AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Wednesday December 12, 2001 6:00 PM
Indonesian intelligence chief says al-Qaeda involved in Sulawesi
unrest
JAKARTA, Dec 12 (AFP) - The head of the Indonesian intelligence agency, Abdullah
Hendropriyono, said Wednesday that international terrorist organisations including
al-Qaeda were involved in sectarian unrest in the province of Central Sulawesi.
"The Poso problem is the result of cooperation between international terrorism and
radical groups in the country," Hendropriyono said after meeting President Megawati
Sukarnoputri here.
Poso is the district in Sulawesi which has been hit by intermittent sectarian clashes
between Muslims and Christians since March 2000.
Asked by journalists whether he meant that al-Qaeda -- the Islamic terror group led by
Osama bin Laden, whom the US accuse of masterminding the September 11 attacks
on New York and Washington -- was among these international organisations, he
answered in the affirmative.
"That is what I mean," he said.
Hendropriyono, however, declined to further elaborate.
Renewed violence has broken out in Poso following a three-day attack on Christian
villages by armed Muslim groups which Christian leaders said had involved members
of a Java-based Muslim radical group, the Laskar Jihad (Jihad Force.)
Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said last week while visiting Poso that
the government will launch a security operation to restore law and order there.
The operation will start with the disarming of the warring groups as well as the
expulsion of people who should not be there, he said without giving any details.
The Laskar Jihad, which has sent thousands of members to fight alongside Muslims
in Maluku where sectarian conflicts with Christians have raged since January 1999,
has also said that it has sent more than 1,000 fighters to Poso to help fellow Muslims
there. bstr/bs/th
Copyright © 2001 AFP. All rights reserved.
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