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| Southeast Asia |
| Indonesia: The Plots Sicken |
| 2002-10-05 |
| There was at least one plot by Islamic extremists to assassinate President Megawati Sukarnoputri, according to Sri Lankan scholar Rohan Gunaratna who is regarded as one of the worldâs most foremost experts on Al-Qaeda and terrorism. Singaporeâs The Straits Times on Friday quoted Gunaratna as saying a Muslim radical from the island state helped finance a plot to kill Megawati in 1999 when she was running for the presidency. He said the Singapore financier, Al-Bukhari, was among three operatives who were to carry out the assassination. Al-Bukhari sounds suspiciously like a nom de guerre... Gunaratnaâs information is apparently based on confessions made by Al-Qaeda operative Omar al-Faruq, who was arrested in West Java in June and is now being held by the US. He said Al-Bukhari, whose whereabouts are currently unknown, was to have financed the operation, while a Malaysian national Yasin was to obtain the arms, and al-Faruq, who developed the plan, was to be the âtriggermanâ. The plot failed because Yasin could not procure the right weapons, said Gunaratna. Sometimes the only thing that saves us good guys is the ineptitude of the Bad Guys... According to a report in Time magazine last month, al-Faruq said a second attempt to assassinate Megawati was made in 2000, when a Malaysian member of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) network was to detonate a bomb at a public meeting of her Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). This alleged assassination plan also failed because the bomb exploded prematurely at a Jakarta mall, blowing off the operativeâs leg. I shouldn't laugh, but I love it when that happens. Gunaratna provided The Straits Times with new allegations against JI leaders Abu Bakar Bashir and Riduan Isamuddin, alias Hambali. They keep coming back to these same guys, and the Indonesians keep digging in their heels deeper and deeper, determined not to do anything about them... He said a Saudi sheikh named Abdullah al-Emarati once provided Bashir with about $70,000 to $75,000 to buy arms and explosives to support Muslims fighting Christians in Ambon, Maluku province. Purely an act of piety, of course... Bashirâs assistant Aris Munandar was then assigned to buy explosives from corrupt officials of the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI), he said. Is there any other kind? The explosives were purchased and loaded onto ships bound for Ambon. Gunaratna said al-Faruqâs confessions reveal that Bashir kept in touch with senior Al-Qaeda leaders through his son, an Al-Qaeda fighter. âThe information clearly shows that the JI is a transnational network and that Bashir is not only involved spiritually but also operationally,â he was quoted as saying. Wonder how young Bashir, Jr. is doing? If he's still alive, he should probably be moved up the "wanted" list a few notches... He said Hambali remains the key Al-Qaeda point man in Southeast Asia, as he was behind the Christmas Eve bombings that left 18 people dead in Indonesia in 2000, as well as a plan to bomb the American and Israeli embassies in Singapore in December 2001. âHambali remains active and the threat from his network is still alive,â said Gunaratna. Yet the Indons expend no effort to track him down and arrest him. I wonder what that is? May it's because... The ongoing claims that Al-Qaeda was behind church bombings and other terrorist acts in Indonesia have been met with considerable skepticism. "Nope. Nope. Couldn't be them. It was... ummm... somebody else." Analysts say just about all radical Islamic groups in Indonesia can be linked to elements of the military, which have a greater interest than Al-Qaeda in provoking and sustaining conflict in various provinces. Same applies to Pakistan's jihadi groups being tied to ISI. That still doesn't leave out al-Qaeda. Matter of fact, it made the al-Qaeda link tighter... Japanâs Kyodo news agency reported that police in Central Sulawesi province arrested two men early Thursday for allegedly trying to smuggle thousands of rounds of ammunition, made by an Army company, to the strife-torn regency of Poso, where more than 1,000 people have been killed in religious violence since 1999. Central Sulawesi Police chief Brigadier General Zainal Abidin-Ishak said the two men were arrested upon arrival at Pantoloan Port in Palu from Jakarta. He said all of the ammunition was manufactured by the Armyâs munitions production company PT Pindad. Abidin-Ishak said the suspects confessed to buying the ammunition in Jakarta's Chinatown and that it was destined for friends in the region. "Yeah. We were gonna use it when we go hunting... uh... elk." He said one of the men had earlier served a year in jail for involvement in an attack in the area. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #2 Does the Kyodo news agency of Japan indicate that the attempt to smuggle ammunition to Poso was on behlf of the christian terrorist group, the Yon Gab, who are responsible for most of the deaths from terrorism in that part of Indonesia? |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2002-10-15 17:05:48 |
| #1 Originally read the "Al-Bukhari" as "Al-Bukake"...I realized my mistake shortly after scrubbing my brain out with steel wool. |
| Posted by: Tripartite 2002-10-05 17:12:51 |