Police detain MMI members for paramilitary training

Police detain MMI members for paramilitary training

Blontank Poer and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Surakarta/Jakarta

Police questioned dozens of members of the Indonesian Mujahiddin
Council (MMI) for allegedly taking part in paramilitary training
in the Tawangmangu jungle of Karanganyar, Central Java.

The group of 35 people was disbanded by locals at dawn on
Monday. The people were then detained by the police who had been
observing the site since Sunday.

"We are questioning them, and the investigation is ongoing,"
National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said on Monday. The
police refused to go into details of the activities of the men,
nor the charges that might be brought against them.

Surakarta Police detective chief Adj. Comr. Yuda Gustawan
confirmed that they had been investigating the activities of the
men.

Locals said the group of young Muslim men had been camping in
the jungle since last Thursday and were involved in military
training, without using real rifles.

A resident, Supono, said that he saw the group engaging in
military-like practices such as marching and shooting, though
with sticks.

Worried about the activities of the group, Tawangmangu
subdistrict chief Drajad Mahendratama, along with dozens of
others, visited the location and demanded that the men leave the
site at once.

Drajad even provided three minivans to evacuate the men, while
dozens of policemen stood by before taking them to the local
police station for questioning.

Police said that the group was led by Djarot Supriyanto alias
Abu Haidar, a noted activist of MMI.

The organization is led by cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, the
alleged spiritual leader of Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), which is
listed by the United Nations as part of an international
terrorist network with links to al-Qaeda. The JI, which is blamed
for the Bali blast in October 2002 and the bombing of JW Marriot
Hotel in Jakarta in August 2003.

"We are not involved in military training, we were just
camping. This is simply a misunderstanding," Haidar said during
the evacuation.

He further said that the activities were not at all related to
MMI, as participants were activists of various Muslim-based
organizations.

According to police, the 35 men came from cities across the
country, such as Bandung and Purwakarta in West Java, East Lombok
in West Nusa Tenggara, and Karanganyar, Sukoharjo, Kendal, and
Pemalang in Central Java and Jakarta.

Most of the men were aged between 20 years and 30 years, and a
retired military officer, Lasmana Ibrahim, served as their
trainer. Police say Lasmana is a navy officer from Bandung who
retired as a major.

In 2002, the state intelligence agency (BIN) also claimed the
presence of a military training site for the al-Qaeda terrorist
network in Poso, Central Sulawesi, on the grounds of a Muslim
boarding school there, a charge which has also been denied by
those affiliated with the school.