On the eve of a visit to Indonesia by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, to address a 29-nation, ministerial conference on terrorism, a new report says that another militant Islamic militia has emerged, which heightens the gravity of the terrorist threat here. The new group, Mujahidin Kompak, was formed by hard-liners who split from Jemaah Islamiyah, considered Al Qaedaâs affiliate in Southeast Asia, according to the report, which was written by Sidney Jones, director of the Indonesian office of International Crisis Group and widely considered the foremost authority on Jemaah Islamiyah.
| Actually, I consider this a good sign. Groups splitting off, fights over ideological purity, the occasional hatchet applied to a rival's head in the dead of night... It all goes to help dissolve big, ugly enemies and turn them into smaller, more digestible pieces... |
The emergence of the group, and an examination of its acts of violence in Central Sulawesi, which has been wracked by Christian-Muslim violence, "suggests a need to revise assessments about the nature and gravity of the terrorist threat in Indonesia," Jones wrote in the report, which was released on Tuesday. "While the shorter term prospects are somewhat encouraging, there is an under appreciated longer security risk." This is the sixth report about Jemaah Islamiyah and terrorism in Southeast Asia by Jones, an American. Australian, American and Asian intelligence and police officials are in general agreement that she has done a better job of understanding and analyzing the organization than their own agencies have. In this 41-page report, Jones puts in a footnote one of the most arresting facts: the date of the founding of Jemaah Islamiyah - Jan. 1, 1993. This comes from a document Jones obtained, and will surely be uncomfortable for many Indonesians, including senior government officials and religious leaders, who continue to insist that Jemaah Islamiyah does not exist. |