The Jakarta Post, 9/30/2002 7:18:09 PM
US allows Indonesia to question al-Qaeda suspect: senior
minister
JAKARTA (JP): Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono said here on Monday that Jakarta has obtained approval from
the United States for a joint questioning of an alleged senior al-Qaeda operative
arrested in Indonesia but now detained in Afghanistan.
"Politically, we would like to say that Indonesia's interest in the questioning of Omar
al-Faruq is very crucial and the US government has agreed with this request,"
Yudhoyono told reporters as quoted by AFP.
Yudhoyono gave no details of the composition of the interrogation team or their
itinerary. However, he asserted that questioning al-Faruq would "help us in making
sure whether al-Faruq's statement (to US officials) was true, half-true or even
modified."
Time magazine reported in its issue dated Sept. 23 that al-Faruq, 31, had admitted to
being al-Qaeda's senior representative in the region.
The report, greeted with skepticism here, said al-Faruq had lived near Jakarta until
government agents arrested him in June and deported him to a US-held air base in
Afghanistan.
Time, citing a foreign intelligence report, said al-Faruq had admitted planning to kill
Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri in May 1999 when she was running for
the presidency.
It said al-Faruq had also admitted in a CIA report that he was the brains behind the
Christmas 2000 bombings of churches in nine Indonesian cities which killed 18 people
and injured more than 100. Besides, it said al-Faruq planned to bomb US embassies
in Jakarta and elsewhere in the region.
Time said al-Faruq had also admitted links with Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir,
leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant organisation, and with Agus Dwikarna, an
Indonesian Muslim activist currently jailed in the Philippines for possession of
explosives.
Singapore has also labeled Ba'asyir a leader of a terrorist organisation. He denies the
claim.
Washington is concerned Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, may
be home to al-Qaeda sympathizers. Most Indonesians practice a moderate brand of
Islam.
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