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| Southeast Asia |
| Focus returns to JI after Bali |
| 2005-10-03 |
| The latest wave of bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali shows that the al Qaeda-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah is still active, despite the Indonesian government's attempts to put its key leaders behind bars, terrorism experts in the region said Sunday. Powerful bombs ripped through three crowded restaurants in Bali on Saturday, killing at least 26 people and wounding more than 100 -- the second time terrorists have brought carnage to the tropical paradise in three years. No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts, but Australia's leading terrorism expert Clive Williams said it bore all the hallmarks of Jemaah Islamiyah, or JI. Since then, dozens of key members of the group have been convicted, including its alleged spiritual leader, Abu Bakar Bashir -- now serving a two-year sentence for conspiracy in the 2002 attacks. Williams, Director of the Strategic and Defense Studies Center at the Australian National University, said the arrests had failed to cripple the group and the latest bombings showed it was still able to recruit new members. "Clearly, they are still able to mount small-scale operations, or in this particular case, it seems they probably would have had half-a-dozen people involved," Williams told The Associated Press. He said the most likely masterminds were fugitive Malaysians Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top, both implicated in a 2004 attack on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta which killed 10 people and injured more than 200. Azahari, a former physics lecturer, is believed to be a skilled bomb maker and key organizer in the organization, while Noordin is believed to be the group's top recruiter, he said. Williams said the two were believed to be hiding in Indonesia. "I think they (Indonesian authorities) are actively looking for them, but they're obviously being protected by sympathizers or members of the organization and that's made it more difficult," he said. Another likely mastermind of Saturday's bombing included Zulkarnaen, also known as Aris Sumarsono, who is believed to have taken over as Jemaah Islamiyah's operations chief in 2003 after Hambali, said to be the group's link to al Qaeda, was arrested. Singapore-based terror expert Rohan Gunaratna of the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies said only JI had the ability to carry out coordinated attacks in Bali. "The JI is the only group with the intention and capability to mount an attack on Bali on such a coordinated level," Gunaratna said. "There should be no doubt that they did it. No other groups can carry out multiple attacks like that." Gunaratna, a Sri Lankan national and author of "Inside al-Qaida: Global Network of Terror," added that the group chose to attack Bali to send a message that it was still active and plotting attacks despite a string of arrests. "They chose Bali in order to embarrass and humiliate Indonesia," Gunaratna said. "Especially in light of reports that said JI has been dismantled, they're now proving that JI is still capable." In fact, Saturday's blasts were likely to attract would-be terrorists to join regional JI cells or other extremist groups, Williams said. "It's good for JI in the sense that it shows they're still in business," he said. "It also does encourage more people to join them." "If they see that there's an ongoing level of activity, most people who are disposed to that point of view might be more prepared to support it," he said. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |