CNSNews, May 13, 2002
Indonesian Gov't Split Over Action Against Jihad Group
By Patrick Goodenough, Pacific Rim Bureau Chief
Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - Splits have emerged in the Indonesian
government on how to tackle Islamic militants accused of spearheading anti-Christian
violence in two parts of the country.
At the weekend, the minister responsible for security ordered the removal of the
Laskar Jihad group from the violence-torn Maluku Islands (Moluccas), but the
vice-president demonstrated his support for the group Monday by officially opening a
meeting of its activists.
Vice President Hamzah Haz, who also heads the country's largest Muslim party, told
the gathering of almost 2,000 Laskar Jihad members that the fighters should only
leave Maluku after a Christian separatist group there is disbanded.
According to Christians in the Maluku capital, Ambon, the Maluku Sovereignty Front
(FKM), which advocates independence for the south Maluku area, has only a few
hundred supporters and is widely repudiated by the broader Christian community.
FKM leader Alex Manuputty and 16 supporters were arrested recently and may face
subversion charges.
By contrast, an estimated 3,000 Laskar Jihad volunteers were shipped into the
province in recent years from Indonesia's main island of Java, with the security forces
doing nothing to stop them. They have been widely blamed for an escalation of
Christian-Muslim violence, which has cost at least 6,000 lives since 1999, displacing
many thousands more.
Laskar Jihad fighters were also implicated in anti-Christian violence in another
province with a large Christian population, Sulawesi.
The government sponsored peace agreements in Sulawesi last December and in
Maluku in February. The ceasefire held in Sulawesi, but several violations in Maluku
culminated in a raid on a Christian village near Ambon late last month, in which
suspected Javanese Muslims murdered 12 people.
The attack came hours after Laskar Jihad leader Jafar Umar Thalib told a gathering of
Muslims in Ambon they should ignore the peace deal and wage war on Christian
separatists.
After days of vacillating, the authorities arrested Jafar on May 5 on suspicion of
incitement, and several days later, Political and Security Affairs Minister Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono announced that Laskar Jihad members would be expelled from
Maluku. The FKM would also be disbanded, he said.
But Vice-President Hamzah has adopted a different stance. Last week he visited Jafar
in custody, in what he said was a show of solidarity with a Muslim brother.
And speaking after officially opening a national Laskar Jihad gathering in East Java,
Hamzah said Monday the FKM should first be disbanded before any action was taken
against the Islamic organization.
He also told the militants that Jafar was not a terrorist, and that terrorism did not exist
in Indonesia.
Jafar's deputy, Ayip Syarifuddin, told the gathering the militia would only pull out of
Maluku if there was a guarantee of safety for Muslims living there.
The Barnabas Fund, an aid organization active in Indonesia and other countries where
Christians are under threat, called the announcement of Laskar Jihad's withdrawal
"significant" and "encouraging."
But it cautioned that it "remains to be seen whether Laskar Jihad members will indeed
be expelled from the islands or if Jafar Umar Thalib will continue to be held or
charged."
Hamzah's visit to Jafar in prison had "outraged" Christians, confirming doubts about
the government's will to enforce peace in the Malukus, Barnabas Fund said.
President Megawati Sukarnoputri's government has been criticized by Christian
campaigners and foreign governments for its apparent reluctance to crack down on
Islamic terrorism, manifested both in the anti-Christian violence and in alleged links by
some Indonesian radicals to international terror networks, including al Qaeda.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in an annual report released
last week accused the government of allowing Laskar Jihad to operate freely in the
Malukus.
It urged Washington to pressure Indonesia to disarm the group, which it said
"represents a significant threat to the peace and stability of all Indonesia, particularly
to its pluralistic Muslim traditions and its practice of tolerance towards religious
minorities."
In recent months, Jakarta has defended its inaction by saying it lacked the type of
security legislation, which has enabled neighboring countries like Malaysia and
Singapore to detain terror suspects without trial.
But analysts say Megawati is walking a tightrope. Although most citizens in the
world's biggest Islamic country are considered moderate, some have taken to the
streets to demonstrate on a range of issues, from the U.S.-led campaign in
Afghanistan to Israeli policies.
Last Thursday several hundred, including leading extremists, rallied in Jakarta to
demand Jafar's release and call for the destruction of the U.S. and Israel.
Jafar, who is of Yemeni origin, claims to have met Osama bin Laden while both were
fighting with the anti-Soviet mujahedeen in Afghanistan in the late 1980s.
Despite eyewitness accounts of Laskar Jihad fighters sporting posters extolling the
al-Qaeda leader, Jafar claims to have no link to bin Laden, saying he rejects his
interpretation of Islam.
He also said an al Qaeda envoy had offered Laskar Jihad funding before the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks on the U.S., but had been turned down.
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