The Age, October 3, 2005 - 2:59PM
Suspects 'may be part of splinter group'
Australian terrorist experts believe those responsible for the weekend's bomb attacks
in Bali could be part of a splinter group within Jemaah Islamiah (JI).
And the way to track down those responsible for the bombings is to deal with them as
factions, each working to their own agenda.
In a report on terrorism in Indonesia released last week, Australian Strategic Policy
Institute program director Aldo Borgu said the targeting of Australians and Australian
interests may be a direct result of a rift within JI.
Mr Borgu on Monday said while many analysts were holding JI responsible for the
weekend's attacks, which killed up to 27 people, including up to four Australians, it
was more likely to be elements of the terrorist network.
"I think at this stage it's more likely to say it's elements of JI, possibly working with
other like-minded organisations or individuals in Indonesia responsible for this,
because that's certainly what happened with the last attack in September 2004, it
was some elements of JI," he said.
"You're getting a few ad-hoc arrangements now, which makes the whole threat harder
to combat because they're not necessarily working within hierarchy sought of
structured organisations anymore."
Mr Borgu said the way to monitor terrorist splinter groups was not to think of them as
structured organisations.
"If you close yourself to the options then you might lose track of some information
that might prove useful to figuring out who these guys are," he said.
"So it's just a case of being open to the possibilities and not closing off any options
as to who might be responsible."
Prime Minister John Howard said he had no specific information to confirm a splinter
group was responsible for the bombings but it had all the hallmarks of JI or a splinter
group.
"Now it'll take a few days, perhaps a bit longer, to verify that belief but I'd be surprised
if I'm wrong," he told reporters.
Indonesia expert Greg Fealy, from the Australian National University, said the
terrorists responsible for the Bali bombings were out to avenge what they believed to
be the mortal threat and the slaughter of Muslims by anti-Islamic forces led by the
United States.
He said there had been a lot of resources put into monitoring splinter groups.
"I don't think we should necessarily blame intelligence or police agencies for not
always having information about attacks because as we know from terrorist groups
elsewhere, they have a very compartmentalised form of internal communications," Mr
Fealy told ABC radio.
"It may be that most of the people working on a particular operation do not have
knowledge of other people in the organisation. In some cases they don't even know
exactly which organisation they are working for but they know they're engaged in a
Jihad.
"These are very, very hard movements and operations to crack."
Mr Borgu and Mr Fealy agree that if Indonesia banned JI it could lead to a backlash
and lend more support to the terrorist network.
© 2005 AAP
Copyright © 2004. The Age Company Ltd.
|
