The Sydney Morning Herald, March 22, 2007
JI militant dies in shoot-out with police
Karen Michelmore and Olivia Rondonuwu in Jakarta
INDONESIAN police have shot dead a militant linked to an important terrorism
suspect who is wanted for helping to protect the mastermind of the Bali bombings,
Noordin Mohammed Top.
Several other suspected members of the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah are in
custody after Tuesday night's shoot-out in Yogyakarta, central Java.
However, Abu Dujanah, who is thought to be the acting leader of Jemaah Islamiah,
was not believed to be involved in the confrontation. He is wanted for helping to protect
Noordin, a bomb maker who has been blamed for sourcing the bombers and materials
used in the 2002 and 2005 Bali attacks.
He is on Indonesia's top 10 list of most wanted terrorists, and is also accused of
playing a role in the 2003 bombing of the Marriott hotel in Jakarta.
"This is Abu Dujanah's network," the national police chief's spokesman, Sisno
Adiwinoto, said while telling of the shoot-out on a street in the Yogyakarta district of
Depok Sleman. "There are some suspects [in custody], but they are Dujanah's
network."
A man, 39, was shot dead during the operation by officers from the Detachment 88
anti-terrorism squad, which Australia helped to establish after the 2002 Bali
bombings.
Another suspect, 40, remains under police guard in hospital after being injured in the
clash.
Officers from Detachment 88 yesterday combed the scene of the shoot-out with bomb
squad officers, mobile police brigade and Yogyakarta forensic police.
They recovered bullet casings and three motorcycles, which are expected to be sent
to forensic experts for tests.
Detachment 88's commander, Brigadier-General Bekto Suprapto, told the Kyodo
news agency that Dujanah was not in the gunfight. "It is certain that Abu Dujanah was
not among them, but those who have been arrested and killed were his men," said
General Suprapto, who was in Australia for the funerals of two federal police officers
killed in the Yogyakarta plane crash.
The Yogyakarta ambush followed the posting of a bomb threat on Yogyakarta's
provincial government website on Tuesday afternoon, but authorities said there was no
connection.
The terrorism expert Sidney Jones, of the International Crisis Group, said Dujanah
was an extremely high-value target for Indonesian authorities.
"[Dujanah] is so high up in the Jemaah Islamiah network that he would have been able
to provide information that could clarify exactly what the remaining structure of JI was
in Indonesia today, who the leaders were, what the new structure of JI was and so
on," she said.
She said every arrest aided the hunt for Noordin. "I think with every arrest they make,
they understand more about how the network operates and understand more about
who is involved," she said. "Every arrest helps but it doesn't necessarily provide the
critical link."
Noordin, a Malaysian, has been called the most wanted terrorism suspect in
Indonesia, and authorities have been involved in a nationwide hunt for him. In late
2005, Detachment 88 killed his accomplice, the bomb maker Azahari bin Husin, at
his East Java hideout.
* Judges in Jakarta yesterday sentenced an Islamic militant, Hasanuddin, to 20 years'
jail for ordering the beheadings of three Christian schoolgirls in Sulawesi, central
Indonesia, in 2005.
Australian Associated Press
Copyright © 2007. The Sydney Morning Herald.
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