LAKSAMANA.Net, April 27, 2004 06:20 PM
Laskar Jihad Announces Comeback
Laksamana.Net - After a hiatus of almost two years, a murderous paramilitary Islamic
group has announced it will send thousands of fighters to Ambon city, Maluku
province, to defend Muslims if government forces are unable to contain the latest
outbreak of sectarian violence.
"Laskar Jihad will again become involved in Ambon if the government is deemed
unable to overcome the situation," the group's leader, Jafar Umar Thalib, was quoted
as saying Tuesday (27/4/04) by detikcom online news portal.
He claimed that more than 10,000 Laskar Jihad members could be sent to Ambon,
where at least 29 people have been killed in clashes between Muslims and Christians
since Sunday.
"Preparations are unnecessary. They are already ready," he told reporters at a press
conference at the Jakarta headquarters of the Medical Emergency Rescue Center
(MER-C), a Muslim humanitarian organization with alleged links to terrorist groups.
"I have been studying the conditions in the field minute by minute," he added.
Jafar said the fighters would be sent to Maluku "through the usual methods" - by air
and by sea.
He bragged he would be able to send the fighters regardless of likely government
opposition to his plan. "Back in 2000, we faced opposition from the government and
the Navy but we continued to send [fighters] there."
Meanwhile, the MER-C announced it had sent two doctors and one logistics officer to
Ambon on Tuesday to help treat those wounded in the recent violence.
The center said that if the violence escalates further, it will also send a surgeon, a
general practitioner and "non-medical volunteers".
Background
Laskar Jihad was established in Java in April 2000, almost two years after the fall of
authoritarian ex-president Suharto, and waged savage holy wars against Christians in
the Maluku islands and in Poso, Central Sulawesi province. At least 9,000 people
were killed in the two regions between January 1999 and October 2002.
Analysts say Laskar Jihad was formed and partly funded by rogue elements of the
armed forces to create chaos that would destabilize the government of former
reformist president Abdurrahman 'Gus Dur' Wahid.
The paramilitary group disbanded just days after the October 12, 2002, Bali nightclub
bombings that killed 202 people. Thousands of Laskar Jihad's fighters were
subsequently shipped out of Maluku and Poso.
Indonesia came under strong international pressure to crack down on radical Islamic
groups since the Bali bombings, but Jafar claimed the timing Laskar Jihad's
disbandment was a coincidence.
He said Laskar Jihad had to be dissolved simply because many of its members had
become close to certain Muslim politicians, posed for photos and given interviews to
female journalists.
Other Laskar Jihad officials said the group was disbanded merely because it had
strayed from its original goal of upholding Islamic shariah law.
Many analysts said Laskar Jihad had not disbanded but gone underground to wait for
the heat to die off from the Bali bombings. Last year, human rights activists said the
group had entered remote Papua province and created local militia groups, with
assistance from the military, to oppose separatist rebels and pro-independence
supporters.
Jafar was arrested in May 2002 for allegedly inciting a massacre of Christian villagers
in Ambon the previous month. He was brought to trial in Jakarta in August 2002,
charged with stirring up religious hatred and insulting President Megawati
Sukarnoputri. In January 2003 – in a verdict that was widely criticized by Christian
groups and human rights organizations - he was acquitted of any wrongdoing.
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