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