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April 15, 2006
US: Indonesian Muslim Tried To Buy Illicit Weaponry in Hawaii
News from Antara, China People's Daily, from Xinhua News and the Jakarta Post reports that a group including Indonesian Muslims has been detained last Sunday in Hawaii, after being caught trying to buy weaponry.
The arms were to be exported to Indonesia via SIngapore. The individuals arrested are Hadianto Djoko Djuliarso (41), Ibrahim Bin Amran (46) (from Singapore), Ignatius Ferdinandus Soeharli and an individual called David Beecroft, whose nationality has not been identified. They were apprehended while at a meeting with a Detroit businessman in Hawaii, negotiating the arms purchase.
The weaponry is said to include air-to-air missiles, submachine guns and ammunitions, Sidewinder missiles and aviation radar equipment and hundreds of handguns.
Hadianto and Ibrahim bin Amran have been charged with money laundering and violating US export laws. Breaches of the US Arms Export Control Act are punishable by up to five years in prison and a US$250,000 fine.
The question now remains as to what purpose the arms were wanted by these individuals. Three possibilities exist - for terrorism, for a coup against the government, or, more far-fetched perhaps, by the Indonesian government. The last possibility would be dismissed, were it not for the fact that Hadianto Djoko Djuliarso is owner of PT Ataru Indonesia which is partner of the Air Force.
He was apparently in the US to verify a legitimate sale of radar spareparts of F-5 Tiger jet fighters, before having them shipped to Indonesia.
The chief spokesman for the Indonesian Air Force, Air Commodore Sagom Tamboen said: "We are still waiting for the result of the verification, including on where the products came from and how they would be sent to Indonesia."
Sagom said that it would be impossible for the government to sever its connections with PT Ataru Indonesia, and was awaiting a government decision on the case. "But if the government, in this case the Ministry of Defence has appointed PT Ataru as partner in the procurement of arms, its reliability is good," he said.
The possibilities are ominous. The meeting was not a legitimate purchase of weaponry officially sanctioned by the Indonesian government. The government has encouraged Islamism, but is also corrupt. It has treated extreme terrorists with leniency, such as Lashkar Jihad. This group mounted a war in the Moluccas against Christians, which led to the deaths of 9,000 people, between 1999 and 2002. There were rumours that members of the government administration at that time (led by Baharuddin Jusuf Habibie) had actually helped form this paramilitary Islamist group in 1999.
So there are no easy answers forthcoming. The worst case-scenario is that the arms were to be used to mount another sectarian war or to bring about an insurgency. The current government is not the most transparent of bodies, so we will have to wait for the US trial to find out more concrete details.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at April 15, 2006 9:38 PM
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