The Australian, August 05, 2006
Jihadis to 'target Australia'
Natalie O'Brien and Stephen Fitzpatrick
[PHOTO: Ready to damage Israel: Islamic jihadis Eka Jaya, in camouflage jacket,
and Rahmat Hidayat, holding gun, in Jakarta after enlisting yesterday to fight. Picture:
Edy Purnomo]
RAHMAT Hidayat was one of dozens of young Indonesian men who pledged
yesterday to die fighting Israel and its supporters, including Australia.
The 21-year-old politics student registered in Jakarta with the Islamic Defender Front
(FPI) to join the jihad.
Mr Hidayat said he wanted to fight Australia because it always "supported Israeli
movements".
"Not only am I prepared to carry a gun, but if I have a bomb attached to my body - so
long as I can damage Israel - I am ready for that," he told The Weekend Australian.
As the men enlisted to fight, the Howard Government said it would investigate claims
that another radical group was sending Southeast Asian suicide bombers around the
world to attack Jewish interests in countries that supported Israel, such as Britain, the
US and Australia.
The revelations about the plot by the Asian Muslim Youth Movement have been raised
with the Indonesian National Police by the Australian Federal Police.
An INP spokesman said it was investigating and may have enough reason to question
and detain AMYM leader Suaib Didu if he and the alleged would-be suicide bombers
were found to have violated the law by being in possession of improper travel
documents.
It is understood INP officers will attend today's "passing out" ceremony for thousands
of AMYM jihadi recruits on the northern Indonesian island of Kalimantan.
Mr Didu was travelling to Kalimantan last night to attend the ceremony.
He has claimed the plot to attack Jewish interests is being funded in part by
Australian-Indonesian businessmen.
He said earlier this week that 217 jihadis had already been sent to third countries to
fight Israel from "behind".
The claims come as dozens of people chanting "set free Lebanon and Palestine from
Israel" demonstrated outside the UN headquarters and the US embassy in Jakarta.
Child protesters carried plastic guns and there were large posters of Hezbollah leader
Hassan Nasrallah.
Federal Human Services Minister Joe Hockey said yesterday the Government was
taking seriously the reports that bombers had been dispatched with orders to attack
Jewish interests.
"I can tell you that the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the department are investigating
... and we are treating it very, very seriously," Mr Hockey said.
He said Australia had been a terror target for some time.
"You only need to look at Bali, and that was before any major escalation of the
conflict in Lebanon and Israel," Mr Hockey said.
"We are a target, we always have been a target and we will be for a very long period of
time."
Kim Beazley said Australia had major security issues.
"The Government has dropped the ball on practical measures and protecting ourselves
from terrorist assaults," the Opposition Leader said.
Terrorism experts have warned that FPI and AMYM are openly hostile towards the US
and its policies on the Middle East.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said terrorism expert Zachary Abuza
regarded the threats as a "serious development" and the respected scholar's
concerns were enough for Labor to also regard the threats as serious.
"I am concerned that this has sprung up without earlier evidence of action between the
(Australian and Indonesian) governments," he said.
Another man who registered yesterday to fight Israel, 31-year-old Eka Jaya, said he
wanted to help his "brothers and sisters".
"Mujaheddins seek a martyr's death. It is the risk we face and it is what we yearn for,"
the former junior league soccer player told The Weekend Australian.
© The Australian
|
