The Christian Science Monitor, November 15, 2005
Indonesian police: More bombmakers on the loose
Officials say last week's death of top terror suspect probably doesn't mean the end of
attacks.
By Tom Regan
Jakarta's police chief warned Indonesians Tuesday to "remain vigilant," following the
death last week of Dr. Azahari bin Husin, top Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) bombmaker, in a
shootout with Indonesian security forces. The Jakarta Post reports that Gen. Sutanto
has said that Dr. Azahari trained other JI members in how to make explosives.
"His cohorts have already learned to make bombs, although not at a level of
sophistication as Azahari," explained Sutanto, as quoted by Agence France Presse.
He said the police had found a video showing Azahari teaching a group of people
bombmaking skills.
Indonesian police also believe that Dr. Azahari had also trained 40 suicide bombers to
carry out attacks around Christmas of this year. Those assumptions are based on
material and videos found in Azahari's rented house following his death last week.
Dozens of explosive devices were also found.
The Malaysian-born academic has been connected to the deaths of almost 244
people since 2002.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports that experts in both Australia and
Indonesia say the death of Azahari won't slow down JI for very long. Clive Williams,
director of terrorism studies at Canberra's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, calls
Azahari's death an "important development" for Indonesian authorities because they
had been after the bombmaker for five years, but that his death won't "spell an end" to
JI's operational capacity. And even with Azahari out of the picture, others willing to
step up, says Abdullah Razak Baginda, executive director of the Malaysian Strategic
Research Centre.
"I think one Azahari down doesn't mean that the whole organization suffers. There
may be more Azaharis that will come out. A lot depends on to what extent the
organisation justifies the demise of Azahari. I'm sure they would turn it to their
advantage by saying that's Azahari's sacrifice and one should not let Azahari's idea
and image and dream just go to waste. And this could entice younger people to come
and defend Azahari's death."
The Associated Press, in a piece published by the Taipei Times, reports how ordinary
youths in Indonesia are turning to terrorism. It focuses on the story of one of the three
suicide bombers who blew himself up in the recent attack on crowded restaurants in
Bali, killing 20 people. Mat Sukarto says his son, Misno, had told him that he was
leaving the island of Java to get construction work in other parts of Indonesia. When
he didn't hear from his son, the father assumed "he was just short on money."
Sukarto said Misno - the sixth of seven children - dropped out of school during junior
high, and left the family's poor home near central Java's Cilacap town soon after. His
last job was that of a vendor of chicken porridge, Sukarto said. He said his family had
not been attracted to hardline Islamic teachings.
"He [Misno] wasn't especially religious and neither am I," he said. "He was a normal
kid."
According to The Daily Telegraph of Sydney, Australia, authorities say that Misno and
the other two bombers made videos before their deaths, telling their families they were
about to carry out "a holy act."
The New Straits Times reports that Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah
Ahmad Badawi said Tuesday that Azahari's death showed that "violence is not the
way to resolve problems or grievances."
Speaking at the monthly assembly of the staff of the Prime Minister's Department
today, Abdullah said: "He was a good lecturer and academician. However, he chose
to follow a very wrong path, that is terrorism. Allah hates terrorism and other activities
that can ruin Islam and its image." Abdullah then recited several verses from the
Quran calling on mankind to steer clear of violence and destruction.
The Global Terrorism Analysis, published by the Jamestown Foundation in
Washington, wrote Monday that the murder of three young Christian schoolgirls
provides an ominous sign of Indonesia's terror threat, and the direction it may be
headed.
This incident comes at a time when Indonesian security authorities are claiming that
the Muslim terrorists are finding it harder to recruit from their traditional pool of radical
students at Islamic colleges in Central Java—the source of militants such as Amrozi,
Mukhlas and Imam Samudra who were key figures in the October 2002 blasts—and
are shifting their interest instead to "criminals and drug addicts" to carry out suicide
attacks. If this claim has any substance, then the igniting of a sectarian conflict will
render this recourse unnecessary. As government delicacy in the handling of the
prosecution of alleged Jemaah ideological leader Abu Bakar Ba'asyir indicates,
Indonesia remains highly volatile to reaction against perceived threats to matters of
Islamic identity, and a sectarian conflict is a more effective recruitment vehicle.
Meanwhile, Indonesian police continued their search for Noordin Top, Azahari's
terrorist boss. The Melbourne Herald Sun reported Sunday that police are conducting
door-to-door searches in central Indonesia. Top is seen as JI's strategist and one of
its main recruiters. He narrowly escaped a raid on the same day that Azahari was
killed. Police believe he may have been tipped off moments before security forces
arrived.
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