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| Southeast Asia |
| Indonesian military implicated in terrorism |
| 2002-08-13 |
| Despite a $50 million U.S. aid package and a push by Washington to renew military ties, a new report suggests Indonesia's military created the network now said to be Southeast Asia's most serious terrorist threat. The report, released by the International Crisis Group, a Brussels, Belgium-based think tank, says that Jemaah Islamiyah - a shadowy group allegedly trying to topple governments in Southeast Asia and carve out an Islamic state — was created in the 1970's by the head of Indonesia's military intelligence. I linked to this report a couple days ago. Or you can get it in pdf format here... The goal was to compromise Muslim opponents of then-dictator Suharto and to depict them as fundamentalists, the document said. "If you scratch any radical Islamic group in Indonesia, you will find some security forces involvement," Sidney Jones, the International Crisis Group country director, said Monday. "These links need further investigation." Sounds like a replay of the Pak ISI-Lashkar-e-Taiba et al. alliance... The report's release could embarrass the Bush administration, which has made renewing links with Indonesia's military — cut three years ago because of human rights abuses — a centerpiece of its anti-terror strategy in Southeast Asia. I don't think it "embarrasses" Bush. What's he expected to do? Set up a new government for Indonesia using imports and deal only with them? He has to work with the tools at hand... It comes after accusations by former President Abdurrahman Wahid that Laskar Jihad, another extremist organization accused of killing thousands of Christians in the Maluku islands, was set up by hard-line generals opposed to democratic reforms after Suharto's fall in 1999. Unheard of. Who'da thunkit? I'm sure it's nice to live in a world of lilies and warm milk, where such revelations actually cause surprise. Kinda like "Perfect" in the Walgreen's commercials, where trousers never wrinkle... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |