LAKSAMANA.Net, January 11, 2005 04:37 AM
Military Expels Some Mujahidin From Aceh
Laksamana.Net - The radical Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI) says 19 of its 206
members "conducting relief work" in Aceh have been expelled from the province by
the Indonesian Air Force.
MMI executive Fauzan Al-Anshari said many of the group’s members had taken a
flight from Jakarta to Aceh on December 30. He said they established a command
post at the Iskandar Muda Air Force base in Banda Aceh city to help evacuate dead
bodies, distribute aid and give "spiritual guidance" to survivors.
Several Air Force personnel visited the MMI command post on Sunday and ordered 19
volunteers there to pack their bags and be ready to leave in 30 minutes, said
Al-Anshari.
Eleven of them were then flown to the North Sumatra capital of Medan, while eight
from Java were flown on a Hercules military aircraft to Jakarta’s Halim
Perdanakusumah airbase, he added.
"When we asked why we were being expelled, what our mistake was, they only said
that no matter what the reason, our brothers must leave the command post,"
Al-Anshari was quoted as saying by detikcom online news portal.
He said the expulsion of the MMI members was probably due to foreign pressure,
adding that foreign journalists in Aceh had earlier questioned their presence and
asked whether they were linked to al Qaeda.
Al-Anshari claimed that after denying any links with al Qaeda, rumors surfaced that
MMI was linked to the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), because two people
claiming to be GAM members visited an MMI command post in Lampenang.
He said three Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) trucks carrying fully armed troops
soon visited the command post and TNI commander General Endriartono Sutarto later
visited to Aceh. "We don’t not know what his agenda was. But afterward, the Air
Force came and removed the volunteers."
MMI was founded in August 2000 with the ostensible aim of promoting the adoption of
strict Islamic law in secular Indonesia. The group’s founder is radical cleric Abu
Bakar Baasyir, the suspected leader of regional terrorism network Jemaah Islamiyah.
He is now on trial, accused of inciting his followers to carry out the October 2002 Bali
nightclub bombings and the August 2003 bombing at Jakarta’s JW Marriott Hotel.
GAM’s exiled leaders in Sweden on Sunday issued a statement demanding the
expulsion of MMI and another radical group, the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), from
Aceh.
"The government of Aceh in exile... deplores the arrival in Aceh of members of the
thuggish so-called Islamic Defenders Front and the terroristic Indonesia Mujahidin
Council. The introduction of these organizations into Aceh at this most critical time
squanders scarce resources by the Indonesian government which is better allocated
to the victims of the recent tsunami," said the statement.
"The FPI and MMI are not welcome in Aceh and have never been supported by the
Acehnese people, nor has their presence been requested. The FPI has been involved
in sectarian killings in Maluku and Central Sulawesi and illegal attacks against
non-Muslims and others in Java and elsewhere."
The statement said MMI is the "umbrella organization for groups such as Laskar
Jihad, Laskar Jundullah and the FPI" and has "the explicit aim of turning Indonesia
into a non-democratic fundamentalist Islamist state".
"The actions and words of both the FPI and MMI are against the teachings of the Holy
Qur’an and the Hadith and contradict the tolerance and faith of Acehnese Muslims.
Neither the FPI nor the MMI has any credentials or skills in disaster relief, and their
presence is clearly intended as a provocation to the people of Aceh. Their intervention
in Aceh is therefore counter-productive and is not wanted," it added.
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