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Abu
Bakar Basy’ir, one of three Muslim leaders facing police
clampdown
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By
IOL Southeast Asia Correspondent
JAKARTA,
October 15 (IslamOnline) - Strong indications show that Indonesian
police will soon be given directives to arrest or to interrogate three
Muslim leaders, IslamOnline was told by elements close to these three
leaders in Jakarta Tuesday, October 15, 2002.
While
the Indonesian government pledged Monday, October to take united action
to eradicate what it called terrorists, whom a Minister said were linked
to al-Qaeda, sources close to Abu Bakar Basy’ir, chairman of the
Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI), told IslamOnline, in a telephone
conversation, that the 64 year old cleric was not the target of the
investigations into allegations of terrorism by local police.
Indonesia
is bound to follow claims by the U.S. and Australia to act fast and to
arrest those responsible for the blast in Bali and Surabaya, the source
told IslamOnline, adding that President Megawati Soekarnoputri said the
police would spearhead the probe into the Bali blast.
The
source also said it was clear Indonesia was targeted by the blast in
Bali, “which now forces it to engage itself along side America in the
war against terror,” the source, a medical practitioner said.
The
source also said the head of the Ahlussunah Wal Jamaah, Djafar Umar
Talib and the chief of the Islam Defenders' Front (FPI), Habib Rizieq
were the other two leaders to be queried soon.
However,
Indonesian Vice President Hamza Haz made a strong statement Monday
saying that the blast in Bali did not involve local Mujahideens or
Muslim groups.
The
Jakarta Post Tuesday
said Vice President Haz renewed his defense of Muslim hard-line groups
at home, dismissing the possibility of their involvement in the blast.
Haz
suspected that the incident in Bali was engineered, and asserted that it
had nothing to do with the leaders of Islamic hard-line groups,
including Ba'asyir, Talib or Rizieq.
Ba’asyir
is high on the list of alleged suspected terrorists in Malaysia,
featured on the Malaysian police website. He is also wanted by the
Singapore and U.S. governments for his alleged involvement in the Jemaah
Islamiyah (JI), a group from Singapore.
Djafar
Umar Talib is currently fighting for his freedom from jail, he is out on
bail after his arrest earlier this year for his alleged involvement in
the racial conflict in the Malukus where Muslims and Christian groups
were at daggers drawn for years.
Two
of these leaders of Muslim groups Monday accused the U.S. of being
behind the deadly Bali bomb blasts that killed at least 187 people over
the weekend, though they did not offer any evidence to support their
accusations.
"We
deplore and condemn the masterminds, fund raisers and whoever was
involved in the bomb explosions in Bali," said Habib Rizieq Shihab.
The FPI is a Muslim militant group best known for its frequent attacks
on bars, and other nightspots in Jakarta.
"The
incident could be used as reason for the United States and its allies to
justify their accusations that Indonesia is a terrorist network
base," Shihab said as quoted by DPA, an online news agency
in Indonesian language.
Abu
Bakar Ba'asyir, chairman of the MMI, also accused the U.S. of being
behind the explosions in Bali.
"The
U.S. intelligence agency is behind the Bali bombings in an attempt to
justify their accusation that Indonesia is a terrorist base," said
Abu Bakar, suspected (without any proof being provided too) to be the
leader of JI, a group that allegedly plans to establish a pan-Islamic
state in Southeast Asia.
Indonesia,
which abolished its draconian internal security act in 1998, refused to
arrest Ba'asyir on the grounds that there is no evidence that he has
committed crimes in Indonesia, the Jakarta Post said.
Abu
Bakar warned the Indonesian government and security officials not to be
trapped in the U.S.'s strategy, and to refrain from declaring that a
terrorist network exists in the country.
Other
reports, however, said the Indonesian government refrained from
mentioning which group would be the focus of investigation covering the
Bali blast, even after Australian and the U.S. specifically mentioned
al-Qaeda and Abu Bakar Ba'asyir as being behind the attack.
Many
Indonesian Muslim clerics and academics Monday raised questions about
who could be behind the Bali tragedy, which has seemingly justified a
stronger government stance against terrorists and their sympathizers.
"Such
a car bomb blast could be linked to the work of foreigners, especially
the U.S. in a bid to attack hard-line groups deemed as terrorists,"
said M. Budyatna, a noted political observer and former dean of social
and political studies at the University of Indonesia, in a statement to
the Press.
The
government of President Megawati Soekarnoputri has been widely
criticized for failing to crack down on terrorist suspects in the
aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.
