JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian government supports the arrest of an
Islamic militia chief who has been linked to the latest Soya
incident that killed at least 13 people in the outskirt of Ambon
capital of restive Maluku, Minister of Defense Matori Abdul Djalil
asserted on Monday.
Police said they have sufficient evidence that Jafar has been
provoking conflicts in Maluku for quite some time.
Matori said police had consulted ministers before arresting
Jafar Umar Thalib, the commander of the Java-based Laskar Jihad
paramilitary group, on Saturday, AFP reported.
"It is clear that before the police did it, there was
adequate consultation within the ranks of the cabinet on the
facts," Matori told media as quoted by the news agency.
"I am certain, as certain as one can be, that the police
did the right thing," he said.
Jafar has been charged with insulting the president and
vicepresident and inciting people, during a sermon in Ambon,
toattack a Christian village on April 28 in which 13 people
werekilled.
Police used a recording of the sermon during theirquestioning
of Jafar but the suspect has denied the voice on thetape was his.
"It is clear that he spoke in public, and whether it
wasrecorded or not, there were quite a lot of people who heard
him," Matori told reporters at the Palace.
In an extract of the April 26 speech played to AFP, the
man alleged to be Jafar is heard to say: "We must prepare our
bombs, ready our guns." Witnesses said he was imploring them
to fight "Christian separatists" in Maluku.
National police spokesman Brig. Gen. Saleh Saaf said police
were continuing to question Thalib on Monday but declined further
comment.
The attack on Soya village was the worst bloodshed since
Christians and Muslims signed a pact in February to end three
years of sectarian bloodshed in the eastern island chain. More
than 9,000 people have died in the conflict in Maluku and North
Maluku since early 1999.
Laskar Jihad has long been accused of fueling the fighting
since thousands of them descended on Maluku by the boatload from
May 2000 vowing to defend Muslims. It opposes the peace pact.
Jafar's arrest coincided with a fresh outbreak of sectarian
unrest in the Maluku provincial capital Ambon which left two dead
and 15 injured.
On Monday a police bomb squad defused a TNT-based bomb found
inside a junior high school in Ambon, the state Antaranews
agency reported.
