The Jakarta Post, 10/14/2002 5:51:44 PM
Indonesian Muslim militants claim U.S. behind Bali explosions
JAKARTA (Agencies): Two leaders of Muslim militant groups on Monday accused the
U.S. of being behind the deadly Bali bomb blasts that killed at least 187 people over
the weekend.
However, no evidence was offered to support their accusations.
"We deplore and condemn the masterminds, fund raisers and whoever was involved in
the bomb explosions in Bali," said Habib Rizieq Shihab, leader of the Islam Defenders
Front (FPI), a Muslim militant group best known for its frequent attacks on bars, and
other nightspots in Jakarta.
"The incident could be used as reason for the United States and its allies to justify
their accusations that Indonesia is a terrorist network base," Shihab said as quoted
by DPA.
Two massive explosions ripped through packed discos on Jl. Legian street in Kuta, a
well-known entertainment strip in Bali, shortly before midnight on Saturday, killing at
least 187 people and injuring another 300 others.
Meanwhile, Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, chairman of another militant group the Indonesian
Mujahidin Council (MMI), also accused the U.S. of being behind the explosions in
Bali.
"The U.S. intelligence agency is behind the Bali bombings in an attempt to justify
their accusation that Indonesia is a terrorist base," said Abu Bakar, suspected to be
the leader of Jema'ah Islamiyah (JI), a group that allegedly plans to establish a
pan-Islamic state in Southeast Asia.
Dozens of JI members have been arrested in Singapore and Malaysia, where the
group has been accused of having links with the al-Qaeda international terrorist
organization headed by Osama bin Laden.
Indonesia, which abolished its draconian internal security act in 1998, has refused to
arrest Ba'asyir on the grounds that there is no evidence that he has committed crimes
in Indonesia.
Abu Bakar warned the Indonesian government and security officials not to be trapped
in the U.S.'s strategy, and to refrain from declaring that a terrorist network exists in
the country.
More than 85 per cent of Indonesia's 215 million people are Muslims, making it the
world's most populous Islamic nation and making crackdowns on Muslim radicals a
very political issue for the government.
The government of President Megawati Soekarnoputri has been widely criticized for
failing to crack down on terrorist suspects in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks in the U.S.
Many Indonesian Muslim clerics and academics on Monday were raising questions
about who could be behind the Bali tragedy, which has seemingly justified a stronger
government stance against terrorists and their sympathizers.
"Such a car bomb blast could be linked to the work of foreigners, especially the U.S.
in a bid to attack hard-line groups deemed as terrorists," said M. Budyatna, a noted
political observer and former dean of social and political studies at the University of
Indonesia.
"The terrorist label is intentionally given to Muslims in Indonesia in a bid to justify its
hypothesis and in the hope of stigmatizing Indonesia in the eyes of international
community," said another political expert Nadjamuddin Muhammad Rasul.
But moderate Muslim cleric Hasjim Muzadi, chairman of the Indonesia's largest
Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), said that the blasts ran counter to Islamic
values, humanism and nationalism.
"The bloody blast is really inflicting sorrow on the bereaved families and runs counter
to the country's unity and good relations with other nations in the world," Antara
quoted Muzadi as saying.
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