Police deny "spying" on pesantren

Police deny "spying" on pesantren

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

National Police Headquarters denied on Friday that police in
Central and West Java provinces had sent in spies to monitor the
activities of pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) suspected of
harboring the followers of militant group Jamaah Islamiyah (JI).

"This sort of thing is no longer the way we do things in the
police in this democratic era," National Police spokesman Sr.
Commr. Zainuri Lubis told The Jakarta Post here.

Zainuri was commenting on previous statements by Central Java
Police chief Insp. Gen. Didi Widayadi and West Java Police chief
Insp. Gen. Dadang Garnida that their officers were conducting
"tight surveillance" on a number of pesantren located in their
jurisdictions.

The police reportedly stepped up surveillance on pesantren out
of fears that they had been infiltrated by and become safe havens
for JI followers.

The surveillance was also said to be intended to detect
potential terrorist attacks.

Zainuri claimed that the phrase "tight surveillance", as used
by the two police generals, did not mean spying.

Conducting tight surveillance, he said, did not mean that the
police had deployed intelligence officers to scrutinize the
activities of the pesantren.

"Tight surveillance does not meant spying," Zainuri insisted,
in an apparent attempt to ease fears among human rights activists
and Muslim leaders that the surveillance could lead to human
rights violations.

Instead of deploying intelligence officers, the police would
gather information on the potential dangers of terrorism, warn
the public of these and encourage the public to help the
authorities in the fight against the bombers, he said.

Zainuri said police were trying to increase public
participation in the antiterrorism campaign.

With the possibility of further bomb outrages in the country
undiminished, the police realized that the best way to stop the
terrorists was to increase public participation in the early
detection of terrorist threats.

Some religious leaders have backed the police move to conduct
surveillance on the pesantren, saying that this was justified as
a preemptive measure to stop future terrorist attacks.

They warned, however, that the police must respect the
prevailing laws when conducting such surveillance operations.