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.