The Jakarta Post, 5/6/2002 12:39:54 PM
Govt backs arrest of Laskar Jihad chief: minister
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian government supports the arrest of an Islamic militia chief
who has been linked to the latest Soya incident that killed at least 13 people in the
outskirt of Ambon capital of restive Maluku, Minister of Defense Matori Abdul Djalil
asserted on Monday.
Police said they have sufficient evidence that Jafar has been provoking conflicts in
Maluku for quite some time.
Matori said police had consulted ministers before arresting Jafar Umar Thalib, the
commander of the Java-based Laskar Jihad paramilitary group, on Saturday, AFP
reported.
"It is clear that before the police did it, there was adequate consultation within the
ranks of the cabinet on the facts," Matori told media as quoted by the news agency.
"I am certain, as certain as one can be, that the police did the right thing," he said.
Jafar has been charged with insulting the president and vicepresident and inciting
people, during a sermon in Ambon, toattack a Christian village on April 28 in which 13
people werekilled.
Police used a recording of the sermon during theirquestioning of Jafar but the suspect
has denied the voice on thetape was his.
"It is clear that he spoke in public, and whether it wasrecorded or not, there were
quite a lot of people who heard him," Matori told reporters at the Palace.
In an extract of the April 26 speech played to AFP, the man alleged to be Jafar is
heard to say: "We must prepare our bombs, ready our guns." Witnesses said he was
imploring them to fight "Christian separatists" in Maluku.
National police spokesman Brig. Gen. Saleh Saaf said police were continuing to
question Thalib on Monday but declined further comment.
The attack on Soya village was the worst bloodshed since Christians and Muslims
signed a pact in February to end three years of sectarian bloodshed in the eastern
island chain. More than 9,000 people have died in the conflict in Maluku and North
Maluku since early 1999.
Laskar Jihad has long been accused of fueling the fighting since thousands of them
descended on Maluku by the boatload from May 2000 vowing to defend Muslims. It
opposes the peace pact.
Jafar's arrest coincided with a fresh outbreak of sectarian unrest in the Maluku
provincial capital Ambon which left two dead and 15 injured.
On Monday a police bomb squad defused a TNT-based bomb found inside a junior
high school in Ambon, the state Antaranews agency reported.
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