JAKARTA - One of Southeast Asia's
most-wanted suspected terrorists has blown himself
up - or been gunned down - only days after it was
revealed that al-Qaeda's former Southeast Asian
chief had escaped from US custody.
Azahari
bin Husin, a Malaysian-born electronics expert and
apparent master bomb-maker for Jemaah Islamiyah
(JI), triggered a bomb on Wednesday, killing
himself and two others, after an elite police
counterterrorism unit, known as Detachment 88,
moved in on a villa in the East Java hill resort
of Batu on the southern flank of the volcanic
Mount Arjuna. (Some reports say he
was
killed in police gunfire.) JI is considered a
loosely connected regional arm of al-Qaeda.
Accused by Indonesia of being behind the
Bali bombings in 2002 that killed 202 people,
mostly foreigners, Azahari, with his fellow
Malaysian Noordin Top, had evaded a police manhunt
ever since. Pictures of the suspects had been
posed in public places across the country,
including shopping malls, office buildings and gas
stations. Police had also offered a Rp 1 billion
(US$111,100) reward for any tip leading to the
arrest of the men. Noordin is still at large.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered
the arrest of both within 100 days of his
inauguration last year.
Unlike other JI
cadres, who mostly come from villages and have
little training, Azahari was highly educated. In
1999, he was sent to Mindanao in the southern
Philippines for weapons training and to learn how
to produce explosives. On his return home in 2000,
Azahari, along with Hambali (Riduan Issamudin),
the JI operations chief, for three months took
advanced lessons in bomb-making in Kandahar,
Afghanistan. A Reuters report said he held a
doctorate degree from the University of Reading in
England.
One gets away Meanwhile, the Pentagon confirmed this week
that Umar al-Faruq, also known as Mahmud bin Ahmad
Assegaf, had escaped in July from Bagram Airbase,
a US military compound north of Kabul in
Afghanistan. News of the escape emerged in a
military trial in Texas against a sergeant accused
of torture.
Faruq, a Kuwaiti-born Iraqi,
also holding a Pakistani passport, had entered
Indonesia as a refugee and married an Indonesian
woman. He was arrested in Bogor, West Java, on
June 5, 2002 and handed over to the US three days
later. Jakarta was widely criticized at the time
for "caving in" to American pressure.
Faruq was suspected of being al-Qaeda's
point man in Southeast Asia, and in 1999, like
Azahari, he is believed to have gone to Mindanao
for weapons and bomb-making training.
He
is accused of training militants in Mindanao and
involvement in anti-Christian violence in the
Indonesian province of Maluku. Years of bloody
fighting between Muslims and Christians there have
spawned support for groups such as JI and the
radical new militant group of fighters known as
Thoifah Muqatilah, or the Combat Unit, thought to
have been headed by Azahari and Noordin.
Faruq also allegedly played a key
coordinating role between al-Qaeda and the JI,
including the setting up of financial networks.
While in custody, Faruq is reported to have warned
of a serious attack in Indonesia just months
before the Bali bombings.
What he told US
interrogators prompted the US ambassador in
Indonesia to meet then-president, Megawati
Sukarnoputri, warning that JI was set to launch a
big attack on a "soft" Western target.
Hambali was born in West Java and was
accused by officials of being a senior figure in
the JI and a veteran of the Afghanistan war. He
was said to have had close links to Khalid Shaikh
Mohammed, the presumed mastermind behind the
September 11 attacks, who was captured by the
United States. Washington claims Hambali was
responsible for organizing the meeting in Malaysia
in January 2000 between Khalid al-Mihdhar and
Nawaf al-Hazmii, two hijackers in the Twin Towers
attack.
Hambali was arrested in Thailand
and handed over to the Americans in 2003.
Washington steadfastly refused to allow
either Faruq or Hambali to return to Indonesia to
testify against JI spiritual leader, Abu Bakar
Ba'asyir, who in March was sentenced by an
Indonesian court to two-and-a-half years in jail
on conspiracy charges related to the 2002 Bali
bombings.
Missteps in the 'war on
terror' Such lack of coordination in the
"war on terror" is startling, but in terms of
success in arresting and convicting terrorists,
Indonesia is far ahead of most countries.
During the past three years, since the
first Bali bombing (a second attack on October 1
this year killed 20 people), police have made 270
terrorism-related arrests and secured 170
convictions. They have repeatedly chased down
operatives and the people who help them.
Last month, Indonesia and the US inked an
agreement to develop their capacity for
cooperation in the "war on terrorism", covering
law enforcement, intelligence and agency
cooperation, but still the US Congress plays hard
to get over the resumption of military-to-military
relations between the countries.
Last week
in Washington, a Congressional conference agreed
to maintain restrictions on foreign military
finances and on exports of lethal military
equipment to Indonesia until Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice certifies that the Indonesian
armed forces, which have been accused of
human-rights abuses, have met certain conditions
"I see there is no legal basis to accuse
Indonesia of not doing anything to meet all
requirements for the restoration of military
cooperation," Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono
said on Sunday, at the same time reminding
Washington that Indonesia was a US ally in the
"war on terror".
The hunt goes
on The hunt will continue for Noordin, but
planned new measures will lead to concerns about
human rights.
Indonesia's top
anti-terrorism chief, Major-General Ansyaad Mbai,
warned that although the events had reduced the
capability of the terrorists, "a movement with
ideological and political motives won't die, even
if the leading figure dies".
On human
rights, Mbai noted: "The existing [anti-terrorism]
law gives limited room for the state authorities
to work, partly because of our concerns about
human rights. But there must be a common
understanding that we cannot protect the human
rights of individuals to such an extent as to
sacrifice the rights of the public at large."
Legislative amendments, if passed, would
permit preemptive measures, even against people
suspected of promoting radicalism, said Mbai.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla has said, "Like
it or not, the government must take measures which
are tough and resolute, no different from what was
done during the New Order era [of former president
Suharto]."
Given the abuses of power and
rights violations during the 33 years of the New
Order, activists fear a military that has too much
power, but the president himself wants the
military to play a strategic and technical role in
fighting militancy.
Commander in Chief
General Endriartono Sutarto has reportedly ordered
the revival of the once-feared community-based
intelligence system, the military's territorial
command, Koter, that covers the country right down
to village level. Non-commissioned officers
(babinsa) monitor local communities and
report on "suspicious" residents to the
intelligence authorities.
National police
chief, General Sutanto, also wants tougher
anti-terror legislation, to "give room to the
police to move quickly and effectively" against
terrorists.
Ultimately. Jakarta, fired up
by Wednesday's success, will continue to do things
in its own way, not in response to dictates from
the West, particularly from the US, which
continues to exert pressure over past issues
rather than commit to the fight against clear and
present dangers.
Bill Guerin, a
Jakarta correspondent for Asia Times Online since
2000, has worked in Indonesia for 20 years as a
journalist. He has been published by the BBC on
East Timor and specializes in business/economic
and political analysis in Indonesia.
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