The Jakarta Post, September 29, 2006
Indonesia rejects al-Farouq's body
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The country's top intelligence agency said Thursday there was no way for the
government to bring the body of key al-Quaeda lieutenant Omar al-Farouq home,
because he was not an Indonesian citizen.
State Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Syamsir Siregar said there were strong
indications that al-Farouq was not an Indonesian national, and therefore the
government had no obligation to look after his remains.
"Who said that he was an Indonesian citizen? He had three different passports. He
could have forged his Indonesian ID cards," Syamsir told journalists on the sidelines
of a closed-door meeting with House of Representatives Commission I on foreign
affairs and defense.
In the meeting, several lawmakers called on the government to fly the body of
al-Farouq here, saying he was an Indonesian national whose basic rights should be
respected by the government.
"The government should not delay in bringing the body of al-Farouq home. If need be,
the government can pay the cost to send one of his family members to Iraq to get his
body home," lawmaker Ali Muchtar Ngabalin of the Democratic Star Pioneer faction
said after the meeting.
Al-Farouq, who was described by the U.S. government as the top al-Qaeda operative
in Southeast Asia, escaped from a U.S. high-security detention facility in Afghanistan
in July of last year.
He had been arrested by Indonesian intelligence officers and handed over to the U.S.
in 2002.
The 35-year-old man of Kuwaiti descent was shot dead Monday by British military
troops when he opened fire on a 250-strong contingent during a raid in the southern
Iraqi city of Basra.
In spite of his terror activities abroad, Indonesian police said al-Farouq was not
implicated in the string of terrorist attacks that has rocked the country in recent
years.
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Paulus Purwoko said Thursday that
al-Farouq's name was never put on the list of the country's most wanted terrorists.
"His name has never been implicated in the Bali bombings, the J.W. Marriott Hotel
blast, the attack on the Australian Embassy in Kuningan or other attacks elsewhere
across the country," Purwoko was quoted by Antara as saying.
Purwoko also said the National Police had no information about al-Farouq's arrest and
subsequent handover to U.S. authorities, since it was not involved in the operation.
Responding to the government's refusal to bring the body of al-Farouq home, the wife
of the alleged terrorist, Mira Agustina, said she would fly to Iraq herself to make sure
it was her husband who had been killed there.
"I can't believe the news until I see his body. As his wife I have the right to go there
and the government should allow me," Mira said in a press conference.
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