ASSOCIATED PRESS, Tuesday October 15, 2002 10:15 AM ET
Indonesian Muslim Extremists Disband
By MICHAEL CASEY, Associated Press Writer
BALI, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesia's most violent Muslim extremist group announced
Tuesday that it was disbanding in what appeared to be the first sign that the
government is getting serious about cracking down on Islamic extremism in the wake
of the deadly bombing of a Bali nightclub.
The announcement by the group, Laskar Jihad, came as Indonesian officials
interrogated a security guard and another man about the nightclub bombing, and said
traces of C-4 plastic explosive were found at the scene. Also, the accused ringleader
of a separate extremist network, linked to al-Qaida, said he would submit to police
questioning.
The blast killed nearly 200 people, mostly foreign tourists, and has led to mounting
international pressure on Indonesia to crack down on al-Qaida terrorists and local
allies blamed for the bombing. President Bush said Monday he planned to talk to
Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri about the need to crack down on
terrorism.
Though Laskar Jihad is not believed to be tied to the nightclub attack, its dissolution
may be the first sign Indonesia is heeding the international pressure.
Achmad Michdan, legal adviser to the group, which has deep ties to Indonesia's
military and has waged sectarian warfare against Christians on the outlying island of
Ambon, told reporters in Jakarta, the capital, that the group was disbanding.
He insisted the move was unconnected to the bombing and was rooted in theological
issues.
"It has nothing to do with the bombs. There was no pressure on us from military," he
said.
"It is an internal matter. The clerics in Indonesia and in the Middle East have
disagreed with Jafar Umar Thalib's teachings and have asked him to disband the
group," Michdan said without elaborating.
Efforts to contact Jafar Umar Thalib, the group's leader in Ambon, the capital of
Maluku province about 1,600 miles east of Jakarta, were unsuccessful. Laskar Jihad
is blamed for the slaughter of thousands of Christians in a sectarian conflict in the
Maluku islands.
Laskar Jihad, or Holy War Soldiers, was founded in early 2000. At the time, a top
reformist general accused hardline army commanders loyal to former dictator Suharto
of creating it to disrupt democratic reforms and prevent the introduction of civilian
control over the military. Army leadership denied that, but refused an order by the
then-president to act against the group, whose members were allowed to proceed to
the Maluku islands, where a small-scale religious conflict was being waged.
In the Bali bomb investigation, police spokesman Maj. Gen. Saleh Saaf said the two
witnesses saw a suspicious-looking man with a white plastic bag near the entrance to
the Sari Club in Bali's Kuta resort area just before the blast.
Police have questioned dozens of people in connection with Saturday's bombing,
though only two had information directly related to the attack, officials said.
The guard and another man were being "intensively interrogated," Saleh said. He
denied reports they had been arrested. He said at least 47 people had been
questioned.
The second man was the brother of a man whose identification card was found at the
scene of the blast, intelligence officers said on condition of anonymity.
Traces of C-4 plastic explosive were found at the scene, National Police Chief Da'i
Bachtiar said.
Bali was still struggling to cope with the corpses of all the dead, and Australia --
which lost dozens of its citizens in the explosion --has contracted with the U.S.-based
company Kenyon International to bring home the corpses of citizens killed in the
bombing, officials there said.
At the island's main hospital -- largely being used as a morgue now -- dozens of
volunteers, from backpackers in flip-flops to local students, were dealing with the
corpses, either icing them down or loading them into refrigerated containers, to slow
decomposition in the tropical heat.
Dozens of shoulder-high wreaths of flowers had been left at the edge of the morgue,
where hundreds of people stared at the scene, watched over by armed Indonesian
soldiers.
Indonesia's intelligence chief, Mohamad Abdul Hendropriyono, told reporters that his
organization was cooperating with foreign agencies in the investigation.
"This attack has been well planned and it required expertise in handling high-tech
(bombs)," he said. "It is a very complicated task and is outside the ability of local
hands."
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said his nation, which lost dozens of citizens,
would seek the listing of Jemaah Islamiyah -- a shadowy pan-Asian network believed
to be linked to al-Qaida -- as a terrorist organization.
Australian officials "have received indications from other countries ... that that move
will be supported," he said in Parliament.
The suspected spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah said he would voluntarily submit
to police questioning.
Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who is based in the Indonesian city of Solo, would
travel to Jakarta on Wednesday to meet with police, said his brother and spokesman,
Umar Bashir.
Bashir, who has repeatedly denied any involvement in the blast and blamed it on the
CIA, will meet police in connection with a libel case he has launched against Time
magazine, which recently published allegations that implicated him in other terrorist
activities, his brother said. It was unclear if the bombing would be discussed.
Jemaah Islamiyah is believed to have four tons of ammonium nitrate purchased by a
suspected Malaysian member who the Malaysian government says allowed two of the
Sept. 11 hijackers to use his apartment in 2000.
Malaysia and Singapore have jailed scores of suspected Jemaah Islamiyah members
accused of plotting to bomb the U.S. Embassy and other Western targets. The group
has carried out bombings in the Philippines.
Indonesia previously had insisted there was no threat of violent extremism on its soil,
despite U.S. pressure to launch a crackdown and the discovery of an al-Qaida-linked
terror network in neighboring Singapore and Malaysia in the wake of last year's Sept.
11 attacks.
The turnaround came Monday after a Cabinet meeting in Jakarta when Defense
Minister Matori Abdul Djalil said: "We are sure al-Qaida is here." He repeated that
assertion Tuesday.
Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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