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January 24, 2007

Indonesia: Muslim Militants May Target Police

AKI and Associated Press via the Jakarta Post note that a report by the International Crisis Group was warned that recent police actions in Indonesia may bring reprisals.

The full report in pdf format, entitled "Jihadism in Indonesia: Poso On The Edge", can be accessed from here. Subscription, which is free, may be required. The report, Asia Report No 127, is authored by Dr Sidney Jones. She is the foremost expert on Indonesian terrorism and the Al Qaeda-linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah.

Recently there have been police raids in the district of Poso in Central Sulawesi, which was an epicenter of Muslim/Christian violence which flourished from Christmas 1998 to 2002, in which 1,000 people were killed, the majority of whom were Christians.

Various groups were involved in the Muslim pogroms against Christians, particularly Laskar Jihad (Lashkar Jihad), Jemaah Islamiyah, Laskar Mujahidin, as well as Darul Islam, Laskar Jundallah (army of Allah) and the Komite Perjuangan Muslim Poso ( KPMP or Committee for the Islamic Struggle in Poso). Tis latter group was headed by Adnan Arsal, who still runs an Islamic boarding school in Poso. Arsal was in December 2001 a signatory to a peace deal, the Malino Accord, brokered by Jusuf Kalla, who is now the vice president of Indonesia.

Two smaller Islamist groups were involved in the Poso unrest, whose activities continue, are Tanah Runtuh and Kompak Kayamamya. The former group is named after a village in Poso district where raids took place this month. Kompak Kayamanya is a name given to a militant group called Mujahideen Kayamanya, based in Poso. This has links with the much larger group KOMPAK (Komite Aksi Penanggulangan Akibat Krisis - "Action committee for crisis response") which is a Muslim "charity" which has funded militants and is ultimately linked to Jemaah Islamiyah.

Despite the peace deal, the sectarian violence continued, though in a more sporadic frequency than during the earlier violence, which had been part of a wider war - the Moluccan war, which had been waged by Laskar Jihad against Christians in the Spice Islands, killing 9,000. In May 2005, 23 Christians were killed when a bomb went off in a market in Tentena in highland Central Sulawesi.

In late 2005, the violence against Christians escalated in Poso, following the decapitations of three schoolgirls on October 29, and continued with shootings and machete attacks upon Christians until the start of 2006. There was a slight lull until September 2006, when .explosions happened in Poso district, aimed at Christians, killing two. There followed more such atacks, and shootings.

At this time, three Catholics were facing execution. The three had been accused of involvement in fatal attacks upon Muslims in Poso in May 2000. The three, Fabianus Tibo, 60, Marinus Riwu, 48, and Dominggus da Silva, 42, were tried in a courtroom in April surrounded by Islamist activists who were calling for their death. They were executed by firing squad on September 20, 2006, despite international appeals for clemency.

They were the only people to be given death sentences for involvement in the sectarian conflict. Muslims who had committed crimes of a worse nature only received prison sentences. The highest jail terms for any Muslim for sectarian violence were 15 years in length. Jaffar Umar Thalib, the leader of Lashkar Thalib, who had supervised the murders of countless people, including starting the massacre at Soya in Ambon on April 28,2002, was taken to trial in 2003, accused of "sowing hatred". He was acquitted.

The apparent inequality of treatment of Christians under the law led to widespread demonstrations and acts of violence by Christians in the immediate aftermath of the executions. In October 2006, a priest, Reverend Irianto Kongkoli, who had previously campaigned for clemency for the three executed Christians, was shot in Palu, the regional capital of Central Sulawesi. Once again, the Muslim/Christian tensions in the region came to a head.

At the end of October, 15 Islamic militants from Tanah Runtuh and Kompak Kayamamya were arrested in the Poso district. Following these arrests, police said that there were 29 suspects whom they were seeking. These 29 individuals were Muslims accused of fomenting anti-Christian violence. According to Brigadier General Anton Bachrul Alam, national police spokesman, the individuals were wanted for their suspected involvement in 13 cases of shootings, beheadings, robberies and bombings going back as far as 2001.

One of the fugitives, named Rian, was killed in a police raid at Tanah Runtuh village, Poso district on January 11 this month. Rian had gone to Afghanistan to fight jihad, and had apparently been a member of Jemaah Islamiyah.

On Monday, January 22, at least nine Islamists were killed in another raid in Tanah Runtuh, and five people were arrested. Explosives, detonators and weaponry were seized in the raid. Muhammad Kilar, a spokesman for Poso police, said after the raid that 28 of the 29 people on the "wanted" list had now been accounted for.

Dr Sidney Jones says of the recent attempts by the Indonesian authorities to apprehend Islamist activists could have dire results: "A jihad that has been largely directed against local Christians could now be focused on the police ... and give a boost to Indonesia's weakened jihadi movement."

The "weakened jihadi movement" is a reference mainly to Jemaah Islamiyah. Their bomb-maker Asahari bin Husin, who planned both the Ocotober 12 2002 Bali bombings (killing 202) and the October 1 2005 Bali bombings (killing 20) was killed in a police shootout on November 9, 2005. His right-hand man Noordin Mohammed Top narrowly escaped arrest on April 29 2006, and since then his location is unknown. He is believed to be setting up his own terror network, independent of Jemaah Islamiyah. Two other main leaders of JI, Dulmatin and Umar Patek, fled to the Philippines, but are now close to being captured by Filipino military. These had taken refuge with Filipino Islamist group Abu Sayyaf. The leader of Aby Sayyaf, Khaddafy Janjalani, who was with them, was shot dead in September. On January 20 it was finally revealed that Khaddafy Janjalani was dead, after DNA tests on his brother Hector had been made upon a body killed in Jolo island.

The ICG report makes recommendations to the Indonesian authorities. It suggests that the government must make it plain to Muslim leaders to "explain in detail who the suspects (in recent raids) were and why force was used." It also advises that an inquiry should find out if "further measures could have been taken to prevent casualties." It urges that an independent commission of inquiry, including community leaders from Poso, should look at the January 11 and January 22 raids.

It also suggests a larger inquiry, to examine the grievances which remain from the conflict in Poso, which was at its worst between 2000 and 2001. Additionally it suggests that the finding of a report made after an incident on October 22, when police fought with militants, should be published. Additionally, a police force comprising local individuals should be established, to gain trust from the communities.

The report's suggestions are fairly predictable, but of itself it contains interesting details on the Poso conflict in the years since the Malino Accord was signed.

Makbul Padmanegara, deputy police chief, said today: "The human rights people, parliamentarians, please come and investigate. We have nothing to hide."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at January 24, 2007 5:31 PM

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