Terror threats imminent in Indonesia

Terror threats imminent in Indonesia

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite the arrest of hundreds of members of regional terrorist
group Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), the real danger of further terrorist
attacks in Indonesia remains because some of its well-trained
senior leaders are still at large, the International Crisis Group
(ICG) said on Wednesday.

Sydney Jones, the ICG's Indonesia Project Director, suggested
that security authorities collect more information on the
identities of JI members recruited in its Philippines camps as
well as to examine its international network in Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, Bosnia and Kashmir.

Speaking in a two-day international seminar on militant
Islamic movements in Southeast Asia, Jones also said the access
to weapons and explosives, and involvement of top-flight
strategists with a "jihadist" vision "remain a force to be
reckoned with".

"To better understand the nature of that threat, it would also
be useful to have more information on the nature of JI's
alliances with other organizations, particularly with the MILF
(Moro Islamic Liberation Front) and Abu Sayyaf (in the
Philippines) as well as the operations financing," she said.

Jones was presenting a paper before participants of a seminar
jointly held by the Jakarta-based Syarif Hidayatullah State
Islamic University and Leiden University's Indonesia-Netherlands
Islamic Studies program (INIS).

Jones believes that most of JI's top leaders once underwent
training in the Islamic military academy run by JI at Camp Abu
Bakar in the Philippines' Mindanao and some of them even got
training in a camp associated with international terrorist leader
Osama bin Laden -- Camp Khaldan on the Pakistan-Afghanistan
border -- including Indonesia's suspected JI leaders Mukhlas and
Hambali. The two allegedly masterminded last year's Bali bombings
which killed 202 people, mostly foreigners.

Hambali remains at large, while Mukhlas is now standing trial
in Bali.

The country's security authorities, along with their
counterparts in Southeast Asia, have intensified cooperation in
cracking down on terrorist cells as they believe "acts of terror
are likely to continue in the future, targeting countries,
including Indonesia".

Last week, the government called for heightened security at
all state buildings and public facilities for fear that they
could be the next targets of terrorist attacks. The move was made
after a bomb blast in the House of Representatives compound last
Monday which coincided with the escape of suspected JI leader
Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi from Cramp Crame maximum security prison
in the Philippines.

The two events took place only days after the police announced
the arrest of nine JI members led by a man identified as Mustofa
and seized more than 1,000 detonators and explosives, assault
rifles and ammunition.

The government also believes that the ongoing trial of
suspected JI members charged with masterminding a series of
blasts in Jakarta, Bali and other places between 2000 and 2002,
including alleged JI leader Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, may affect
security in the country.

"The number of people detained does not necessarily indicate
the extent of JI membership. Data shows that as of July, 2003,
about 90 people were detained in Malaysia on suspicion of links
to JI; about 30 in Singapore; about 80 in Indonesia; and a
handful in other places.

"JI made a point of training its members in bomb-making and
sharp-shooting, and it had, and likely still has, a fairly
sophisticated weapons procurement program, with many of the arms
being smuggled into Indonesia from the southern Philippines,"
Jones said.