Ritchie clarifies

Ritchie clarifies

I am writing to express my disappointment that The Jakarta
Post has not quoted me accurately in a front-page article on
Sept. 11 entitled Hasyim clarifies his statement on Jamaah
Islamiyah.

During comments I made to the media on Sept. 10 after my
meeting with KH Hasyim Mazudi, I said Bapak Hasyim had explained
to me that when he said Jamaah Islamiyah did not exist in
Indonesia, he had meant that Jamaah Islamiyah operated as an
underground group and did not exist as an organization in the
conventional sense with an office and a normal organizational
structure. He was not denying the existence of Jamaah Islamiyah.

It was unfortunate that I was not quoted accurately by the
Post on this point. This does not reflect well on the Post's
professional standards. Other Indonesian newspapers have,
however, quoted me correctly in their coverage.

I also told the media that, as Australian government ministers
have said on many occasions, we do not equate terrorism with any
religion, including Islam. Terrorists were common criminals and
murderers who did not represent the beliefs of any religion. They
needed to be dealt with through the courts.

I said that the court in the case of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir had
found that Jamaah Islamiyah existed and that members of the
Indonesian government had made this clear on several occasions.
Several of the Bali bombing suspects had also admitted they were
members of Jamaah Islamiyah. I said that when we refer to Jamaah
Islamiyah, we are not referring to an Islamic movement of any
kind but the terrorist organization founded by Abdullah Sungkar
which calls itself Jamaah Islamiyah and had been listed as such
by the United Nations.

DAVID RITCHIE
Ambassador
Australian Embassy
Jakarta

Note: We apologize for the error.

--Editor