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| Southeast Asia |
| Abu Dujana still new JI supremo |
| 2006-03-23 |
| A young Indonesian militant with close links to al-Qaeda is now in charge of the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, which remains dangerous despite more than 270 arrests since 2000, a top counterterrorism official said Wednesday. Abu Dujana's rise to power within Jemaah Islamiyah is an indication the group's organizational structure remains intact, and highlights the challenges that remain for police fighting terrorism in the world's most populous Muslim nation. Dujana, who learned bomb-making skills in Afghanistan alongside Hambali, an alleged regional terror chief now in U.S. custody, is a “talented leader. He has good relations with al-Qaeda and is trusted”, said Col. Petrus Reinhard Golose of Indonesia's counterterrorism task force. The 34-year-old, who unlike many Indonesian militants is fluent in Arabic, replaced Abu Rusdan as head of Jemaah Islamiyah when Rusdan was arrested in 2003, Golose told members of Indonesia's foreign correspondents association. Jemaah Islamiyah is blamed for a series of bloody bombings and failed plots in Southeast Asia in recent years, including two strikes on Indonesia's resort island of Bali that killed more than 220 people, most of them foreign tourists. Golose said arresting Dujana, who he said was a native of West Java province, was a priority. Nasir Abbas, a former militant-turned-police informer, said he trained alongside Dujana in 1990 in Afghanistan. “He was smart, you could tell that,” Nasir told The Associated Press. Recruits at the camp received instruction in basic weapons handling and bomb-making. Golose said that since 2001, Jemaah Islamiyah operatives coming to Java from elsewhere in Indonesia had to first report to Dujana, and that the perpetrators of the 2003 car bombing of the J.W. Marriott Hotel also came to see him immediately after the attack. Golose repeated earlier police statements that Noordin Top, a Malaysian militant accused of a key role in all the attacks on Indonesian soil, was now working outside Jemaah Islamiyah and had declared himself al-Qaeda's representative in Southeast Asia. Even if Top were to be arrested, the risk of more attacks would still remain, he said. “There are others who are still more dangerous who are active,” he told journalists. The leading international expert on Jemaah Islamiyah, Sidney Jones, confirmed that Dujana had long been a key figure in the organization, although she said it's too early to say whether he's heading the group. “Dujana was indeed the secretary of the central command of the organization. Over the last year there have been rumors he is head of JI, but people close to JI have said they do not know how his name appeared as a leader,” said Jones, who lives and works in Jakarta and has monitored its militant fringe for decades. “We must wait for more facts before we can make that conclusion,” Jones said. Dujana fled Indonesia for Malaysia with other Muslim activists in the 1980s to avoid repression by then-Indonesian dictator Suharto, said Jones. Rusdan, Dujana's alleged predecessor, was released from jail last year after serving a short prison term for hiding one of the perpetrators of the 2002 Bali bombings. He is a free man, but refuses to speak to reporters. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |