ABC AUSTRALIA, 03/10/2005
LATELINE
Attacks highlight emerging form of jihadism
Reporter: Margot O'Neill
TONY JONES: Jemaah Islamiah is the prime suspect in the latest Bali bombings,
although experts believe the terror organisation has been radically transformed since
the first Bali attack in October 2002. Scores of arrests have seen JI evolve into a more
diverse terror network, with its key mastermind Dr Azahari bin Husin apparently
operating independently. Margot O'Neill has this story.
MARGOT O'NEILL: This bombing was different in some disturbing ways. For the first
time in Indonesia, there were three simultaneous suicide bombers using small
explosives.
ALDO BORGU, AUSTRALIAN STRATEGIC POLICY INSTITUTE: The concern about
this is that if they're willing to throw away three of their operatives, three of their
terrorists, that might actually point to the fact that they've got a plentiful supply for
further attacks down the track.
MARGOT O'NEILL: While the al-Qaeda-related group Jemaah Islamiah, or JI, is the
prime suspect, experts say it's not the same cohesive group responsible for the first
Bali bombing in October 2002. Following more than 200 arrests and internal splits in
JI, it's devolved into a looser network of cells working with a diverse range of other
jihadist groups. Its key terrorist mastermind, the Australian-educated Malaysian
mathematician and bomb-maker Dr Azahari bin Husin, and his lieutenant, Noordin
Mohammed Top, now appear to operate without formal JI approval.
DR GREG FEALY, ANU: Azahari and Noordin Top are now effectively running their
own shows. They are not answering to the central JI leadership.
MARGOT O'NEILL: Azahari has designed the bombs in each of the attacks against
Western targets - Bali in 2002, killing 202, the Marriott Hotel in 2003, killing 12, the
Australian Embassy in 2004, killing 11 people, and now Bali again.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR, AUTHOR 'IN THE SHADOW OF SWORDS': Azahari is the
archetypal evil genius, really. He's quite a brilliant man - a PHD professor from a
Malaysian university. This is man who will keep on attacking Western targets and
killing civilians until he's either caught or killed.
MARGOT O'NEILL: But there was no hint of anti-Western hatred when Azahari
attended high school and then university in Adelaide in the 1970s.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: By all accounts, he loved Australia, made many friends here
and was very popular. He's quite a gregarious man. So there was certainly no sign at
that point of his hatred for the West that he's since developed.
MARGOT O'NEILL: Despite a massive manhunt for the last two years, including
breathtakingly close calls, Azahari remains a fugitive.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: There have been three separate occasions where the
Indonesian police were within minutes of catching Azahari, but he managed to slip
through the net. Twice they actually had him. One one occasion he was a passenger
on a motorbike being ridden by a JI suspect. The cops caught the JI suspect and let
the passenger go who turned out to be Azahari. And on another occasion, this was
after the Australian embassy bombing last year, he was actually picked up at the
scene, or near the scene, fleeing after the bombing and reportedly paid off the traffic
cop who stopped him.
MARGOT O'NEILL: Azahari's bloody tactics have exposed a split between those in JI
who believed such attacks kill mainly innocent Muslims and lead to a public and
police backlash, and others like Azahari and Noordin Top.
DR GREG FEALY: They want to continue the kind of large-scale terrorist attacks that
we've seen JI mount in the past. And quite a lot of people in JI believe this has caused
the organisation much more harm than good.
MARGOT O'NEILL: Dr Greg Fealy and Aldo Borgu recently published a report on
jihadists in Indonesia. They've identified a growing number of extremist groups willing
to provide a pool of dozens of young suicide bombers, widening the terror network
beyond a factionalised JI.
ALDO BORGU: By and large the recruits to JI are coming from old Darul Islam
movement, which was an Islamic insurgency in Indonesia in the '50s and '60s and still
exists to a degree today. A lot of the current JI operatives come from there and
potentially it does provide a pool of resources that they can rely on for some years to
come.
MARGOT O'NEILL: Even the arrest of Azahari, while welcome, would not end the
cycle of violence.
SALLY NEIGHBOUR: We've always tended to fixate on these really important JI
commanders and operatives. We used to think that once Hambali was caught, the
bombings would stop. But, of course, Hamabali was captured and the bombings have
continued. Now that's been the case with numerous of these senior JI figures. Azahari
is the same. He's a very important character, but there are many more out there who
are just as dangerous.
MARGOT O'NEILL: Australian intelligence officials now must focus on broader
networks in Indonesia to ensure they don't miss the rise of a new terror group much
the same way they missed the rise of JI three years ago. Margot O'Neill, Lateline.
© ABC 2005 |
