The Jakarta Post, 2/1/2005 2:06:08 PM
Indonesia needs to hold terror suspects without trial: Lee
SINGAPORE (AP): Singapore's influential founding father Lee Kuan Yew said
Indonesia could prevent terrorists attacks by adopting tough security laws that allow
authorities to detain militants without trial, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Lee said Jakarta should implement a law similar to Singapore's Internal Security Act
(ISA), which had provided for "immediate action" that stopped terrorists from the
al-Qaeda linked Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) network from attacking the city-state, the
Straits Times said.
"They wait for the bomb to go off, then they investigate on the ground and they
capture the people," said Lee, referring to Indonesian authorities. "And they prosecute
them and then there'sthe next bomb and a next bomb," he said, according to the
paper.
In Indonesia, JI is blamed for the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people,
a 2003 blast at the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta that killed 12, and a suicide car
bomb outside the Australian Embassy three months ago that killed 10.
Singapore meanwhile, has been holding nearly 40 alleged JI militants since 2001 it
says were involved in a plot to blow up the U.S. Embassy, a U.S. Naval facility and
other Western targets.
None of the suspects have faced an open court trial.
Singapore's ISA allows for people deemed a threat to the state to be detained
indefinitely without trial, although their cases are reviewed by a government-appointed
panel every two years.
The ISA, which is also in place in neighboring Malaysia, comes under regular
criticism from Amnesty International and other human rights groups.
Lee, Singapore's Prime Minister from 1965 to 1990, now holds the title Minister
Mentor in the cabinet headed by his son, Lee Hsien Loong.
Lee's press secretary Yeong Yoon Ying could not be immediately reached for
comment. (***)
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