The Jakarta Post, August 16, 2006
PKS intent on sending group to Lebanon
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Muslim-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) is set to send a three-member
medical team, including a doctor, to provide humanitarian assistance in Lebanon.
Party leader Tifatul Sembiring said details of the arrangement were not finalized, but
the team was certain to leave.
"They are all members of the party but they will go there under the flag of the
Rescuing Palestine Committee," he said Tuesday.
He said three legislators from the party already visited the border of Syria and
Lebanon, as well as the Palestinian border, to provide monetary assistance.
"They presented what we called 'one man-one dollar 'aid totaling Rp 2 billion (around
US$210,000) to the Palestinian foreign affairs minister," Tifatul said.
The funds, he added, were sourced from public donations, with another Rp 3.5 billion
collected in the meantime as the fund-raising drive continued.
"We are calling for people to donate more money," he said, adding the party did not
have any immediate plan to send more volunteers.
The volunteers are part of the outpouring of sympathy of local Muslims for the plight of
civilians in Lebanon and Palestine.
Some groups, including the hard-line Islam Defenders Front (FPI), had declared they
would go to Lebanon and Palestine to join Hizbollah guerrillas in the armed conflict
against Israel, which was halted by a UN resolution Monday.
Chairman of the ASEAN Muslim Youth Secretariat Suaib Didu said earlier at least 81
Indonesians sought guidance from him about embarking on a jihad, as he authored
the book Radikalisme: Antara Jihad dan Terorisme (Radicalism: Between Jihad and
Terrorism).
He said some of them left for the Middle East although they lacked the required travel
documents.
"I told them it was better to go to Palestine and Lebanon to fight Israel than to stir
things up here. I also told them not to attack civilians in their jihad, especially women
and children, because they are innocent."
The militants were mostly trained warriors who had previously signed up to fight in
Afghanistan, with some trained to be suicide bombers. They were set to join the
Palestine Jihad Bombing Force.
The group also reportedly recruited 57 Filipinos, 36 Malaysians, 43 Thais, five
Bruneians, three Bangladeshis and one Singaporean.
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