RI in hot water over Lee's remarks

RI in hot water over Lee's remarks

Yogita Tahilramani and Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government is seeking clarification from and blaming
Singapore's Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew for talking to the
media, after he alleged that regional terrorist leaders were
still operating in Indonesia.

"Our diplomatic channels are working and we will seek
clarification on what Lee's statements mean," Coordinating
Minister for Security and Political Affairs Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono said on Monday night.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wahid Supriyadi said
that Indonesia regretted Lee's publicized statements and added
that he should have shared his information with the Indonesian
authorities first.

"As members of ASEAN, we had agreed with the government of
Singapore to share information concerning transnational crimes,
including terrorism," Wahid told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Bambang and Wahid were commenting on Lee's statement made on
Sunday that Singapore continued to face danger because leaders of
regional extremist cells were still at large in Indonesia. These
leaders, Lee said, were the brains, who just needed foot soldiers
in Singapore to do the legwork, like taking videos and arranging
explosives.

Lee's decision to talk to the media may have been triggered by
Indonesia's inactivity in dealing with groups or individuals
linked to terrorist networks by Singapore and Malaysia, two
neighboring countries that have launched a massive clampdown on
fundamentalist groups.

Singapore, for example, has arrested 13 Jamaah Islamiyah
members believed to be operatives of a terrorist network
operating in Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia.

Indonesia, on the other hand, has not made any recent arrests
of alleged terrorists, other than that of Malaysian national Dani
alias Taufik, who was a primary suspect in the bombing of Atrium
Plaza in Central Jakarta last year.

City police questioned Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, whom
Malaysian authorities have accused of having links with a French
national currently on trial in the United States for his role in
the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Maj. Gen. Sudrajat, director-general of defense strategies at
the Ministry of Defense, said that Indonesia would not act
hastily by taking immediate action against Indonesians charged by
other countries for their alleged involvement with international
terrorist groups.

"Indonesia cannot take action against people, simply based on
information from foreign countries. We need to conduct an
objective and thorough investigation into the matter ourselves,"
Sudrajat said, on the sidelines of a seminar held here on
Tuesday.

Malaysian authorities have detained 23 suspected religious
militants, including four Indonesians and three Singaporeans.

Philippine police have arrested an Indonesian, Fathur Rohman
al-Ghozi, on suspicion of being the explosives expert for the
Jamaah Islamiyah group, which are alleged to have been planning a
bombing campaign against U.S. targets in Singapore.

Indonesian police intelligence officers have recently
complained that the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) reportedly
received high level information on the reported presence of
terrorist cells in Indonesia, but never shared it with the
police.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's top detective is due to visit Malaysia,
Singapore and the Philippines to gather information on the
alleged presence of regional terrorist leaders in Indonesia,
National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said on Tuesday.

"We are sending our men abroad to find out exactly what these
countries have found out about the alleged presence of
(terrorist) masterminds in our country," Da'i told reporters at
National Police Headquarters on Tuesday.

Da'i said National Police chief of detectives Insp. Gen.
Engkesman Hillep, accompanied by a team of intelligence officers
and detectives, would be leaving for their overseas assignment on
Wednesday.

"We will also seek permission to question the Indonesians
arrested overseas, who are alleged to have terrorist ties."

Senior Indonesian police official Comr. Gen. Ahwil Luthan left
for Malaysia over a week ago to gather information on Indonesians
who have been detained in Malaysia and alleged to have ties with
the al-Qaeda terrorist network. Ahwil is due to return on
Wednesday, according to his adjutant at his residence.