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ABC AUSTRALIA


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.

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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.

© ABC 2005


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