Laksamana.Net, November 15, 2001 10:50 PM
Radicals At Odds On UN Force
Laksamana.Net - The Indonesian government’s willingness to send troops to
Afghanistan as part of a proposed UN peacekeeping force has provoked mixed
reactions from leaders of the country’s two most active anti-US Muslim
organizations.
Habib Rizieq Syihab, leader of the militant Front for the Defense of Islam (FPI), says
joining a UN-sanctioned multi-national peacekeeping force in Afghanistan is "a stupid
idea.”
He was commenting on the proposal, which has received broad support among the
government, military and mainstream Islamic groups, at a discussion held by the
Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals Association (ICMI) in Jakarta Thursday (15/11/2001).
The Afghanistan capital of Kabul fell into the hands of the Northern Alliance fighters on
Tuesday, forcing the withdrawal of the Taliban supporters of the man blamed for the
September 11 terrorist attacks in the US, Osama bin Laden.
Since then, calls have been growing for a multinational peacekeeping force. But
Rizieq, who has voiced strong support for the Taliban, said Indonesia should not leap
on the UN bandwagon.
"We shouldn’t be used by the UN, just like in the case of the order to freeze the
assets of Osama bin Laden. Is this a sovereign country or what?” he asked, referring
to the UN’s request to seize the international assets of bin Laden and other
suspected terrorism financiers.
The FPI has launched highly publicized demonstrations against the US since the first
strikes in Afghanistan in early October and has threatened to ‘sweep’ American
citizens off the streets of Jakarta and other major Indonesian cities.
Rizieq said the idea of sending a peacekeeping force was a "propaganda tactic”
sought by the US as part of its efforts to marginalize the Taliban.
Only medical and food aid was needed, not troops, he was quoted as saying by
detikcom.
He said President Megawati Sukarnoputri’s father, founding president Sukarno, had
been brave enough to withdraw Indonesia from the UN in the 1960s.
"Why isn’t Indonesia brave enough to do the same thing now?” he challenged.
Sukarno gave his famous "go to hell with your aid” speech to the US in March 1964
but didn’t withdraw Indonesia from the UN until January 1965 when the UN General
Assembly allowed Malaysia’s entry as a member.
"If Indonesia is a sovereign country. Don’t be dictated to by the US,” said Rizieq,
adding that Megawati should not be influenced by Defense Minster Matori Abdul Jalil,
one of the first Indonesian officials to voice support for sending Indonesian troops if
requested by the UN.
In contrast to Rizieq’s opposition, head of the Laskar Jihad holy war force Jafar Umar
Thalib appeared to agree with the government’s stance.
The jihad forces under Jafar’s command are suspected of ties to bin Laden’s
Al-Qaeda group through members who fought with the Taliban against the Soviets in
Afghanistan in the 1980s.
"Hopefully the function of Indonesian troops sent there would be to prevent any
massacres of civilians, and not to become additional troops for one of the adversaries
[of the Taliban],” he said.
Laskar Jihad and other extremist groups have sent thousands of holy warriors to the
Maluku islands, where an estimated 9,000 people have died since religious conflict
erupted in1999. Laskar Jihad claims it only went to Maluku to protect persecuted
Muslims from Christian vigilantes.
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