The Jakarta Post, October 10, 2005
Indonesia can't ban Jamaah Islamiyah: VP
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Vice President Yusuf Kalla said on Sunday the government cannot ban Jamaah
Islamiyah (JI), an Islamic militant group blamed for a series of terror bombs in
Indonesia, arguing that it has never been recognized under the law in the first place.
Kalla was asked to respond to Australia's demand that Indonesia outlaw JI following
the second bomb attack in Bali, which killed at least 23 people including three suicide
bombers.
Police have said the suicide bombers were a "new generation" of JI, which the Vice
President said was a "formless organization".
"For us, the existence of that organization (JI) is not organized, so how can we
disband it," Kalla told the press after closing a batik event at the Jakarta Convention
Center.
"If we have not recognized it and do not know its members, how can we ban it," he
stressed.
However, despite its "formless" existence, JI has often been linked by police
investigators with bombers who carried out terror attacks in the past few years.
Kalla said the government would take firm action against any organization found guilty
of violating prevailing laws.
Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer is to travel to
Indonesia this week and is expected to lobby the government to ban the regional
terrorist network.
JI was blamed for the first Bali attack in 2002 which killed 202 people including 88
Australians, and its alleged religious leader Abu Bakar Ba'asyir was jailed for
conspiracy over the bombing, but no action was taken to outlaw it as his terror trial
failed to link him with the organization.
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