," the police chief
said after attending a ceremony marking the Sept. 30, 1965 coup,
which brought then Maj. Gen. Soeharto to power.

Regional terrorist network Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) has been
blamed for both last year's Bali bombings, which killed at least
202 people and injured over 300 others, and the Marriott attack
last month that killed at least 12 people.

Over 40 people had been arrested for their alleged role in the
terrorist attacks, of whom two had been sentenced to death.

Police have also arrested dozens of activists suspected of
planning terrorist attacks in the past few weeks.

Citing an unidentified Indonesian intelligence official,
Singapore's Sunday Times reported over the weekend that 12 "new
generation" JI reactionaries intended to strike hotels in
Jakarta, Surabaya and Medan, as well as residential areas with
large expatriate communities across the country.

Da'i said there were five fugitives who still were at large
and posed threats to the security of the country.

He further warned that these fugitives also had assembled
bombs with them that could be used in the coming months.

"We continue to stay on alert because we believe that these
men carry bombs with them and their targets have always been big
cities," Da'i added.

Alluding to the investigation team sent to Pakistan to
question six detained Indonesian students, including Rusman
Gunawan, the brother of JI leader Riduan Isamuddin alias Hambali,
Da'i said the police would like to extra information on Hambali
from his brother.

"We only know that Rusman Gunawan communicates with his
brother Hambali and we would like to find out if he knew anything
about Hambali's activities since 2000," the police chief said.

The team, consisting of two policemen, a diplomat and one
official from the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), left for
Karachi, Pakistan on Tuesday to meet with the arrested JI
suspects.

"We also would like to ensure that they receive proper
treatment during the legal proceedings and can be freed should
there be no solid grounds to establish their involvement in
terror groups," Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said
on Wednesday.