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THE WASHINGTON POST, Tuesday, October 9, 2001
Radical Muslim Groups Assail Indonesia's Ties With U.S.
Westerners Advised To Remain Indoors
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
JAKARTA, Indonesia, Oct. 8 -- Radical Muslims threatened today to attack foreigners and lay siege to embassies here if the Indonesian government does not sever diplomatic ties with the United States in response to the military strikes against Afghanistan.
Senior officials pledged to counter the threat, the latest in a series of intimidating statements that have led dozens of U.S. Embassy employees and hundreds of Western residents to leave in recent days. With anti-American rhetoric escalating, several Western embassies urged their citizens who have opted to stay in Indonesia to remain indoors.
The government of Indonesia issued a statement today of "deep concern" over the U.S.-led airstrikes in Afghanistan. Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said Indonesia, home to more Muslims than any other country and a bellwether in the Islamic world, neither supported nor opposed the military action, but urged the United States to limit its attack to minimize civilian casualties.
Despite the threats, today's protests, in front of the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy, were small and relatively peaceful. This morning, a few hundred Islamic students repeatedly chanted "jihad!" and "America is the real terrorist."
In the afternoon, representatives from conservative Muslim organizations that have pledged to storm the embassy compound rallied in a nearby park. The demonstrators, who wore white Muslim prayer caps and carried bamboo poles, were kept away from the building by rows of razor wire, water cannon and police officers carrying automatic rifles. The army also deployed several armored personnel carriers in the park.
Although today's protests were relatively tame for Indonesia, which is known for violent street demonstrations, officials and analysts said it was too early to tell whether the Muslim organizations would back down from their threats. Leaders of one hard-line Muslim group, the Islamic Defenders Front, said it would give the government three days to cut off diplomatic relations with the United States before attacking U.S. citizens and installations here.
"The United States is a terrorist nation," said the group's leader, Al-Habib Muhammad Rizieq bin Hussein Syihab. "They are terrorists who must be driven from the face of the earth."
A group of influential Muslim clerics also urged the government to freeze diplomatic ties with the United States.
Indonesian officials said they would not take such a step, and they promised to deal forcefully with people who attack foreigners. But so far, the government has not detained any Muslim leaders who have advocated attacks on Americans in speeches and media interviews, prompting protests from U.S. diplomats here.
"They are unwilling to enforce their own laws," said a senior Western diplomat who characterized the threats as "some of the most aggressive anti-American activity that is occurring anywhere in the world."
Indonesia's top security minister, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, argued that the country's laws do not prevent people from making threats. "We believe in the freedom of speech," he said. "Indonesia will not act carelessly and detain people just because they make strong statements."
Police officials have played down statements from the Islamic Defenders Front and other extremist groups. A spokesman said "they are not serious."
But in the city of Solo, in the central part of Java island, bands of young men stormed into hotels demanding to scan guest registers for Americans. They did not find any.
The front, which is estimated to have several hundred members, is known for raiding bars and nightclubs frequented by foreigners in Jakarta, the capital of the archipelago. Although the group contends that it is targeting prostitution and the open consumption of alcohol, intelligence sources said the front trashes establishments that fail to pay "protection fees" to the police, with whom it has close ties.
Western intelligence sources said several front members have been trained at a small camp in northern Jakarta by members of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia. The intelligence sources also contended the front has received funding from Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist organization, the group that is accused of having sponsored the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Another armed Muslim group, the Laskar Jihad, which is fighting Christians in the former Spice Islands, also has received funding from bin Laden, according to Western diplomats in Jakarta. The diplomats and intelligence sources said there are a few hundred Taliban militiamen fighting with the Laskar Jihad.
Leaders of the Islamic Defenders Front and the Laskar Jihad have denied having ties to bin Laden or the Taliban, and Indonesian officials have dismissed such connections. Foreign intelligence officials contended that Indonesian security forces have been slow to investigate the issue.
The subject of cracking down on Muslim extremist groups has emerged as a divisive political issue, pitting newly installed President Megawati Sukarnoputri against her vice president, Hamzah Haz, who leads a large Muslim party. Megawati, who took office in July, has privately indicated her support for anti-terrorism efforts, but she has been reluctant to crack down on anti-American groups for fear of offending Muslim political parties, including Hamzah's, that backed her ascension to the presidency.
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