 The radical Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI) says 19 of its 206 members "conducting relief work" in Aceh have been expelled from the province by the Indonesian Air Force.
| "Pack your turban and get out!" |
MMI executive Fauzan Al-Anshari said many of the group's members had taken a flight from Jakarta to Aceh on December 30. He said they established a command post at the Iskandar Muda Air Force base in Banda Aceh city to help evacuate dead bodies, distribute aid and give "spiritual guidance" to survivors.
| "O Brother in Islam! Y'gotta keep a good site picture, and sque-e-e-e-e-eze. If you pull jerk that trigger, Allah might guide that bullet right up yer ass!" |
Several Air Force personnel visited the MMI command post on Sunday and ordered 19 volunteers there to pack their bags and be ready to leave in 30 minutes, said Al-Anshari. Eleven of them were then flown to the North Sumatra capital of Medan, while eight from Java were flown on a Hercules military aircraft to Jakarta's Halim Perdanakusumah airbase, he added. "When we asked why we were being expelled, what our mistake was, they only said that no matter what the reason, our brothers must leave the command post," Al-Anshari was quoted as saying by detikcom online news portal.
| That's the way they say "Shutcher goddam mouth and get out!" in Bahasa Indonesia... |
He said the expulsion of the MMI members was probably due to foreign pressure, adding that foreign journalists in Aceh had earlier questioned their presence and asked whether they were linked to al Qaeda. Al-Anshari claimed that after denying any links with al Qaeda, rumors surfaced that MMI was linked to the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), because two people claiming to be GAM members visited an MMI command post in Lampenang.
| "I mean, we both got turbans, but there's lotsa difference between us. Their turbans are green, see?" |
He said three Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) trucks carrying fully armed troops soon visited the command post and TNI commander General Endriartono Sutarto later visited to Aceh. "We don't not know what his agenda was. But afterward, the Air Force came and removed the volunteers."
| Sutarto doesn't sound like the kind of man who suffers fools gladly... |
MMI was founded in August 2000 with the ostensible aim of promoting the adoption of strict Islamic law in secular Indonesia. The group's founder is radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, the suspected leader of regional terrorism network Jemaah Islamiyah. He is now on trial, accused of inciting his followers to carry out the October 2002 Bali nightclub bombings and the August 2003 bombing at Jakarta's JW Marriott Hotel. GAM's exiled leaders in Sweden on Sunday issued a statement demanding the expulsion of MMI and another radical group, the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), from Aceh. "The government of Aceh in exile... deplores the arrival in Aceh of members of the thuggish so-called Islamic Defenders Front and the terroristic Indonesia Mujahidin Council. The introduction of these organizations into Aceh at this most critical time squanders scarce resources by the Indonesian government which is better allocated to the victims of the recent tsunami," said the statement. "The FPI and MMI are not welcome in Aceh and have never been supported by the Acehnese people, nor has their presence been requested. The FPI has been involved in sectarian killings in Maluku and Central Sulawesi and illegal attacks against non-Muslims and others in Java and elsewhere."
| "We could do our own sectarian killings, thank you, if we had any non-Moose limbs left in Aceh..." |
The statement said MMI is the "umbrella organization for groups such as Laskar Jihad, Laskar Jundullah and the FPI" and has "the explicit aim of turning Indonesia into a non-democratic fundamentalist Islamist state. The actions and words of both the FPI and MMI are against the teachings of the Holy Qur'an and the Hadith and contradict the tolerance and faith of Acehnese Muslims. Neither the FPI nor the MMI has any credentials or skills in disaster relief, and their presence is clearly intended as a provocation to the people of Aceh. Their intervention in Aceh is therefore counter-productive and is not wanted."
| "So beat it. This is our turf!" |
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