Police challenged to work harder after Azahari's death

Police challenged to work harder after Azahari's death

Ridwan Max Sijabat and Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Following the death of Azahari bin Husin during a raid at his
hideout in East Java, the next two weeks could be a crucial
period for the security and intelligence apparatus' long struggle
to curb terrorism in this country, intelligence experts say.

"The raid (and Azahari's death) has encouraged security
personnel, especially from the National Police and the
intelligence agencies to work harder to dig up more information
on Azahari's terror network to break it up for good. The police
are racing against time to find Azahari's compatriot Noordin Moh.
Top and his group members," former chief of the State
Intelligence Agency (BIN) A.M. Hendropriyono told The Jakarta
Post on Friday.

Azahari, a Malaysian citizen and one of the most wanted
terrorists in Southeast Asia, along with Budi, alias Arman, a
local operative, were killed during a shootout on Wednesday in
East Java. One of their main cohorts was arrested in Malang,
while several others were nearly caught in Semarang, Central
Java.

Giving a thumbs-up to the police, Hendropriyono said security
officers and BIN agents now had the challenge to arrest Noordin
and his local operatives. "The capture of this big fish will show
the world Indonesia's seriousness in the war on terrorism and
return the people's confidence in the government."

Asked whether Azahari's death would eliminate terror threats
in the future, Hendropriyono said it depended on the performance
of the police and BIN over the next few weeks.

"Terror threats will be getting more intense if security
forces fail to find the remaining members of their terrorist
network, because Azahari's death could provoke his followers to
become more militant and set up new cells. The threat will weaken
if security forces and BIN make a significant achievement," he
said, while speculating that for the time being, terror
activities would remain dormant because the operatives had been
put into a corner.

Terrorism was essentially psychological warfare and the
security forces should use this crucial time to win that war, he
added.

Separately, Insp. Gen. (ret) Ansja'ad Mbai, who heads the
antiterror desk at the Office of Coordinating Minister for
Political, Legal and Security Affairs, said the death of Azahari
was a bit of shock therapy for the members of his terror cells,
but he warned that this could also drive them "to launch triple-
strength attacks as part of the psychological war."

"After the death of Azahari, maybe we'll see bomb attacks
taper off for quite some time, but another kind of terror can be
just starting. The terrorist groups can pursue the terror threats
in so many ways: bomb attacks, vandalism, assassinations or
anything to create psychological trauma among the public,"
Ansja'ad explained, while referring to the recent beheadings and
shooting attacks on female students in Poso, Central Sulawesi.

"If we understand more about the 'terrorist triangle', from
Sulawesi to Maluku to the southern Philippines, we can clearly
see how the network has worked so far. Each group within this
network has developed another cell that works independently, and
the death of one of its leaders won't stop their movement,"
Ansja'ad said.

Local antiterror experts predicted that there are about 300
men categorized simply as "Islamic militants", who are still
roaming about freely in this country.

Ansja'ad said that most of them had graduated from
paramilitary training camps either in Afghanistan or the southern
Philippines.

Ansja'ad also said that security personnel would continue
monitoring some Islamic boarding schools, including Al Zaitun in
West Java, because "some of the individuals that have gone there
promote deviant thoughts about religion."

"The terrorists pursue different methods to meet their goals,
from spreading fanaticism in sermons to forcing their will
through violence. We must remain alert about their methods,"
Ansja'ad added.