Sri Lankan terror expert arrested in Maluku
M. Azis Tunny, The Jakarta Post, Ambon
A Singapore-based professor and expert on terror issues was arrested for traveling around Maluku without proper research documents, a senior police officer revealed on Thursday.
Rohan Kumar Gunaratna from Sri Lanka, was arrested by an antiterror police unit on Monday while he was on his way to Ambon from Seram Island, said Maluku provincial police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Artsianto.
In addition to Gunaratna, the officers also arrested his Indonesian translator and his local guide, said Artsianto.
They captured the three as their boat was approaching Ambon city, the capital of Maluku province.
The police detained Gunaratna because he failed to show a document that allowed him to carry out research on terror cells in the conflict-ravaged province. Gunaratna was charged with violating the law on immigration and will be deported in the near future, while his two Indonesian accomplices would be set free, said Artsianto.
Gunaratna is a professor and the chairman of the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies (IDSS) based in Singapore, which is known to have produced a wide range of articles and books on international politics, terror and strategic defense. He is one of Asia's foremost experts on terror issues and is regularly invited to speak at conferences and seminars on the subject throughout the world, including Indonesia.
Gunaratna's presence in Maluku was considered "sensitive" because Maluku was classified as a conflict zone from 1999 to 2002. The Christian-Muslim battles first broke out six years ago and lasted nearly three years until representatives of the two warring groups signed a government-sponsored pact in 2002.
Thousands of people were killed and hundreds of thousands of others were forced to flee to temporary shelters. But, despite the peace deal, sporadic explosions and fatal shootings still plague the province. The latest was an explosion in a market in Ambon last month that left nine people injured.
As the situation was gradually returning to a semblance of normalcy, public apprehension again rose after media reports that Maluku had become a safe haven for terror suspects, who were planning terror attacks throughout Southeast Asia. Such reports have attracted the attention of researchers and scholars, including Gunaratna.
The deportation of foreign scholars is not new in this country. Last year foreign scholar Sidney Jones, the Southeast Asia Director of the International Crisis Group (ICG) was not given a renewal on her visa, for unspecified reasons, but has since returned. Earlier this year, an Australian academic was barred entry as he was on his way to Aceh to work with an NGO in the aftermath of the tsunami.