Police: Militants Trained Near
Jakarta
Fri Jun 28, 8:14 AM ET
By LELY T. DJUHARI, Associated Press Writer
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -
Indonesian extremists and Malaysian militants linked by Kuala
Lumpur to the al-Qaida terrorist network ( news
- external
web site) briefly trained in a makeshift camp near Jakarta
last year, police said Thursday.
The group, which consisted of about a
dozen Indonesian and Malaysian citizens, trained for several weeks
in a remote village in Banten province, 100 kilometers (60 miles)
west of Jakarta, before police broke up the camp in June 2001,
said Lt. Col. Prasetyo, a spokesman for the national police.
"They were trained in how to
make bombs and in other military activities," Prasetyo said.
Prasetyo's comments were the first
confirmation from a senior police official that Islamic militants
have received training in Indonesia, the world's most populous
Muslim nation.
Singapore and Malaysia have
arrested dozens of suspects they claimed were al-Qaida linked
terrorists intent on carrying out attacks on Western interests in
Southeast Asia.
Singapore has accused Indonesia of
failing to crack down on militants. The government in Jakarta has
insisted there is no proof of an al-Qaida presence in Indonesia.
One of the Malaysians, identified
as an instructor named Syekh Saharani, belonged to Malaysian-based
Muslim extremist group Kumpulan Mujahiddin Malaysia, or KMM,
Prasetyo said. He was captured and later deported to Malaysia,
said Prasetyo, who like many Indonesians only uses one name.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad has said some KMM members detained in Malaysia have
admitted to being trained in Afghanistan ( news
- web
sites) by the Taliban militia and Osama bin Laden ( news
- web
sites)'s al-Qaida network.
Indonesia's top security minister,
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said authorities were looking out for
other similar training activities.
"The group has now been
disbanded," Yudhoyono said after a cabinet meeting. "But
(training) like this could reappear again."
Two other militants who trained in
the camp, Malaysian Taufik bin Abdullah Hakim and Indonesian Edi
Setyono, were sentenced to death after being found guilty of
bombing a shopping mall last year. The two are appealing the
verdict.
The rest of the militants are still
at large, Prasetyo said without elaborating.
Indonesian police believe Hakim
fought alongside Laskar Jihad, a local Islamic paramilitary group,
against Christians in Indonesia's eastern Maluku islands before
arriving in Jakarta.
In 2000, authorities failed to
prevent Laskar Jihad from training thousands of its fighters at a
camp on the southern outskirts of Jakarta before they left for the
Malukus.
The Malukus, known as the Spice
Islands during Dutch colonial rule, have been wracked by violence
between Muslims and Christians since 1999. Nearly 9,000 people
have been killed and thousands more left homeless.
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