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| Southeast Asia | |
| Indonesia Will Outlaw Jemaah Islamiyah | |
| 2005-03-21 | |
| JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesia plans to formally outlaw the al-Qaida-linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, a move that will make it easier for authorities to arrest and prosecute militants in the world's most populous Muslim nation, a top security official said Monday. Banning the organization - which is listed by the United Nations as a terrorist group - will please the United States and other foreign governments but risks opposition from Muslim groups and political parties that fear it may herald a broader crackdown on Islamic activists. Ansyaad Mbai, who heads the counterterrorism desk at Indonesia's Coordinating Ministry for Political and Security Affairs, said the government intends to outlaw the group, which is blamed for a host of attacks and plots throughout Southeast Asia, including the 2002 Bali nightclub attacks. "I am convinced that this will happen because I know President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is very concerned with this problem," he told The Associated Press. "The reason this is not being done immediately is because the political situation is still very sensitive." Authorities have locked up more than 150 militants in the last three years, but officials balk at publicly identifying them as belonging to Jemaah Islamiyah or being motivated by sympathy with al-Qaida. Part of the reluctance to ban Jemaah Islamiyah rests on its name, which means "Islamic community." Proponents of an Islamic state in secular Indonesia, who were brutally repressed under former dictator Suharto, fear that such a ban could mean they too will be targeted. Mbai said that banning the group was essential in the fight against terror. "We know there are many JI members who have got military training and have the ability to make bombs and use weapons who are still around, but the police cannot arrest them unless there is evidence they are involved in a particular act of terrorism," Mbai said. "If JI is proscribed as a banned organization, then security agencies can take preventive steps," said Mbai, a two-star police general known to be close to Yudhoyono. Jemaah Islamiyah's alleged spiritual leader, Abu Bakar Bashir, was sentenced to 30 months in jail earlier this month for conspiracy in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people. Analysts have said prosecutors would have been able to build a stronger case against the 66-year-old cleric if they had been able to directly charge him with heading the group. Jemaah Islamiyah has been blamed for a string of terrorist attacks in Indonesia in recent years. They include the Bali bombings, a blast at Jakarta's J.W. Marriott hotel the following year that killed 12, and a suicide car bombing at the Australian Embassy last September that killed 10. Two of its purported top leaders - Malaysians Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top - were allegedly central players in all three attacks and remain fugitives in Indonesia. Authorities have long warned they are planning more attacks.
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| Posted by:Steve |
| #1 Window dressing, IMHO. Those ineffective courts and, even when they have a perp cold, stunning sentences, such as Bashir's 30 months, leave a tad more to be desired. Remember this assclown was acquitted of plotting to assassinate the then VP Megawati - played "sick" when they came to "arrest" him - and laughed at the courts and judges - with good reason. He's allowed a cellphone and gives press interviews from "prison". Tough system there in Indo, when the perp's a Muzzy. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-03-21 1:37:12 PM |