[MAPC-discuss] FW: WSJ: Terrorism Spotlight Hits Indonesia and

[MAPC-discuss] FW: WSJ: Terrorism Spotlight Hits Indonesia and

born-digital

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2001-10-27

note: Also implicated in supporting the Indonesian radical Muslim group
Laskar Jihad is the Indonesian security forces, notably in attacks on
Christian residents of the Maluccan islands.  In the "politicians do the
darndest things" category, the Bush administration plans to globalize its
"war against terrorism" by resuming arms sales and training for this same
Indonesian military (which itself could easily be considered a terrorist
organization, by any honest definition of the term).
____________________________________________
East Timor Action Network field organizer   ETAN field office
Social Justice Center
office 608-663-5431                         1202 Williamson St
cell 608-347-4598                           Madison, WI 53703
home 608-255-4598                           fax 608-227-0141

Check out these internet sites!
the East Timor Action Network/US http://www.etan.org
Madison, WI - East Timor projects http://www.aideasttimor.org
Madison's Social Justice Center http://www.socialjusticecenter.org

"We struggled for more than 24 years for independence. We've learned the
lesson that even small people have a voice."
    -East Timorese leader Mari Alkatiri, during the August 30, 2001
Constituent Assembly vote

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excerpt: Most worrisome to the U.S. is Indonesia. Bush administration
officials say they believe Indonesia's most militant fundamentalist
Islamic group, Laskar Jihad, has ties to Taliban fighters. Investigators
are studying reports that some of the missing Indonesian fighters
who trained in Afghanistan may have ended up with the group.

The Wall Street Journal
October 26, 2001

Past Catches Up to Southeast Asia
Amid Search for Terrorist Groups

Southeast Asia has been fertile ground for terrorist operations in
he past, and the region is still under pressure from Islamic groups
and can't be seen as too malleable to American demands.

By HELENE COOPER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

WASHINGTON -- Three years ago, 1,500 young Indonesian men thought to be
involved in their country's fight to keep East Timor went to Afghanistan to
train with Taliban fighters, U.S. officials say; they also believe all 1,500
returned home. But today, U.S. officials say they only know the whereabouts
of 1,000 of them.

An Indonesian government official wouldn't confirm or deny that any of its
citizens sought training in Afghanistan. Instead, he said Thursday that
"intelligence cooperation between Indonesia and the U.S. has taken place to
address" concerns about any such trainees. But American officials are far
less circumspect. "There's a time bomb of 500 young people in Indonesia,"
says one U.S. official, "and that really concerns the American government."

As U.S. jets bomb Taliban targets in Afghanistan, senior Bush administration
officials are turning their attention to other fronts in America's war on
terrorism. Increasingly, Southeast Asia, home to some of the world's largest
Muslim populations, is climbing up the priority list of potential trouble
spots.

For the Bush administration, this presents a two-fold problem in Malaysia
and
Indonesia, whose populations are majority Muslim, and the Philippines, which
is predominantly Catholic but has a small Muslim population fueling a
separatist movement on its southern islands. All three countries are led by
secular governments that the U.S. doesn't want to undermine. All three also
are under pressure from Islamic groups and can't be seen as too malleable to
American demands.

But in the past, Southeast Asia has been fertile ground -- and at times a
launch pad -- for terrorist operations. In 1995, police in the Philippines
uncovered a plot to crash an airplane into the Central Intelligence Agency's
Langley, Va., headquarters. During the Persian Gulf War, Iraqi agents
allegedly tried to blow up the U.S. ambassador's residence in Indonesia,
which has the world's largest Muslim population. And an Islamic separatist
group based in the southern Philippines this year expanded its profitable
kidnapping operations to Malaysia, the U.S. Department of State reported in
its most recent terrorism report.


That leaves White House officials walking a tightrope. The administration
wants to pressure Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines to crack down on
terrorist cells operating inside their borders. But U.S. officials also are
wary of stirring up anti-American sentiment in countries whose Muslim
populations have long existed peaceably alongside other religious groups.

The dilemma for President Bush was highlighted at last week's summit among
Asian-Pacific nations in Shanghai, China. Mr. Bush was mostly successful in
his efforts to get a strong statement from the Pacific Rim leaders: The
communique issued at the end of the weekend meeting "unequivocally"
condemned
the Sept. 11 attacks as "murderous deeds," and denounced terrorism "in all
forms and manifestations."

But largely because of pressure from Malaysia and Indonesia, the statement
was noticeably silent on two major points. It made no mention of Osama bin
Laden. And it didn't endorse the U.S.-led military strikes in Afghanistan.

Both Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri and Malaysian Prime Minister
Mahathir Mohamad are struggling with the dilemma of how to crack down on the
rise of militant Islamists without alienating the rest of their
mostly-Muslim
populations. U.S. officials acknowledge they have to tiptoe around those
concerns when seeking help in their campaign against terrorism.

Asian Anxiety

Some of the militant Islamic groups based in East Asia

The Philippines

Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), operating in the southern Philippines, is a radical
Islamic separatist group with as many as 2,000 members. It has engaged in
bombings, kidnapping and extortion.

Alex Bonyacayo Brigade (ABB) is an offshoot of the Communist Party of the
Philippines National PeopleÕs Army. It has about 500 members, and has been
involved in more than 100 murders and various attacks on foreign businesses.
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is the largest Islamist separatist
group
remaining in the Philippines. Philippine officials have accused it of
several
bombings, including two at shopping malls and five in Manila on Dec. 30.
Indonesia

Laskar Jihad -- This organization, with membership in the thousands, fights
in a sectarian conflict that has left thousands of people dead in eastern
Indonesia.
Malaysia

Al-Ma'unah -- This Malaysian Islamic sect last year raided two military
armories and took four hostages, killing two.
Sources: U.S. Department of State Patterns of Global Terrorism 2000; WSJ
research
"We respect that a country like Malaysia has internal challenges and
tensions
it must deal with," U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Zoellick said after meeting Mr.
Mahathir in China last week.

Administration officials believe they may have more maneuvering room with
Indonesia. President Megawati, who recently took over leadership of a
country
devastated by internal conflict, needs U.S. aid. During a visit to
Washington
last month she requested American economic assistance in the form of loans
and other aid, while condemning the terrorist attacks and expressing
cautious
support for measures against terrorism.


U.S. officials are considering offering her more military, economic and
political support as a carrot to crack down on Islamic militants. But there
again, it is a tough call, Bush officials say. Many Congressional leaders
don't like the idea of bolstering the Indonesian military, which has been
criticized by human-rights groups.

About 85% of Indonesia's 210 million people follow Islam. Two-thirds of
Malaysia's 23 million people are Muslim. Just 3% of the Philippines' 83
million people are Muslim, but they have fought a separatist insurrection
for
years. Thailand also has a restive Muslim minority.

Even before Sept. 11, U.S. officials were fretting about the rise of Muslim
militancy in Southeast Asia, and in particular, about links there to Osama
bin Laden's al Qaeda network. In the Philippines, Mr. bin Laden's
brother-in-law, Saudi businessman Mohamed Jamal Khalifa, helped found Abu
Sayyaf, an al Qaeda offshoot believed to be responsible for a rash of
kidnappings and murders, investigators say. Abu Sayyaf claims it is seeking
an independent Muslim state in the Philippines, but the Filipino government
characterizes the group as a gang of bandits that specializes in kidnappings
and piracy. Among other crimes, the group claimed to have beheaded an
American hostage whose remains were found on Basilan Island this month.

Earlier this week, five U.S. military advisers arrived in Zamboanga, in the
southern Philippines, joining about 25 U.S. troops who arrived last week to
train Philippine forces fighting Abu Sayyaf.

U.S. officials believe Abu Sayyaf is the key to al Qaeda links in Southeast
Asia. Indeed, in Malaysia, Abu Sayyaf last year kidnapped 21 people,
including 10 foreign tourists, from a diving resort, State Department
officials say.

Most worrisome to the U.S. is Indonesia. Bush administration officials say
they believe Indonesia's most militant fundamentalist Islamic group, Laskar
Jihad, has ties to Taliban fighters. Investigators are studying reports that
some of the missing Indonesian fighters who trained in Afghanistan may have
ended up with the group. Laskar Jihad officials deny they have any links to
Osama bin Laden, but confirm that the group's founder, Ja'far Umar Thalib,
fought in Afghanistan and met Mr. bin Laden. In addition, Laskar Jihad
leaders say they have "trainers" with Afghan fighting experience.

Not everyone in the administration views Indonesia as a threat. Indeed, one
U.S. official played down the worries about the unaccounted-for fighters.
Likewise, W. Scott Thompson, director of the Southeast Asia studies program
at Tufts University in Boston, says it shouldn't be assumed that U.S.
officials' inability to locate 500 men means they all joined terrorist
groups.

"It's not as if 500 missing men have gone and hidden on a mountain. [It's]
probably more like 50 that we need to worry about, while the rest went and
got jobs with the Ford Foundation," he said.

Chris Dagg, a Southeast Asia specialist at Simon Fraser University in
Burnaby, Canada, also plays down terrorism fears in Indonesia. "The groups
in
Indonesia are pretty homegrown, and fairly internal-looking," he said. "I'd

be surprised if they were [recipients of] international terrorist support."

Even so, Mr. Thompson says the U.S. rates Indonesia at "a level 6" out of 10
as a source of anxiety. "This is a big country," he explains, "and it's
falling apart."

-- Jay Solomon contributed to this article.


Far Eastern Economic Review
Issue cover-dated November 1, 2001

Intelligence

Aceh Marijuana Funds Bin Laden

The United States believes associates of Osama bin Laden have been raising
money for the wanted Saudi millionaire from the thriving marijuana trade in
Indonesia's troubled Aceh province. But when the then U.S. ambassador,
Robert Gelbard, approached Indonesian intelligence agencies and former
President Abdurrahman Wahid a year ago with evidence, he was largely
ignored. Former Attorney General Marzuki Darusman says Gelbard told him that
the military intelligence agency had accepted his offer of a briefing, but
that the civilian State Intelligence Agency turned down his offer without
explanation. The ambassador also raised the issue with Wahid, but Darusman
says the president was distracted by efforts to find a solution to Aceh's
worsening separatist rebellion. Bin Laden's alleged involvement in the
marijuana trade was never made public, but Gelbard did insist on several
occasions, long before the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington,
that bin Laden's network maintained a small, apparently dormant cell in
Indonesia.

Saturday, October 27, 2001 6:28 PM

[MAPC-discuss] FW: WSJ: Terrorism Spotlight Hits Indonesia and