Three Indonesia militants 'die in raids near Jakarta'

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Indonesian security forces say they have killed three suspected militants in two raids near the capital Jakarta.

The raids were said to be linked to an ongoing operation against militants in Aceh province that has brought a number of arrests.

Police said they could neither confirm nor deny the man killed in the first raid was Dulmatin, a top member of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) group.

He is wanted over the Bali bomb attacks in 2002 that killed 202 people.

'Big name'

The first raid took place at an internet cafe in Pamulang city, west of the capital, local media reported.

If it's true that it's [Dulmatin], we will be very grateful that the most-wanted terrorist has been killed. It will be a big relief to us Ansyaad Mbai, Security ministry anti-terrorism chief The Bali bomb plotters Dulmatin: JI's 'genius'

The cafe owner told Associated Press that the suspected militant had been logged on to the internet for about five minutes when officers stormed in. Police said the suspect fired one shot from a revolver before he was killed.

In the second operation, police said they had shot dead two suspected members of the same group and arrested two more.

Anti-terror police chief Tito Karnavian told media the dead man from the first raid was a "big name".

A police spokesman, Edward Aritonang, later told the BBC it was not clear if the man was Dulmatin and that further tests were taking place.

He said: "We believe that the man... supplied weapons and funding to the Aceh militant group."

Indonesia's Metro TV station showed footage of what it said was the dead man.

DNA tests

Dulmatin has been one of the most-wanted Indonesian militant figures. The US has offered a $10m reward for information leading to his death or arrest.

He is believed to have set off one of the two bombs in Bali on 12 October 2002. A total of 202 people died in the attacks, many of them foreign tourists.

Officials have yet to confirm if the first man killed was Dulmatin

Dulmatin had been thought to be hiding in the Philippines.

Security ministry anti-terrorism chief Ansyaad Mbai told Agence France-Presse: "If it's true that it's him, we will be very grateful that the most-wanted terrorist has been killed. It will be a big relief to us."

DNA tests might be needed to confirm whether Dulmatin was the man killed.

Such tests were needed to prove beyond doubt that Noordin Mohamed Top, at the time Indonesia's most-wanted Islamist militant, had been killed in September 2009.

Police thought they had killed him in a previous raid only for forensic tests to prove them wrong.

Dulmatin was also rumoured to have been killed previously - tests were carried out on a body found in the southern Philippines in 2008, but it was confirmed to not be his.

The latest raids come less than two weeks before the visit to Indonesia of US President Barack Obama.

Police check the scene of the second raid, where two people died

Indonesia has made significant inroads in recent years into dismantling the leadership of Jemaah Islamiah.

The police have also been recently engaged in an operation targeting Aceh militants.

A total of 14 people have been charged with plotting to launch terrorist attacks.

Those charged are believed by officials to be members of a previously unknown terror group.

But seizures in raids included DVDs on the Bali bombings.

Police have been investigating possible links between the militants and Jemaah Islamiyah, which was blamed by the authorities for the Bali attacks.

Inside Indonesia - Celebrating community

A temple procession brings Chinese culture to life in Jakarta’s streets

Margaret Chan

A god's palanquin Margaret Chan

On Sunday 18 October 2009, contingents from 33 Chinese temples from all over Java staged what was probably Jakarta’s largest ever Chinese religious festival. Accompanied by musicians, lion and dragon dancers, hundreds of devotees paraded through the streets of Glodok, Jakarta’s Chinatown, carrying 38 images of Chinese deities mounted on palanquins. The procession stretched for more than a kilometre as it wound its way around a ten kilometre circuit in and out of the Glodok district. Three police cars cleared a way for the procession through the city’s perpetual traffic jam.

The focus of the parade was the Fat Cu Kung temple in Glodok itself. No grand place of worship, this little temple’s prayer hall is really just the cramped front room of a private residence at the end of a cul-de-sac off Jalan Kemenangan. By way of enthusiastic celebrations of its deity’s birthday, however, the Fat Cu Kung community punches well above its weight. It started observing the anniversary with a religious procession in 2006, and each year the celebrations have become progressively bigger, yet another sign of the renaissance of Chinese culture in a district that eleven years ago was the scene of violent anti-Chinese riots.

Bringing migrants together

Fat Cu Kung is portrayed as having a black face, staring eyes and a mane of wild black hair reaching to his waist. His cult originates in Fujian province in China, from where it has spread to Taiwan and Southeast Asia. The Chinese have a long history of migration and their success in their adopted lands is largely due to a tradition of mutual help. New migrants are received and resettled within host communities by a network of organisations whose connections extend beyond country borders. Welfare groups, clan associations, trade guilds, schools and hospitals all form part of the network, but the centre of all social activities has always been the community temples. Traditionally, it is on the birthdays of the patron deities that everybody gathers to re-commit to the communal ties that bind them together.

A statue of a deity is the focus of devotion at temples. In addition, each deity is also represented in a number of other typically smaller images, specifically for travel purposes. This can be no more than a short trip within the village, such as when a member of the parish is very ill. In this case, a small image of the deity might be brought to the patient’s house to ensure that the sick person gets the full attention of the god.

Chinese gods enjoy outings so devotees dress their images in travelling clothes and take them on journeys, even moving them to new homelands

Chinese gods enjoy outings so devotees dress their images in travelling clothes and take them on journeys, even moving them to new homelands. This is why the main statues in temples of the Chinese diaspora are often small – they are the original diminutive images brought from the ancestral village.

The images of the gods embody the cult, but ash from the container in which incense is burnt – called a censer – is also important. When a branch temple is set up, ash from the main censer of the mother temple must be collected and brought to the branch location. This is the ritual of fenxiang, which translates as ‘dividing the incense’. At a temple festival, the gods on parade form the main spectacle. But it is the less ostentatious ceremony of fenxiang that is socially binding. Dividing of incense ash represents a commitment to a shared identity and destiny, and it is this spirit of solidarity that joins Chinese around the world.

When representatives from the 33 temples from all over Java gathered at the Fat Cu Kung temple in Glodok, each party brought along a small censer of incense ash. Placed together on a common altar table, the collection of censers represent the communal bonds that join the temples in a mutual help network. Bringing together such widely-dispersed temple communities, the Fat Cu Kung celebrations represented an important event in Indonesian-Chinese communal relationships. According to several people I spoke to at the parade, the celebration was the grandest Chinese religious festival Jakarta had seen since the start of reformasi.

All the excitement of a parade

A frisson of anticipation shot through the crowd when a large drum was struck at 1pm to mark the start of the parade. Several bands of musicians immediately took up the cue. Cymbals clashed and gamelan gongs were beaten as the palanquins were lifted onto shoulders. These palanquins had been trucked into Glodok from places like Jepara, Losarai Brebes, Semarang, Tegal and Cilacap in Central Java; Bogor, Kerawang and Purwakarta in West Java; and Pamekasan Madura, East Java. Some of them were as large as the cab of the ubiquitous scooter-taxis (bajaj) of Jakarta. The Indonesian word for these heavy chairs is joli, and the English word ‘jolly’ describes the exuberance that permeated the Fat Cu Kung celebrations.

Muslim students join the march Margaret Chan

In the euphoria of the moment the devotees swung the palanquins onto their shoulders, ignoring the pain of the carrying shafts cutting into their flesh. Caught in the excitement of it all I impulsively leapt onto a friend’s motorcycle. We zig-zagged between cars and rode up and down pavements, following the procession part of the way and then we cut through backstreets to outflank them and get to a vantage point where we stopped to let the parade pass by. The route began at the Fat Cu Kung temple on Jalan Kemenangan in the Patekwan district, leading on to Jalan Pintu Kecil, Jalan Kali Besar Barat, Jalan Kali Besar Timur 3, around Fatahillah Museum Square, Jalan Lodan, and past Plaza Glodok on Jalan Hayam Wuruk, Jalan Mangga Besar. It then made a U-turn to head back up Jalan Mangga Besar to Jalan Gajah Mada before returning to Jalan Kemenangan.

Religious differences set aside

Watching the parade, I was struck by the sight of marching bands of Muslim students and a contingent of dragon dancers from the Indonesian armed forces at the head of the column. Right after the vanguard of police cars, came the Guntur Naga Geni, a dragon dance troupe from the Yon Armed-11 Kostrad, a land artillery battalion of the Indonesian Army’s Strategic Reserve. Earlier, I had chatted with the soldiers while we waited for the start of the parade in the main hall of the Ricci Catholic School on Jalan Kemenangan. As they tucked into their specially-catered halal meal of curry and rice, I ate noodles prepared by volunteers of the Fat Cu Kung temple. These macho men and their twin dragons were followed by three marching bands of high school youths. Two groups played on brass instruments and drums while the third comprised a band of girls wearing headscarfs and twirling large flags. I heard that they came from Islamic schools in Kerawang, just west of Jakarta.

Right after the vanguard of police cars, came the Guntur Naga Geni, a dragon dance troupe from the Yon Armed-11 Kostrad

The military dragon dance team and the school marching bands were paid a fee for taking part in the Fat Cu Kung parade. It was a pragmatic arrangement, strictly commercial and entirely devoid of religious involvement. Such a matter-of-fact attitude is also evident among the troupes that regularly prowl the lanes of Glodok, going from shop to shop to perform the Chinese lion dance. Most of them are made up of non-Chinese youths, many of whom must be Muslim. But religion does not come into the picture. If the Chinese will pay for perfunctory performances of lion dance at their place of business, then the youths see no problem in quite literally dancing to that tune.

Such pragmatic arrangements are not out of place in Indonesia. Indeed, they offer an opportunity for different communities to come together in peaceful solidarity in a society where ethnic and religious connections are still being re-negotiated. People can get together for all sorts of reasons. It does not matter if the objectives are lofty or prosaic. The important thing is that they do get together.

Margaret Chan (margaretchan@smu.edu.sg) is Practice Assistant Professor of Theatre/Performance Studies, School Social Sciences, Singapore Management University.

Inside Indonesia 99: Jan-Mar 2010

VOA News - Jakarta May Be Largely Protected From Indonesia's Deadly Quakes

By Katie Hamann Jakarta 07 September 2009

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As the hunt for those killed in last week's Indonesian earthquake continues, residents of the capital, Jakarta, are wondering if their city could be at risk for bigger, more dangerous quakes. Despite the sharp, frightening shaking that the city experienced last week, experts say massive damage is unlikely.

Indonesian geologist stands near LCD screens displaying one of the aftershocks following a 7.2-magnitude quake, at Meteorology and Geophysics Agency in Jakarta (File)

Jakarta has been rattled by earthquakes on numerous occasions. They may cause pulses to quicken but usually they are greeted with nervous laughter and calm evacuations.

But for some the quake on September 2 was very different. The intensity of the quake, which rocked the city for more than a minute, caught many off guard.

At least 18 people were admitted to hospitals in Jakarta, some of them with injuries sustained as they evacuated buildings. Legs were broken and one person was severely injured during stampede as panicked shoppers and office workers surged out of buildings.

But the crowded city is more fortunate than much of the country, which sits atop tectonic plates that frequently slam together to cause massive earthquakes. Indonesia's 18,000 islands are part of the Pacific Rim of Fire, which stretches from the North and South American western coasts across the Pacific. It is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis.

Jakarta itself does not sit on a geological fault line. Geologists say that means it is likely the city will only ever feel the effects of earthquakes with epicenters more than 100 miles away.

Fauzi, who goes by one name, heads the earthquake and tsunami unit of Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency. He says it is unlikely that quakes in the capital would be catastrophic.

"The center of the earthquake is not available in Jakarta," said Fauzi. "What we have is only receiving impact from the source of the earthquake somewhere south in parts of Java."

Fauzi says many people panicked unnecessarily last week and public education campaigns are needed to teach people how to respond to earthquakes.

Jakarta requires buildings over four stories to be able to withstand magnitude 7 quakes.

Adang Surahman, an earthquake engineering expert at Indonesia's Bandung Institute of Technology, says most of Jakarta's high-rises have been built to withstand what scientists refer to as the once in 500-year quake.

"Buildings in Jakarta are built to withstand horizontal acceleration of about 10 percent of gravity and this earthquake which just happened yesterday maybe about five percent of gravity," said Surahman.

Visions of soaring high-rises crumbling may grip the imagination but Surahman says it is the smaller one and two storey dwellings that are most vulnerable in places like Indonesia.

"Majority of buildings in Indonesia are non-engineered buildings, including maybe in Jakarta," added Surahman. "Let's say one-, maybe two-story buildings are not necessarily designed properly. That is my concern."

It is in these dwellings that most Indonesians live and, when large earthquakes strike, often die.

Most of those killed in last week's earthquake died when a landslide triggered by the quake swept boulders as big as trucks across a dozen homes in the village of Cikangkareng. More than 30 people remain missing there.

The government says as many as 88,000 people have been displaced by the disaster.

Indonesia Takes Beggars Off Streets of Jakarta in a Holiday Crackdown - NYTimes.com

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By NORIMITSU ONISHI

Published: September 5, 2009

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Every year during Ramadan, the poor from every corner of the island of Java gravitate here to the capital to beg. They wander in between cars stuck at traffic corners, in the shadows of the city’s skyscrapers and gigantic shopping malls, in the knowledge that Islam’s most sacred month makes people particularly charitable.

This year, however, Jakarta is cracking down on the seasonal influx of beggars. Many of them belong to organized gangs and simply exploit religious sentiments, the authorities say. And they add that the beggars pose a threat to the stability of Jakarta, Indonesia’s most important city and the seat of power, a bubble of five-star hotels and luxury stores that, in the words of one law enforcement official, feeds the outsiders’ “sweet dreams.”

Thirteen days into Ramadan, Jakarta had rounded up 1,465 beggars, most of them women and children, almost all from outside Jakarta. For the first time, the authorities are also going after those caught giving to beggars, though they have fined only 12 people so far.

“A capital is built on the condition that it be a comfortable, safe and dignified place,” said Budiharjo, who took over Jakarta’s Social Welfare Agency eight months ago and decided to penalize charity givers for the first time.

“If we stop giving, naturally they will disappear,” said Mr. Budiharjo, who, like many Indonesians, uses only one name.

He said investigators found that about 500 of the arrested beggars belonged to groups that gathered Indonesians in villages and bused them to Jakarta to beg during Ramadan. Officials have arrested coordinators of the ring in Jakarta, but were still looking for leaders outside the city, he said.

The authorities were enforcing a 2007 city bylaw that made it illegal not only to beg on city streets, but also to give to street beggars. Violators on both sides can be fined up to $2,000 and jailed for up to two months.

The 12 people caught giving were fined between $15 and $30, Mr. Budiharjo said. All were apprehended while handing out money to beggars from inside their cars, an act as common as the city’s traffic jams.

But the severity of the crackdown, in a developing country with not much of a social safety net, has drawn criticism from some of the local media, as well as those caught in the daily raids against beggars.

“Begging should be allowed,” said Jariyah, 39, who had traveled a couple of hours by bus to beg with her 16-month-old son. “We can ask for assistance from our relatives, but only once or twice. Otherwise, I’d lose my dignity. That’s why I came here.”

Ms. Jariyah, who was being held in a screening center after being arrested, said she had come to Jakarta on her own. She had started begging, she said, because a daughter was entering junior high school and her husband, a day laborer, earned only a couple of dollars a day if he was lucky enough to find work.

The city was trying to steer both the needy and their donors to organized charities, though the number of poor vastly overwhelmed the few national charities.

One of this country’s largest charities, Rumah Zakat, raised $7.1 million last year from individual and corporate donations, mostly in Jakarta. About 40 percent of the gifts came during Ramadan and during the festival of Id al-Adha, another important holiday, said Rachmat Ari Kusamanto, the organization’s chief executive.

Rumah Zakat finances educational and health programs, and lends money to help people start businesses.

“The concept of charity is to empower people, not to make them dependent,” Mr. Rachmat said. “By giving money directly to a person, we are not empowering that person.”

And yet things did not seem so clear-cut at the screening center where some of the beggars were being held along with others picked off Jakarta’s streets. A bus arrived regularly, dropping off people who were then placed in one of 15 categories at the center: beggars, of course, but also unlicensed hawkers and musicians, the mentally ill, prostitutes, transvestites and other fixtures of Jakarta’s streetscape.

According to a large board, 120 beggars were among the 500 people being held at the center. Seventy-five were women, and children made up many of the 45 males. They would stay at the center for up to 21 days, though most were held only a few days before being released or transferred to a rehabilitation center.

Most milled around a large, open courtyard where laundry hung on clotheslines and neighborhood women were selling fried plantains. But most of those caught for begging were inside a large room with carpets on which mothers and children usually lay.

None of the people randomly interviewed said they belonged to begging organizations. The women, many of them nursing infants, said they just needed extra money.

“I didn’t know that begging was illegal,” said Sumilah, 33, who said her husband had deserted her and their three children. “People like us haven’t gone to school.”

Suciardi, the social welfare official in charge of the center, walked around, joking with some of those being detained. A young girl, brought to the center for being a street musician, followed him around.

In his office, Mr. Suciardi said that allowing beggars to operate freely would lead to increased criminality and, eventually, political instability.

“If we allow them here,” he said, “Jakarta will become the center for Indonesia’s poor.”

A deaf and mute teenage boy — who had made the center his home after being picked up in a gutter a decade ago — came inside the office, clearly happy to see Mr. Suciardi. Smiling, he patted Mr. Suciardi’s shirt pockets. Eventually, Mr. Suciardi reached for his wallet inside his pants pocket and handed the boy a 20,000 rupiah bill, or $2.

“We don’t want to be mean to these people,” Mr. Suciardi said. “But national security and safety are at stake.”

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Indonesia Weapons Smuggled to Philippines - Vivanews

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VIVAnews - Philippines’ security officers held cargo boat ‘Capt Ufuk’ carrying 50 Pindad-made SS1-V1 weapons in Bataan on Thursday, August 20. Besides the weapons, there were also several military equipments found on the boat.

Spokesperson of Foreign Affairs Department, Teuku Faizasyah, said there was indeed a boat with a Panama flag on raided by the Philippino Navy. He also said they were investigating on whether or not the chests discovered on the boat were coming from Indonesia.

“Later we would ask the government of Philippines if there are any Pindad-made weapons being marketed. For your information, weapon sales in Philippines are legal,” Faisazyah said at the Foreign Affairs Department office in Pejambon, Jakarta on Friday, August 28.

The Department, he added, has received a clarification. “They said the weapons were being transported to Mali. Because there has been such confirmation, it is the related party (Pindad) who is now competent to explain,” Faizasyah said.

According to him, Philippines and Pindad have agreed to do weapon transactions. Does that mean the weapons found in Philippines are legal? “We haven’t received any explanation from Philippines,” Faizasyah answered.

Not only finding Pindad weapons and military equipments, Philippines’ officers also discovered 10 empty wooden chests. The contents of the chests were allegedly taken out before the raid.

“We are focusing on investigating the contents. They are suspected to be high explosive weapons which are feared to have been handed over to terrorists or any other criminals,” Bataan Head of Police, Insp. Manuel Gaerland as quoted by Manila Bulletin.

Meanwhile, customs intelligence, Dino Tuason suspected the weapons would be used by an international weapon seller syndicate to supply guns and ammunition to terrorists and criminals in Asia and Africa.

There is also another speculation. “The weapons may be used in the attack during the coming elections in Philippines,” Tuason said.

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New Man Behind Jakarta Attacks: Sidney Jones

Jum'at, 31 Juli 2009, 10:13 WIB

by Ita Lismawati F. Malau

(VIVAnews/Nurcholis Anhari Lubis)

VIVAnews - An expert on Islamic terrorist groups in Southeast Asia and an adviser to the International Crisis Group, Sidney Jones, said the name Ibrahim only appeared after the bombings in the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta.

Ibrohim was known as an employee of Cinthia Florist, whose service was used by the Ritz-Carlton, Jakarta. For the time being, he was still hunted down by the police as regards the Jakarta attacks which took place on July 17. Nine people were killed and many others were wounded during the incidents.

"Maruto is an old player. His name surfaced as of 2006 in the Wonosobo case (Central Java)," said Jones on Friday, July 31.

Maruto Jato Sulistiyono was alleged of involving in the terrorist link of the number one terrorist fugitive in Indonesia Noordin Mohammed Top.

During a police raid in Wonosobo in 2006, a member of Noordin's network, Jabir, was shot to dead.

According to Jones, the public should give the police time to filter the gathered names and then name them suspects.

She believes that people around Noordin want to be recognized as part of Al-Qaeda network.

Therefore, she said, the man behind the internet message which has attracted public attention recently concerning the JW Marriott and Rit-Carlton bombings does not have to be Noordin himself.

"Many individuals consider them part of the Al-Qaeda without having links to the center," she said.

--

Translated by: Bonardo Maulana Wahono

• VIVAnews

Indonesian Terrorists Find Refuge

By TOM WRIGHT

PALEMBANG, Indonesia -- The two Jakarta hotels hit by suicide bombers on July 17 reopened Wednesday amid tightened security as new evidence indicates terrorists avoided capture for years by relying on the shelter of sympathetic Islamists.

The twin bombings at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels killed six foreigners, an Indonesian waiter and the two suicide bombers. Police on Wednesday said they are taking seriously an online statement claiming responsibility for the bombings and bearing the name of the man suspected of planning the attack.

Terror Cell Busted

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European Pressphoto Agency

A police officer delivered brochures showing Noordin Mohammad Top to students in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia Wednesday. Indonesian authorities believe the Malaysian fugitive Noordin Mohammad Top was the mastermind behind the Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotel bombings in Jakarta on July 17.

The statement, which surfaced Wednesday and was posted Sunday on an Internet site that hosts blog posts, purports to be from "al Qaeda in Indonesia" and is signed with the name Noordin Mohamed Top. An Indonesian police spokesman said it was too early to tell whether the statement was authentic.

Many intelligence experts agree that terrorist networks in the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation are significantly weaker than a few years ago, before U.S.-trained Indonesian security forces ramped up efforts to wipe them out.

But the militants who have eluded capture are still able to rely on numerous havens -- often Islamic schools -- while they gather the fresh recruits and small amounts of money needed to mount more attacks on Indonesian soil.

Investigators have said they believe Mr. Noordin, a Malaysian believed to have carried out a number of terrorist attacks in Indonesia since 2003, orchestrated the bombings, and authorities have rounded up a number of his family members and associates in their bid to reel him in.

Mr. Noordin was formerly a key figure in Jemaah Islamiyah, the al Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian terrorist network whose members orchestrated bombings in Bali that killed more than 200 people in 2002.

After that, amid a major Indonesian police crackdown that netted hundreds of its members, the group's leadership renounced violence, leaving Mr. Noordin to forge links with smaller radical Islamic groups.

His new network's activities in and around Palembang, a sprawling city of 1.5 million people on the island of Sumatra, show how they operated.

The river port city is a melting pot of Malay, Indian and Chinese people, with a history as a pirate lair. Today, it's a dusty, traffic-clogged city known for its criminal gangs, and for the Masjid Agung, one of the nation's largest mosques, which fills up on Fridays when people from across the city come to pray.

In 2006, according to police documents, an emissary of Mr. Noordin known as Syaifuddin Zuhri, but who used the alias Sabit, arrived at a small Islamic school called al Furqon, about four hours' drive south of Palembang. His mission: To exhort a nonviolent study group of about 10 people concerned about Christian conversions of local Muslims to consider attacks on Western targets.

Mr. Sabit, who had fought in Afghanistan in the 1980s, knew the founder of the religious school, a Jemaah Islamiyah member and Afghan veteran called Ani Sugandi, and had helped him recruit hard-line teachers, according to police testimony viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Sugandi later told police he had refused requests to join in the violence, but sheltered Mr. Sabit and allowed him to give a sermon to the group.

In the sermon, Mr. Sabit claimed he had direct links to Osama bin Laden and urged the members to launch a jihad against America and its allies, according to the testimony of Abdurrahman Taib, a leading member of the study group. The following year, Mr. Sabit told Mr. Taib that he had been sent by Mr. Noordin, the police files show.

Mr. Sabit introduced Mr. Taib to a master bomb maker, who later trained others in the group, and supplied him with a loaded revolver and 11 spare bullets to be used in attacks on "infidels," Mr. Taib said in trial testimony.

Members of the group went on, in 2007, to shoot dead a Christian schoolteacher in Palembang who had persuaded his Muslim female students not to wear their veils. The members also built bombs and planned to attack tourist cafes in a Sumatran hill resort popular with backpackers, according to testimony. The group called off the attacks at the last minute because they didn't want to also kill Indonesian Muslims.

When the group was broken up last year, after police followed leads from arrested Jemaah Islamiyah members, Those arrested included Mr. Sugandi, the head of the religious school -- which is now shuttered -- and a 35-year-old Singaporean known as Fajar Taslim, who had helped radicalize the group and was wanted in Singapore for a foiled attempt to attack Western targets there in 2001.

Six suspects picked up had no previous known connection to Jemaah Islamiyah or any other violent group, suggesting Mr. Noordin's network was able to successfully radicalize people.

Eight members of the group confessed and were convicted of the teacher's murder and of planning attacks, and received prison sentences of between 10 and 18 years. Mr. Sugandi was given a five-year sentence for harboring terrorists, and his school shut down. Mr. Sabit wasn't captured.

In Indonesia, a secular nation of 240 million people with thousands of moderate Islamist academies, there are about 50 radical Islamic schools opened by alleged members of Jemaah Islamiyah.

Sidney Jones, an expert on Southeast Asian terrorist networks at the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, a peace-advocacy body, says the school heads -- who want to see the establishment of an Islamic state and are highly distrustful of Indonesia's secular government and police -- often allow known terrorists to stay with them as long as they promise not to engage in acts of violence while there.

"You can be at any one of these schools and link in to Noordin" or his associates, says Ms. Jones, who first outlined the story of the Palembang group in a report last May.

The Indonesian government has hesitated to close the schools because of the difficulty of proving direct links to terrorism and the sensitivity about government interference in religious education, said a senior Indonesian antiterrorism official

Heri Purwanto, a 25-year-old who was in the Palembang study group and made a living hawking prepaid cards for mobile phones, was guarding the group's bombs in a derelict house in the city when police arrested him. His mother, Purwati, who lives in a run-down wooden house at the end of a narrow maze of alleys in a poor part of the city, contends her son was never a radical Muslim and is at a loss to explain his involvement.

Ms. Purwati says she complained to guards at her son's Jakarta prison that he was sharing a cell with Mr. Taslim, the Singaporean, and could become further radicalized.

Some members of the study group, who police have been unable to prove were involved in the attacks, have remained free. A lawyer for one of them, Oloan Martua Harahap, who owned an Internet cafe used by the group for meetings but claims not to be have known of the plans for the shooting or planned bombings, says those arrested had became more radical through contact with Mr. Sabit and others. "They were saying jihad must be conducted now and the enemy is Capitalism," says Bahrul Ilmi Yakup, the lawyer. .

Mr. Sabit was arrested in June in Cilacap, a town in Central Java where police now say they believe the Jakarta attacks were planned.

Just a few days before the bombings, police raided an Islamic school in Cilacap run by a man who is the father-in-law of Mr. Noordin and a relative of Mr. Sabit, uncovering bomb making material. The material was similar to an unexploded bomb found later at the JW Marriott. Authorities have since detained a woman believed to be Mr. Noordin's wife. Her father, who ran the school, and Mr. Noordin remain on the run.

Write to Tom Wright at tom.wright@wsj.com

Radical Cleric Bashir Claims CIA Staged Jakarta Bombings

Candra Malik

Radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir. (Photo: Adek Berry, AFP)

Radical Cleric Bashir Claims CIA Staged Jakarta Bombings

Solo. Hard-line Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir on Wednesday blamed the US Central Intelligence Agency for Friday’s bomb attacks on two hotels in Jakarta.

“It’s the CIA, just like in the Bali bombings. The CIA directed the Mujahideen who wanted to take ‘jihad’ action,” said Bashir, who now leads the Jemaah Ashorut Tauhid, an umbrella group for Islamic groups advocating Shariah law.

Bashir left the Indonesian Mujahideen Council (MMI) he had founded and chaired for years after disagreements with other leaders of the group and founded the Anshorut Tauhid in September, 2008.

In his first public comments following Friday’s blasts at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta, Bashir said the CIA aimed to arouse hate against Islam, to get Islamic preachers arrested and Islamic study groups disbanded.

However, Bashir clarified, “I am not a bomb expert. I know nothing about it.”

The elderly cleric also reiterated that the Jemaah Islamiyah — a group that authorities said he had led and was an Al Qaeda-linked regional terror network responsible for bomb attacks in the past few years — did not exist.

“It’s wrong to say that Jemaah Islamiyah has been fragmented into two groups, the first being the original group and the second being the Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid. As far as I know, Jemaah Islamiyah is just an Islamic study group in Egypt,” he said.

Just like in the Bali bombings in 2002, Bashir was convinced that jihad networks in the country did not have the capability to make sophisticated bombs.

“Up till now, my opinion is that whoever believes that Mukhlas was the one who designed the Bali bomb is truly an idiot. The Bali bomb was a CIA design,” he said, referring to one of the three men convicted of masterminding the Bali bomb attacks and executed by firing squad.

He said the same thing applied to Friday’s attacks. “I think it’s not that easy to go in an out from the hotel carrying a bomb, even if it was brought in piece by piece. So, I have my own reason in saying that it must be the CIA’s plan to discredit Islam,” he said.

“The CIA, the US and Australia will not win. They actually fear us. Let’s see. Al Qaeda is just a small group but it terrifies them.”

However, Bashir also said that he did not condone the bombings. Citing the Koran, he said a war must be preceded by a formal declaration. “If they just exploded a bomb without any declaration of war, then it is not in accordance with ‘shariah’ or Islamic rule. That’s my opinion  . . . so they [the Mujahideen] could be wrong in their action,” he said.

He added that even in a war, civilians, especially women and children, must not be killed. “Even if they are kafir, they cannot be murdered. If they get involved, even in thought, they must be killed,” he said.

He added that the Al-Mukmin Islamic Boarding School that he cofounded in Ngruki, Central Java, was not a source of terrorists.

Two of the key Bali bombers were alumni of the school, as was the suicide bomber in the 2003 Marriot bomb attack.

Indonesian Police Say Jakarta Bombings Are Work of Jemaah Islamiyah

By Brian Padden Jakarta 19 July 2009

Indonesian Police say the bombings of two hotels in Jakarta on Friday was the work of Jemaah Islamiyah, a terrorist group with al-Qaida ties. Analysts say it is likely that Noordin Top, a Malaysian fugitive who leads an affiliated group within a Southeast Asian militant network, planned and organized the attacks. The two blasts killed nine people, including the two suspected attackers, and wounded 50, many of them foreigners.

Indonesian national police spokesman Nanan Soekarna says the bombing attacks on the Marriott and Ritz Carlton Hotels in Jakarta on Friday were the work of Jemaah Islamiyah. The group with ties to Al-Qaida, has carried out dozens of bombings in Indonesia in the past decade, including a 2002 attack in Bali that left more than 200 people dead, mostly foreign tourists.

A poster bearing image of Southeast Asia terror ringleaders Noordin M. Top, left, and Azhari bin Husin is put on a tree in Jakarta (File)

He told reporters Sunday an unexploded bomb left in a guest room of the Marriott hotel, which was attacked along with the nearby Ritz-Carlton, resembled explosives used in Bali and one discovered in a recent raid on an Islamic boarding school.

Sidney Jones, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, says Noordin Top, a Malaysian who leads the most militant faction of Jemaah Islamiyah, is the likely organizer of the attacks.

"Noordin is the only person of the various leaders of radical groups in Indonesia who is continued to be determined to attack western targets and particularly American targets," said Jones.

Jones says Noordin has used suicide bombers in the past like the ones used in Friday's attacks. And she says before the bombing police had some intelligence indicating Noordin may have been planning something.

"It was clear in the last two weeks that something was afoot. And the police were very actively searching this area in South Central Java called Cilacap because they believe some of Noordin's associates were active there," said Jones. "And we now know there is linkage between explosive materials used in these hotel bombings with some of the materials found in Cilacap by police."

But Jones says Noordin Top may have split from the main Jemaah Islamiyah organization, or JI, which had recently turned away from violence because it was turning public opinion against them.

"The bulk of JI members are not interested in violence now because they regard this kind of bombing as counter-productive," added Jones. "They need to rebuild their organization and they do that by recruiting new members through religious outreach. This kind of bombing does not bring you any new members, it creates outrage in the community."

Jones says bombing the Marriott Hotel, which was also attacked in 2003, was probably meant to demonstrate that their group is still active and able penetrate the increased security.

Bombing Suspects Spent Two Days at Hotel

By TOM WRIGHT

JAKARTA -- The suspects in the two deadly bombings here Friday checked into one of the targeted hotels two days earlier and assembled explosives in their room, evading the kind of tight security that has helped convince foreigners it is again safe to do business in Indonesia.

Suicide bombers at the JW Marriott and nearby Ritz-Carlton hotels killed eight people and injured 53, striking at the heart of corporate Indonesia.

The Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott are seen as symbols of the country's new economic strength and growing appeal to foreign investors. They have marble floors and gold-plated columns, and Indonesia's rich and famous dine at their restaurants and hammer out business deals in their lounges, adorned with spacious armchairs and grand pianos. Nearby are some of the city's most expensive restaurants, which often have Ferraris parked outside.

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Both hotels have security measures intended to prevent terrorists from driving a car full of explosives toward their lobbies, as Islamist radicals did at the JW Marriott in 2003, killing 12 people. Since Indonesia's last terrorist attack in Bali in 2005, new security measures and a major crackdown on Islamic terrorists by U.S.-trained Indonesian antiterrorism police made Westerners feel more secure.

On Friday, some of Jakarta's best-known Western and Indonesian business figures gathered for a regular 8 a.m. breakfast meeting at the Marriott hosted by Jim Castle, an American who runs CastleAsia, a prominent local consulting firm.

Mr. Castle, who has lived for almost 30 years in Indonesia and regularly appears on cable news shows, was at the Marriott during the 2003 blast. He wasn't injured then, and has expressed a cautious optimism about the country's prospects. Among topics for discussion at the conference: The success of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former army general who was re-elected a week earlier on a platform of restoring law and order.

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A Restive Region: Map

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Upstairs, in Room 1808, a number of guests had checked in Wednesday under aliases -- including one similar to the alias of Southeast Asia's most-wanted terrorist suspect. A police spokesman declined to say how many people had checked in or to give their nationalities.

Shortly before 8 a.m. Friday, security video footage showed, a man wearing a cap and pulling a bag on wheels crossed the lobby of the JW Marriott, walking toward the restaurant. A flash followed, and smoke filled the air.

A few minutes later a blast went off at the restaurant of the Ritz-Carlton. Cho Insang, a South Korean who runs a modeling agency and was organizing a fashion show in the hotel in August, was having breakfast when the bomb exploded. He was knocked to the floor, and was able to run out into the lobby. "The room was full of smoke and people panicking," he said. He suffered minor facial injuries.

The lobby areas of both hotels were left a mangled mess of steel and glass, full of damaged furniture and other debris. The sidewalks outside were caked with blood.

The blasts sent workers running into the street, many in their nightclothes or underwear. Local television showed images of mangled and bloodied bodies slumped on the floor. Plumes of smoke from the blasts shrouded the area as the injured were laid out on a nearby square of undeveloped land.

When the dust settled, two well-known expatriate business leaders attending the CastleAsia breakfast were dead: Timothy Mackay, a New Zealander who headed Swiss cement maker Holcim Ltd.'s local operations, and Nathan Verity, an Australian who ran his own Jakarta-based recruitment company.

Authorities didn't release the identities of all of the other six people killed, and it remained unclear whether the suicide bombers were among them

The injured who were at the breakfast included Noke Kiroyan, an Indonesian former chairman of miner Rio Tinto's local operations; Andy Cobham, an American who previously headed cellphone company Motorola Inc. in Indonesia; and David Potter, an executive at Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.

Mr. Castle's hearing was affected after the blast but he was in a stable condition, his assistant said.

Authorities later found a third, unexploded bomb in Room 1808. An Indonesian bomb squad detonated the device, the police spokesman said.

The attacks appeared to be the work of highly capable bomb makers, security experts said. The investigation is focusing on Islamist terrorists, primarily, Noordin Mohamed Top, who is considered an expert bomb maker from Jemaah Islamiyah, a local affiliate of al Qaeda.

In a televised address, a visibly angry Mr. Yudhoyono said the bombings were attempts to destabilize the country after the elections. "I'm confident just like when we have uncovered [terrorists] in the past, the perpetrators and those who moved this act of terrorism will be caught and brought to justice," Mr. Yudhoyono said, pausing for seconds at a time to control his emotions.

Write to Tom Wright at tom.wright@wsj.com

Indonesian President Calls Hotel Bombings Acts of Terror

By Brian Padden Jakarta 17 July 2009

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono says the two bombs that went off in the Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta, killing eight people and wounding at least 50 more, are acts of terrorism.

Rescuers evacuate the body of a victim of the bomb explosion outside J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, 17 Jul 2009

Police pushed back crowds as paramedics carried out the bodies of five people who died in the blast at the Marriott hotel in an upscale business district in south Jakarta. A second bomb exploded at the nearby Ritz-Carlton hotel.

Witnesses say they heard loud explosions and saw clouds of smoke and dust shortly before eight in the morning.

Iwan, a waiter who was working at a Ritz-Carlton restaurant where one bomb was reportedly detonated, survived unharmed. He says he does not know whether it was a bomb or not in the restaurant, but there was a powerful explosion.

Police say the bombs exploded inside the hotels. The perpetrators were somehow able to avoid extensive hotel security. Jakarta's police chief says several suspects were staying at the Marriott hotel, on the 18th floor where undetonated explosives were found.

The two hotels are connected by an underground tunnel but the president's spokesman, Dino Pati Djalal says it is too early to speculate on how the bombs were planted.

"The minister for security affairs has stated that this is something of, a bomb of a high explosive, that is how he described it," he said. "But exactly what kind, what type, and how was it exploded and what is the modus operandi, that all remains to be determined."

Although those responsible have not yet been identified, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called the bombings terrorism. He says no matter what nation or religion, terrorism cannot be justified, whatever the motive or reason.

This is the first terrorist attack in Indonesia in four years and the second time the Marriott Hotel was bombed. That last attack in 2003 was blamed on the Islamic terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, which also was responsible for attacks around the country that claimed more than 230 lives over the past nine years.

The president, who won re-election last week, also said security officials had received intelligence of plots to disrupt the election and prevent him from being inaugurated. He says there were plans to take over the election committee headquarters and statements that there will be a revolution if Yudhoyono wins.

He did not say what group made these threats.

A number of international business leaders who were meeting in the Marriott, including American James Castle, were injured in the blast. A New Zealand businessman was killed and an Australian trade official, Craig Senger, is missing and feared dead.

The British soccer club Manchester United, which was booked to stay at the Ritz Carlton starting Saturday, has canceled its visit to Jakarta.

Documents of the Day, No. 3, June 4

La'o Hamutuk Bulletin, Vol. 10, No. 1, June 2009
http://www.laohamutuk.org/Bulletin/2009/Jun/bulletinv10n1.htm

The Urban Transformation in Asia: Policy Implications of Decentralization
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/fileadmin/stored/pdfs/urbanasia001.pdf


Jakarta: The Absence of Nationalism in a Transnational City
http://www.scribd.com/doc/13728366/Indonesia-National-Identity?autodown=pdf
or
http://www.scribd.com/doc/13728366/Indonesia-National-Identity

The Internet and Religion in Singapore: A National Survey
http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/sci/SIRC/workingpapers/IR%20report%20-26%20Sept%202005.pdf

Chinese Religion in Malaysia: A General View
http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/afs/pdf/a449.pdf