The Sydney Morning Herald, January 12, 2005
Islamists will protect aid workers
By Lindsay Murdoch, Herald Correspondent in Banda Aceh
Radical Muslims yesterday vowed to protect Australians and other aid workers
helping tsunami victims in Aceh, angrily denying they opposed the foreign presence in
the devastated Indonesian province.
"If you have come to help people in this disaster, we welcome you and will defend
you," said Hilmy Bakar Almascaty, the leader in Aceh of the Islamic Defenders Front
(FPI), a group known for smashing up bars and violent support of the jailed cleric Abu
Bakar Bashir.
Dr Almascaty told the Herald at his tent headquarters in Banda Aceh that foreigners
who had come to help the Acehnese were "angels", unlike others in Iraq, who were
"devils".
The leader of the group in Jakarta, Habid Rizieq Shihab, denied a report in The
Australian newspaper that he had attacked the presence of Australian aid workers in
Aceh.
"I told them we welcome any foreign country, including America, Australia and others
that want to help Aceh," he said. "There are conditions ... they must have the
permission of our government, there must be a certain time limit for them to stay, they
must have a defined number of personnel and they must have a defined place to
stay."
Dr Almascaty said that within days his organisation would have between 3000 and
5000 members in Banda Aceh, the capital of North Aceh, where hundreds of
thousands of homeless people needed urgent help.
Asked about the thousands of foreigners who had arrived to help the relief effort,
including a 600-strong Australian military contingent, Dr Almascaty said: "We can
work together ... this is not the time to be fighting with one another, even if relations
between Westerners and Muslims are not good elsewhere."
Dr Almascaty said if Islamic radicals responsible for bombings in Indonesia, including
one last year outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta, arrived in Aceh his
organisation would stop them attacking foreigners.
"Why go with a bomb? No. No. Aceh does not need a bomb or any radicals coming
here to do such a thing," he said. "If they come, we will talk with all of our authority -
and through the clerics and all our connections - to ensure this [a bombing] does not
happen."
Dr Almascaty said foreigners who came to Aceh had to respect traditions in the
staunchly Islamic province, where the Government in Jakarta allows a moderate form
of sharia (Islamic) law to be practised. He said foreigners and Indonesians from other
provinces must not open bars or establish risque entertainment places.
"If they do, I will give them a warning," he said. "Then I will take the information to the
Indonesian authorities, who will deal with the matter under Indonesian laws."
A strict ban on drinking alcohol has been imposed on Australian soldiers in Aceh,
who are unarmed.
Four hundred other Australian military personnel are scheduled to arrive in Banda
Aceh tomorrow on HMAS Kanimbla.
Army engineers on board will rebuild roads and bridges that were washed away in the
Boxing Day earthquake and tsunami.
Copyright © 2005. The Sydney Morning Herald.
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