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May 31, 2006
Malaysia: Islamists Helped Terrorists Escape Justice
We reported yesterday that 12 Islamists of the outlawed group Darul Islam had been captured off the coast of Sabah State, Malaysia. We said that the group comprised 10 Malaysians and 2 Indonesians. Now it appears that the group was made up of three Indonesians, three Filipinos and six Malaysians.
The Malaysia Star and the Jakarta Post report that the group had assisted the terrorists Umar Patek and Dulmatin to travel between the southern Philippines and Indonesia between 2003 and March 2006.
Umar Patek and Dulmatin were members of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah. The pair are believed to have been involved in the Bali bombings of October 2002, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australian tourists.
We reported that on October 6, the US State Department's Rewards for Justice scheme had placed a bounty of $10 million on the head of Dulmatin (pictured) and $1 million on the head of Umar Patek.
Dulmatin was an electronics expert who had trained in Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, and was a senior commander for Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). Umar Patek was thought to have been a logistics specialist and field coordinator of the Bali attacks.
The Sabah cell of Darul Islam were also engaged in smuggling three M16 rifles and eight automatic pistols from the southern Philippines for the use of Islamists in Indonesia. There were two divisions of the cell, based in Sandakan and Tawau.
Bakri Omar, Malaysian inspector general of police, said: "The role of Darul Islam Sabah was to help Indonesian militants transit to the southern Philippines, smuggle weapons from the southern Philippines to Indonesia and obtain military training in the southern Philippines."
According to Bakri, when the 12 had been arrested, two automatic pistols were found, which he claimed were being smuggled to Ambon in the Moluccas. Ambon had been at the epicenter of the Moluccan Wars, where Muslims under Lashkar Jihad attacked Christians. Between 1999 and 2002, 9,000 people had died.
Bakri said: "Darul Islam Sabah claims its objective is to establish a regional Islamic state comprising Indonesia, Malaysia and southern Philippines through militant activities."
This objective is also shared by Jemaah Islamiyah, which itself grew out of the activities of Darul Islam. Darul Islam was founded in the 1940s, in the struggle which led to the creation of the Indonesian nation. The "spiritual leader" of Jemaah Islamiyah, Abu Bakar Bashir, was formerly a member of Darul Islam.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at May 31, 2006 10:49 PM
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