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| Southeast Asia |
| Indonesia ignored terrorist training camps in Sulawesi |
| 2005-05-30 |
| The Indonesian secret services (BIN) have never tried to catch the suspected terrorists that were immortalised in a video filmed at a recruitment and training camp near Poso, in central Sulawesi, four years ago. These strong accusations were made by Muchyar Yara, the former spokesman of BIN, two days after the attack at a market in Tentena, that analysts believe is the work of Islamic terrorist groups linked to the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). "We have a video that shows how about 50 to 60 local people were recruited," said Muchyar Yara, spokesperson for BIN up until 2003, in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI). The former spokesperson did not however clarify if the camps are still in operation, adding that both the police and the military had done nothing to track down the people seen in the video. "We knew from the beginning that there were training camps of radical elements of the Islamic community," he said. "But there has been no follow up by the security department to trace them." When asked if the "radical islamists" included members of the regional terrorist group, the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), Muchyar Yara said that JI is not a term that is used within the Indonesian secret sercives. "We do not use the words Jemaah Islamiyah," said Muchyar Yara. "For us it is a radical element of the Islamic community." The comments by Muchyar Yara, comes just two days after the attack at the market in Tentena, a small city with a predominantly Christian population, 55 kilometres south of Poso, where fighting between Muslims and Christians has led to the deaths of some 1,000 people. The two bombs exploded within 15 minutes of each other killing 20 people and injuring 50 others. This attack saw the second highest number of victims in such attacks in Indonesia, after the Bali Bombings of 2002 that killed 202 people. The way in which the attack was carried out represents a change in methodology from the attacks that were carried out during the clashes between Christians and Muslims between 1999 and 2001. The idea of using the first bomb to attract the people to the site, is similar to the technique used during the attacks in Bali. Last weekend's attacks also coincided with the anniversary of the "Walisongo massacre", when a hundred Muslims who took refuge in the Islamic college of Walisongo and were massacred by thousands of Christians. According to many analysts, terrorist cells linked to JI and operating in central Sualwesi, planned the two bomb attacks to rekindle the inter-religious hate in the area on the occasion of the anniversary. "So many people would be able to make a bomb in Poso. It is difficult to say who did it." said Muchyar Yara. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |