LAKSAMANA.Net, March 23, 2005 09:29 PM
Indonesia Denies Jemaah Islamiyah Faces Ban
Laksamana.Net - A presidential spokesman has denied claims by a senior security
official that Indonesia is planning to outlaw regional terrorism network Jemaah
Islamiyah.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's spokesman Andi Mallarangeng on
Wednesday (23/3/05) said the government did not intend to ban the group, which has
been blamed for a series of deadly bombings.
"We know nothing about that. We have no plans," he was quoted as saying by the
Australian Associated Press.
Ansyaad Mbai, head of counter-terrorism at the Coordinating Ministry for Political,
Legal and Security Affairs, had on Monday said he was convinced Jemaah Islamiyah
would be formally banned because of the president's concern over terrorism.
Mbai, who said the ban had not happened yet because of political sensitivities, was
said to be "out of the loop" on the government's security policies.
Banning the group would win praise from the US and Australia, and make it easier for
authorities to arrest and prosecute militants. But such a move would be opposed by
certain Muslim groups and political parties, which fear it could usher in wider
crackdowns on Islamic activists.
Yudhoyono, who vowed to get tough on terrorism when he came to power in October
2004, has said he will ban Jemaah Islamiyah only if there is "proof" the group exists in
Indonesia.
Terrorism expert Sidney Jones, the Southeast Asia project director of the
Brussels-based International Crisis Group, said Yudhoyono would be able to outlaw
Jemaah Islamiyah if he first prepared a massive public relations campaign.
"It is doable, but there will be an inevitable counter-response from JI through linked
groups like the Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia, who would have their own spin about the
government bowing to western pressure," she was quoted as saying by AAP.
Among the terror attacks blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah are the October 2002 Bali
nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, the August 2003 blast at Jakarta's JW
Marriott Hotel that killed 12 people, and the September 2004 bombing outside the
Australian Embassy that killed 11 people.
The group has also been blamed for attacks in the Philippines, as well as a series of
church bombings in Indonesia that killed 19 people on Christmas Eve 2000.
Jemaah Islamiyah was listed as a terrorist group by the United Nations Security
Council in October 2002 and subsequently banned by many countries, including
Australia, the US, Britain and Malaysia.
The group's alleged spiritual leader Abu Bakar Baasyir was on March 3 sentenced to
30 months in jail for involvement in a "sinister conspiracy" that led to the Bali
bombings.
Baasyir's lawyers are appealing the verdict, which the US and Australia criticized as
too lenient.
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