The Cross

 

Ambon Berdarah On-Line
News & Pictures About Ambon/Maluku Tragedy

 

 


 

 

 

REUTERS


REUTERS, Fri Nov 11, 7:07 AM ET

Indonesians see militants as heroes: official

By Achmad Sukarsono

Indonesia needs more cooperation from the public to track down Islamic militants who are sometimes regarded as heroes in the world's most populous Muslim nation, Jakarta's top counter-terrorism official said on Friday.

Speaking two days after the killing of one of Southeast Asia's most wanted militants, police general Ansyaad Mbai said some residents had noticed suspicious activity at the house where Azahari Husin had holed up, but did not report anything.

Muslim clerics were increasingly encouraging Indonesians to speak out, despite misgivings among ordinary people about Jakarta's support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism, he added.

Azahari was killed during a gunbattle with police in the town of Batu in East Java on Wednesday. He was shot dead just before a fellow militant exploded a bomb, police said on Friday.

"We are 50-50 on the ground," said Mbai, head of the counter-terrorism desk at the chief security minister's office, referring to support for police efforts to catch militants.

"At times, terrorists are merely seen as the enemy of the police when they should be seen as the public enemy, the enemy of the nation, of religion. Sometimes, terrorists are even considered as heroes," he said in a telephone interview.

"The Indonesian nation has now seen for themselves that these terrorists do not hide in the jungles, but they blend into the crowd."

Regional countries have welcomed the death of Malaysian Azahari, a master bombmaker blamed for a string of attacks in recent years, but some cautioned it would not eliminate the threat of radical violence in Southeast Asia.

Posters of Azahari and another suspect wanted for several major bomb attacks on Western targets in recent years, Malaysian Noordin M. Top, have been plastered all over Indonesia.

Mbai said police had received valuable information from the public before raiding the Batu house where Azahari was hiding, but added:

"Many residents who had noticed strange activity from that house only stepped forward after the raid. If they had come out earlier, we could have acted faster," said Mbai.

HELP FROM CLERICS

Anti-terror campaigns in Indonesia have often faced challenges because of the belief in conspiracy theories that the United States wants to attack Islam as well as ample space given to militant voices and their sympathizers in Indonesian media.

Some coverage has helped militants appear as defenders of Islam. But Mbai said Muslim clerics were beginning to help police after a period of reluctance to condemn militants, who regularly use religion as a shield for their actions.

Local media have said police came close to catching Top on Wednesday in the central Java city of Semarang when they detained another militant who had come from the Batu hideout.

"It was a pity he could get away but the police are on him," said Mbai, without giving details of what happened.

Police have had several nears misses in catching Top and also Azahari before Wednesday's raid.

Dubbed the "demolition man" by newspapers in his native Malaysia, Azahari was the suspected brains behind several bomb attacks on Western targets in Indonesia and the top bomb maker in Jemaah Islamiah, a shadowy network linked to al Qaeda.

Authorities say the electronics expert designed and supervised the making of the car bomb that caused the most damage in 2002 attacks on the resort island of Bali which killed 202 people.

While Azahari has been the key Jemaah Islamiah bombmaker, Top's special talent has been in recruiting suicide bombers in poverty-stricken Indonesia, security experts have said.

© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.
 


Copyright © 1999-2002 - Ambon Berdarah On-Line * http://www.go.to/ambon
HTML page is designed by
Alifuru67 * http://www.oocities.org/haroekoe
Send your comments to alifuru67@yahoogroups.com
This web site is maintained by the Real Ambonese - 1364283024 & 1367286044