Washingtonpost.com, Sunday, February 18, 2007; 2:06 PM
Preachers, Revenge Push Indonesia Terror
By CHRIS BRUMMITT, The Associated Press
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Basri sports a crude tattoo of Mickey Mouse on his wrist and
spent his youth drinking alcohol and jamming to Nirvana songs in a rock band. He
was never religious, and even now struggles to remember verses from the Quran,
Islam's holy book.
Yet until his arrest this month, the 30-year-old was one of Indonesia's most wanted
Islamic militants. He was accused in the beheadings of three Christian girls and a
string of other attacks on Sulawesi island, a key terror front in the world's most
populous Muslim nation.
In interviews with The Associated Press, Basri and four other militants detained with
him said they were uneducated men, seeking to avenge relatives killed in a
Muslim-Christian conflict six years ago and brainwashed by members of the al-Qaida
linked Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah.
"I was like buffalo with a ring though my nose," Basri said in the interview, which was
arranged by police officers who were present through most of it. "If I was pulled, I had
no choice but to follow."
Basri's story shows the complexities of the anti-terror fight in Indonesia, where poor
education, poverty and bloody religious fighting in remote provinces continue to
provide recruits for Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings
and other attacks on Western interests in Indonesia.
It is also a reminder of how al-Qaida's penetration of Sulawesi in 2001 helped create
generations of Indonesian Islamic hardliners who are recruiting locals to fan the flames
of religious conflict in the area even today.
Police say Basri has formally confessed to taking part in the school girl attack in late
2005, including personally beheading one of the three girls as they walked to school
along a quiet jungle path overlooking the town of Poso.
Basri and the other suspects said they evaded arrest for years, learning weapons
handling and bomb-making skills from revered Jemaah Islamiyah instructors who
either fought or trained in Afghanistan or the southern Philippines _ another Southeast
Asian terror hotspot just a short boat journey from Sulawesi.
The crackdown on Sulawesi that netted Basri saw more than 20 suspected Islamic
militants killed or arrested _ including several Jemaah Islamiyah ringleaders. But
police warn that several more escaped and have likely traveled to the country's main
island of Java.
Basri repeated his confession to the AP, describing in detail its planning and
execution.
"The preachers told us it was a form of worship," he said. "They said, 'The Christians
cut of the heads of Muslim girls in the war, so know it is payback time.'"
Basri claimed he was sorry "not just from my mouth but from deep in my heart." But
he nevertheless joked and laughed as he described how it took two swipes of his
machete to lop the head off one of the girls.
Another suspect, Aat, described leaving a bomb in a crowded Christian market that
killed 20.
"I didn't think it would be as powerful as that," he said. "I cried the next day."
Central Sulawesi saw 18 months of fighting between Muslim and Christian gangs six
years ago that killed up to 1,000 people from both faiths. Several Arab and Spanish
al-Qaida members spent time in the province, handing out weapons and instructing
Indonesian fighters at a coastal camp, according to Gen. Abdullah Hendropriyono, the
intelligence agency's head at the time.
"It is a fact that al-Qaida took these people to Poso in 2001," he said after showing a
reporter video footage of terror training seized from an Arab fighter at the time. "They
wanted to create a religious war."
Basri, who goes by a single name, said he did not take part in those training
sessions, but was nevertheless a frontline fighter in the war, describing how he saw
several relatives killed.
Indonesian authorities occasionally allow media access to terror suspects during
investigations. Officers present during the interviews of Basri said this was to counter
reports in hardline Islamic media that the men were being tortured or arrested without
any evidence and to encourage other militants to give themselves up.
Basri and the other men described how they took an oath of secrecy with Jemaah
Islamiyah teachers in 2003 before joining them for weekly indoctrination lessons that
were wholly focused on the need for jihad, or holy war, against unbelievers.
In 2005, he and other militants took shooting lessons on a boat at sea, he said.
"These men did not pray or fast, they were gangsters seized upon by these
preachers, who told them what they were doing was good, legal and justified by
Allah," said Nasir Abbas, a former Jemaah Islamiyah leader in Sulawesi who has
since turned police informant.
Basri's arrest came weeks after senior officers made public calls for him and the other
men to turn themselves in and met with local hard-line Muslim leaders to try to enlist
their help, with no success.
Police raided their stronghold, sparking gunbattles that killed 14 militants.
© 2007 The Associated Press
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