http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/09/20099185178577467.html
Friday, September 18, 2009
23:02 Mecca time, 20:02 GMT
Indonesia: Terrorist threat remains
Indonesia police say Noordin was killed in a raid on a Java house
on Thursday [AFP]
Indonesia's president has said that despite the killing one of Southeast Asia's
most wanted men, others are still plotting attacks.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono praised his counterterrorism forces for Thursday's
killing of Noordin Mohammed Top, the suspected mastermind of suicide attacks on
two luxury hotels in the Indonesian capital in July.
With Noordin's death, he said, "I believe that we could reduce the seriousness
of terrorist threat to Indonesia".
Yudhoyono made the comments just hours after Noordin was killed in a raid on a
house in Java.
He said "it doesn't mean that the cells and organisations that work and move in
Indonesia and in Southeast Asia have been crippled".
'Terrorism temptation'
Yudhoyono said that in the future "we have to save our country, our people, our
community and our young generation from the temptation to involve themselves in
terrorism and save everything from terrorism".
Kevin Rudd, the Australian prime minister, congratulated Indonesian security
forces for their "success" but echoed Yudhoyono's warning.
In depth
Profile
Who is Noordin Mohammed Top?
Timeline
Indonesia bombings
Focus
Indonesia's war on Jemaah Islamiyah
Video
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Jakarta blast caught on tape
Indonesia's young people under threat
"It doesn't leave us in a position where we can feel complacent about the
future. Jemaah Islamiyah is still alive and well. Al-Qaeda is still alive and
well," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Friday.
Yudhoyono said nations across the world needed to address injustice to
eliminate acts of terror.
"There is a perception, a feeling; that the world looks unfair, that the rich
are getting richer and the poor are getting poor ... the wars in the Middle
East, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and many other global problems are seen
as a result of global injustice," the Jakarta Post quoted him as saying.
Pointing to poverty and underdevelopment along with radical and extremist
beliefs as root issues, Yudhoyono said "the solution is we have to build a
just, peaceful and prosperous world".
John Harrison, an expert on terrorism at the Institute of Defence and Strategic
Studies in Singapore, told Al Jazeera that it may not be so easy to replace
Noordin because "there are very few individuals that combine the charisma, the
organisational abilities plus the connections that he had".
But he cautioned that Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the group Noordin was linked to,
is "always able to replace individuals".
'Strategic discussion'
Harrison explained that JI had been relatively quiet in the past few years
partly because of reduced capacity due to many members being killed or
arrested, and because it was "in a strategic discussion to determine whether or
not they can use violence and . how to do it without killing large numbers of
Indonesians".
In video
But he cautioned that "JI should not be underestimated - they are a militant
group that wants to use violence.
"Until the ideology that is fusing and infusing this movement is addressed more
comprehensively, they will be able to replace their losses that will happen
from time to time.
"Many young males ... have been very angry, they've been frustrated, there have
been a whole series of reasons that they have decided to be attracted to and
perhaps engage in violent activity.
"And until the political aspects of that, that bring together these frustrated
individuals, give them a reason for committing violence, and a justification
for that, is addressed, we will continue to face these waves of violence and
sometimes very extreme violence for years to come.
"There needs to be a much more comprehensive strategy for addressing those
types of issues."
Matching fingerprints
Indonesia's national police chief said fingerprints taken from one of four
bodies removed from the house following the raid matched those of Noordin's.
The bodies were flown to Jakarta for autopsies and DNA tests.
Police said fingerprints taken from one of the bodies on Thursday matched
Noordin's [EPA]
Counterterrorism troops sealed off the area near the house in a suburb of Solo
city late on Wednesday, searching for suspects involved in the July 17 attacks
on the Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott hotels in Jakarta which left nine people
dead and 53 wounded.
Documents and laptop computers indicating that Noordin was al-Qaeda's leader in
Southeast Asia and hundreds of kilograms of explosives, M-16 assault rifles,
grenades and bombs were recovered from the house, police said.
Noordin is believed to have headed a splinter group with connections to Jemaah
Islamiyah, a group fighting for an Islamic state in Southeast Asia.
In a 2005 video, he claimed to be al-Qaeda's representative in Southeast Asia
and to be carrying out attacks on Western civilians to avenge Muslim deaths in
Afghanistan.
He was also wanted in connection with the Bali bombings in 2002, which killed
more than 200 people, and a number of other deadly attacks.
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