Military-style training probed
Military-style training probed
Suherdjoko, The Jakarta Post, Semarang
The police said they would continue their investigation into a
military-style training program allegedly carried out by a hard-
line group at a tourist resort in Central Java, although the
activity has ceased.
Central Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Chaerul Rasyid said that
a thorough investigation of the training which lasted for several
weeks was needed to prevent disturbances to local security and
political stability.
"Although they (training participants) have already left, we
have not identified the goal of the training. We need to know
whether it was intended for state defense or other purposes. If
it was conducted for state defense, there is no problem. But if
it was intended for other purposes that could cause unrest among
the locals, we will take action. Most importantly, we have given
a preliminary warning," Chaerul said here on Monday.
The military-style training that took place in a forest and
plantation areas in Kopeng, near Salatiga, and involved 24
civilians was detected by intelligence officers from the National
Police a few days ago. The training activities were allegedly
organized by the Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI) which is
chaired by Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who was recently sentenced to four
years in prison for his link to the Bali and JW Marriott Hotel
bombings in 2002 and 2003 respectively.
Chaerul said that the police would be conducting a
comprehensive inquiry into who were involved in the training and
what the purpose of the training was.
He said that the training should be open to the public if it
was indeed conducted for a good purpose, and should not have been
held secretly because it had caused confusion and disturbance
among locals.
MMI quickly denied the allegation, saying it had no military-
style trainings since it had been concentrating on sending
volunteers to tsunami-devastated Aceh.
If there are military-style training activities in the
mountainous area they were not conducted by MMI, said Wahyudin,
an executive of MMI.
He added MMI was focusing on sending volunteers to Aceh and,
so far, it had deployed 120 volunteers to help with
rehabilitation work in the province.