AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Monday February 18, 2002 7:55 PM
Planned rally by Muslim hardliners flops in Indonesia's Aceh
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Feb 18 (AFP) - Plans by a paramilitary Islamic group to
hold its first mass rally in Indonesia's Aceh province flopped Monday, following strong
objections from separatist rebels and other Acehnese.
Laskar Jihad chief Jaffar Umar Thalib took over the podium at the main Baiturrahman
mosque in the provincial capital Banda Aceh following late afternoon prayers,
witnesses said.
But there were only about 100 people inside the mosque, half of them Laskar Jihad,
when Thalib began his sermon on "how Muslims should be aware of Christians and
the Jews."
The Java-based group brought its own speaker and microphone. Mosque officials, who
opposed plans for the rally at Baiturrahman, were not present during his speech.
Laskar Jihad has waged a "holy war" against Christians in the eastern Maluku islands
and at Poso in Central Sulawesi.
But the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) protested at the group's planned incursion into
Aceh, saying it is not waging a religious war but a struggle against the government in
Jakarta.
On Sunday Thalib addressed a few dozen Muslims at another mosque and said GAM
was overreacting to the plans for a rally.
"If they do not want that (the rally) it is their right ... we will only give sermons in
places which are not GAM territory, as in this mosque," Thalib told reporters.
A group of Islamic scholars, the Rabithah Thaliban Aceh; the Information Center for an
Aceh Referendum; and the Student Council of the Ar Raniry Islamic Institute also
rejected any Laskar Jihad presence in Aceh.
Thalib denied that Laskar Jihad's entry to Aceh would spark more violence. "I do not
see things heading that way and that is only an excessive worry," he said.
"GAM refuses the presence of Laskar Jihad in Aceh because it might create religious,
race and ethnic problems," rebel spokesman Ayah Sofyan said last week.
"The ongoing conflict in Aceh is a political one between Acehnese people who want
freedom and the government of Indonesia."
Sofyan said GAM intelligence suggested that the Indonesian armed forces (TNI) were
backing the mass rally plan. "The presence of Laskar Jihad in Aceh is backed by the
TNI," he said.
Laskar Jihad spokesman Ayip Syarifuddin said Monday's "small turnout was due to
the current social condition of people in Aceh, who in general are traditional Muslims
who are not accustomed to a religious mass rally."
The Aceh rebels have waged a sporadic guerrilla war for independence since 1976, in
which an estimated 10,000 people have died. More than 200 people, many of them
civilians, have been killed this year alone.
Eleven more killings, including seven suspected rebels, were reported in several
places across Aceh late last week.
Over the weekend soldiers shot dead three rebels, including an alleged field
commander, in three separate places, said Aceh military spokesman Major Zaenal
Muttaqin.
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