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Fate of Indonesian Fighters in Afghanistan Uncertain
By Kazi Mahmood
JAKARTA, Nov 27 (IslamOnline) - Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda on Tuesday expressed doubt over a report that some Indonesians had been captured by the Northern Alliance in the war in Afghanistan.
"I doubt the news report that some Indonesians, it said more than 300 people, have entered Afghanistan," Hassan was quoted by
Antara as saying before a hearing in Jakarta of the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission I on foreign, political and security affairs.
Last week, head of the Islamic Youth Movement (GPI), Dudi Syuaib, said 300 volunteers from the group had survived the war and 150 others were still in the Afghan town of Kandahar.
He said as many as 100 volunteers had escaped to the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan and 50 others were on their way to Pakistan.
Rumors on Indonesian volunteers have surfaced following reports on the killing of Pakistani and Arab Taliban volunteers by Northern Alliance troops when the latter took over Mazar-e Sharif.
There are reportedly 200 Indonesians in Pakistan, but none of them have entered Afghanistan.
Wirayuda said it would be difficult to reach Afghanistan after Pakistan barred its representative offices from issuing visas without a license from the country's foreign affairs ministry.
He added it would have been impossible for Indonesian volunteers to have obtained visas from Pakistan's representative office in Manila.
He noted that, despite the political obstacles, the Indonesian government would try to confirm the report through the network of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Based on information from the Indonesian embassy in Islamabad, no Indonesian citizen had entered Afghanistan, he said.
However, the GPI said it had not yet received any new information about the fate of perhaps dozens of volunteer Indonesian fighters being held as prisoners of war by Northern Alliance troops in Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul.
"I have yet to talk to my contact people in Iran about the fate of the Indonesian fighters arrested by the Northern Alliance in Kabul," Suaib told
The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
He said the last time he talked to his contacts in Iran was Wednesday last week, but "they were only explaining the position of our people who were still there."
Local media reported on Friday that Indonesian volunteers were among approximately 50 pro-Taliban fighters captured by the Northern Alliance in Kabul last Thursday. The others included Saudi Arabians, Kyrgyzstanis and Pakistanis.
Almost immediately after the United States and its allies attacked Afghanistan on October 7, the GPI sent at least 300 Indonesian volunteers to Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban.
Suaib said approximately 150 Indonesians were still working with the Taliban in Kunduz, around 50 people were already in Pakistan and another 100 or so were still waiting at the border attempting to enter Pakistan.
Kunduz fell to anti-Taliban forces on Sunday. Hundreds of foreign fighters loyal to Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, who is being hunted by the United States for the deadly attacks on Washington and New York in September, were reportedly being held in Northern Alliance-controlled Mazar-i-Sharif.
"Perhaps the Indonesians arrested and detained by Northern Alliance troops were part of the 150 fighters who were still in Afghanistan. Some of them were tasked to conduct spying operations in Kabul," Suaib said.
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