ABC AUSTRALIA, 4/11/2005 10:20:00 PM
INDONESIA: Escaped al Qaeda operative a threat to region
Terrorism experts are warning of the real risk that an escaped terror suspect could be
planning fresh attacks in Indonesia. It was revealed this week that al Qaeda's main
operative in Southeast Asia, Omar al Faruq, broke out of US custody in Afghanistan
four months ago.
Listen
Presenter/Interviewer: Marion MacGregor
Speakers: Dr Zachary Abuza, associate professor of political science at Simmons
College in Boston
Andi Mallarangeng, Indonesian government spokesman
Dr Rohan Gunaratna, Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore
Dr Greg Fealy, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National
University
MACGREGOR: Up until his capture in Indonesia in 2002, Omar al-Faruq was
considered Osama bin Laden's most senior representative in South East Asia.
Born in Kuwait to Iraqi parents, he's thought to have been a go-between for al-Qaeda
and the Southeast Asian network Jemaah Islamiah.
Now it's been confirmed that the man implicated in several bomb attacks in Indonesia
has escaped from a US jail in Afghanistan.
Singapore based terrorism expert, Rohan Gunaratna, says he's almost certain to
strike again.
GUNARATNA: He will plan and prepare attacks in this region and elsewhere, because
he's a very experienced operator. His escape is a huge breach of security. He must
be either captured or killed.
MACGREGOR: Al-Faruq arrived in Southeast Asia in 1994. He spent about five years
training militants in the southern Philippines before moving to Indonesia.
It was there, while allegedly plotting terrorist attacks, he's said to have been in
contact with JI's spiritual leader, Abu Bakar Bashir, now behind bars.
For the Indonesian authorities, that makes him a very big fish indeed. Rohan
Gunaratna again.
GUNARATNA: Omar Faruq is very important for Indonesia at this point of time. It is
because firstly Indonesians arrested him. Secondly, he was very much a part of the
Jihad movement in Indonesia and thirdly he was very actively planning, preparing as
well as supporting terrorist attacks.
MACGREGOR: Indonesian authorities handed Omar Al -Faruq over to the US soon
after his arrest back in 2002. The Americans flew him to Afghanistan, where he was
held at the Bagram Air Base until the breakout in July.
It's now emerged that Washington failed to let Indonesia know about al-Faruq's
escape at the time, in fact his identity was only confirmed this week when he was
called to testify at a US military tribunal.
The US has now promised to investigate why information about al-Faruq's escape
wasn't passed on to Indonesian authorities. But that might not satisfy Jakarta, still
unhappy at being denied access to another JI figure in US custody, Hambali.
Andi Mallarangeng is the Indonesian government spokesman on foreign affairs.
Does the Indonesian Government know the whereabouts of Hambali?
MALLARANGENG: Well we don't know exactly, but we got reports here and there
and we are cooperating with other countries in the region on anti-terrorism.
MACGREGOR: Would Indonesia like to have access to Hambali and also people like
Omar al-Faruq in order to conduct their own terrorism investigations?
MALLARANGENG: Of course, we'd like to get information from other countries,
international and regional, because when we say we share information, we cooperate,
it should be two ways.
MACGREGOR: Has there been some concerns that the US is not sharing to the full
extent?
MALLARANGENG: I cannot comment on that, but we are expecting other countries
to cooperate with us, because this is our common enemy. It's an enemy against
humanity.
MACGREGOR: Many observers are less reluctant to accuse the US directly of a
failure to communicate, and co-operation on terrorism. Indonesia specialist at the
Australian National University, Dr Greg Fealy, says Jakarta has every reason to be
annoyed.
FEALY: They cooperated extensively with the CIA in apprehending Omar al-Faruq in
the first place. So the fact that Omar al-Faruq has escaped and it seems as if the
Indonesians haven't been informed directly by the US. I think that will just in the minds
of Indonesians further undermine any notion that this is global calition to fight terror.
MACGREGOR: The United States and its allies have argued it would be too risky to
hand people like Hambali and al-Faruq to Indonesia because it lacks a proper
legislative structure to try them.
But Dr Fealy says the Indonesians should be given the chance to interrogate their
own terrorism suspects.
FEALY: Omar al-Faruq in fact was a very difficult person to interrogate. It took the
Americans some three months to start getting some useful material out of him. And I
think the Indonesians have not dipped out a record of getting people to talk on these
things.
MACGREGOR: The US has faced further criticism this week after reports of al-Qaeda
captives being held at secret prisons, so called black sites, in Eastern Europe and
elsewhere.
Zachary Abuza, associate professor of political science at Simmons College in
Boston, says the revelations, as well as al Faruq's escape, raise serious questions for
the Bush administration.
ABUZA: It comes at a time when the intelligence community is debating what to do
with these prisoners in Guantanamo and bases abroad when the intelligence
community is coming under greater scrutiny. And just remember the castigation that
the Philippines got a couple of years ago when Fatur Raman al-Gozi walked out of a
prison there. So this really is a huge embarrassment for the United States.
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