Paras Indonesia, September, 28 2006 @ 04:53 pm
The Futile Battle For Al-Farouq's Body
By: Roy Tupai
State Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Syamsir Siregar says it will be difficult to
comply with a request from the widow of slain terrorist Omar al-Farouq to bring his
remains to Indonesia for burial because he was not an Indonesian citizen.
Al-Farouq, an Iraqi citizen who was raised in Kuwait, trained in Afghanistan and lived
about a year in Indonesia, was shot dead by British troops on September 25 in the
southern Iraqi city of Basra. He had been on the run since escaping from a
high-security US detention center in Bagram, Afghanistan, in July 2005. He had been
arrested by Indonesian intelligence officers in June 2002 in the West Java town of
Cijeruk and was promptly handed over to US agents and whisked out of the country.
Under US interrogation in Bagram, he reportedly confessed to being one of al Qaeda's
most senior operatives in Southeast Asia. He also admitted to involvement in the
Christmas 2000 church bombings in Indonesia and of orchestrating a plot to kill former
president Megawati Sukarnoputri. Indonesian intelligence officers accused him of
giving jihad training to militants in Poso, Central Sulawesi.
Al-Farouq's Indonesian widow, Mira Agustina (30), who has a son and a daughter from
their marriage, says she is yet to receive formal notification of her husband's death, so
she will demand his body be sent to Indonesia for identification and burial.
Siregar said Thursday she should not get her hopes up. "That's not possible. He's not
an Indonesian citizen," he was quoted as saying by detikcom online news portal.
"Who said he's an Indonesian citizen? He had three passports. If he could get a [fake]
Indonesian residency card, he could also make [a passport] and whatever else."
Nevertheless, Siregar said he understood that Mira was trying to exercise her legal
right to bury her husband in her hometown, but he said any decision would have to
follow legal procedures.
Although some figures have expressed doubt over the reports of al-Farouq's death,
Siregar said he was certain the news was correct. "That's right. We have checked
with our counterpart there [Iraq]," he said.
Mira has not yet entirely given up hope that her husband may still be alive
somewhere. "Personally I'm still puzzled. I haven't seen his photo yet. I haven't
received any official news yet. The secretary general of the Foreign Affairs Ministry
yesterday said that if it was true, they would make an effort to have him brought here.
This morning I saw on the news that Indonesia's is still seeking confirmation," she
said.
Responding to Siregar's certainty that al-Farouq is dead, Mira said: So it's true, okay?
All right, thank you for the news. But why haven't I seen his photo yet?"
Mira, who rarely leaves her house, on Wednesday came to Jakarta to visit her lawyer
Eggy Sudjana and request his assistance for confirmation of al-Farouq's death. But
Eggy had other matters to attend to. On Thursday morning he had to appear at
Central Jakarta District Court, where he is being tried on charges of defaming
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono - owing to an allegation he made that ethnic
Chinese media tycoon Harry Tanoesoedibjo had given some Jaguar sedans to
members of the president's inner circle in return for favors.
Undeterred, Mira - dressed in a black veil that only left her eyes uncovered -
accompanied Eggy to the court on Thursday to wait for the trial session to conclude.
Eggy said they would hold a press conference at his house later in the day.
Eggy has already reportedly sent a letter to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono,
Foreign Affairs Minister Hassan Wirajuda and Social Affairs Minister Bachtiar
Chamsyah asking them to verify the reports of al-Farouq's death.
Back in 2002 when al-Farouq had been sent to Afghanistan, Eggy demanded he be
brought back to Indonesia and even produced the terrorist's Indonesian identification
documents to bolster his argument - nevermind that anyone can buy Indonesian ID
thanks to corruption. Over the following year's Mira complained bitterly that the US
never put her husband on trial.
Following al-Farouq's escape from Bagram, Mira received a few letters from him,
asking after their children. His last major appearance was in February, when he
showed up in a video on an Islamist website and vowed to carry on fighting Americans
"in Iraq and in their country".
"They will not be able to stop the march of jihad... with their checkpoints, forces,
machinery, advanced equipment. No matter how strong or equipped they are, they will
not defeat the Almighty," he said. But an intelligence tip-off led British troops to his
Basra hideout.
Police Major General Ansyaad Mbai, head of the anti-terror desk at the Coordinating
Ministry for Social, Legal and Political Affairs, said al-Farouq's death would not reduce
the risk of terror attacks. "Terrorism is an activity which is based on an ideology and
politics. It by no means depends on a certain figure," he was quoted as saying by
state news agency Antara.
He warned that Indonesia remains at risk of terror attacks, particularly in the months
following al-Farouq's death.
Verification Team
The government on Wednesday said it had sent a special team to Iraq to identify
al-Farouq's body. "The Indonesian government is 99% sure it is really Omar Farouq's
body, but there is still nothing in black-and-white to support this belief," said the
ministry's secretary general Imron Cotan.
He declined to say how long the team would stay in Iraq. "The team is now on its way
to Iraq. Let's wait for the results of their verification," he said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Thursday it had not yet
received any request from Mira for assistance to have her husband's body sent to
Indonesia. "We have not received any request from his wife or his relatives. If we had,
it should be studied first by the ICRC headquarters in Geneva," ICRC Jakarta
coordinator Marçal Izard told Antara.
ICRC had routinely visited al-Farouq when he was jailed in Bagram and helped to
deliver his letters to Mira until his escape. "We regularly visited al-Farouq between
2004 and 2005 until he escaped from the jail. And during the period, Farouq and his
wife had exchanged letters at least six times," said Izard.
Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) secretary general Iyang D. Sukandar said Wednesday
that al-Farouq's family could ask PMI and ICRC to serve as mediators to either view
the body in Iraq or attempt to have it returned to Indonesia. "His family can file a letter
of request through PMI or ICRC in Jakarta," he said, adding his office would seek to
fulfill the request on humanitarian grounds.
And Now
After Eggy's trial session concluded, Mira held a press conference at his office in
Kuningan, South Jakarta. She said that if Indonesian authorities fail to bring her
husband's body home for identification, then she will personally go to Iraq.
"I cannot believe it if I don't see it clearly. As a wife, this is my right. Allow me to see
him there [Iraq]," she was quoted as saying by detikcom.
She then denied her husband was a terrorist. "My husband was only a scapegoat. I'm
the only person who knew what he was really like. So I'm the only one who will really
whether or not he is al-Farouq," she said.
Despite her sizable veil, Mira could be seen wiping tears from her eyes at times. She
admitted that al-Farouq was not fluent in Indonesian. "With my brothers his Indonesia
was not fluent. But because I studied Arabic, I spoke Arabic with him," she said.
She said al-Farouq was really just her pet name for him and that his real name was
Mahmoud bin Ahmad and he was born in Ambon, Maluku province, on May 24, 1971.
Asked about the terrorism allegations, she said if they were true, then her husband
deserved to have been put on trial before being shot. "If my husband really was guilty,
he should not have been shot but brought to trial first," she said.
Meanwhile, Eggy trundled out his old argument that al-Farouq was really an
Indonesian citizen. "His citizenship has been proved by his passport, his residency
card and marriage certificate. I strongly protest BIN's statement. In my opinion, it was
only a political statement and not based on law."
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