Police in W. Java hunt president of 'subversive' Islamic group

Yuli Tri Suwarni ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Bandung   |  Sat, 05/17/2008 11:15 AM  |  The Archipelago

West Java Police are pursuing the president of Indonesian Islamic State (NII), who is suspected of masterminding burglaries and robberies to finance its allegedly subversive activities.

Provincial police chief Sr. Comr. Dade Achmad said the current attempt of the NII to expand its network nationally might be motivated by money as well as ideology.

"But we have difficulties in identifying who he or she really is due to a wall of silence by its members," said Dade, referring to the 17 NII officials recently arrested by police.

Speaking to The Jakarta Post in Bandung on Friday, Dade said the 17 did not know much about the NII organizational structure.

"Most of them believe they are practicing Islamic sharia in an attempt to establish an Islamic state," said Dade, adding they did not realize they were simply used by the group as cash cows.

The police, said Dade, are also checking possible connections between the NII and the Holy Koran Movement which was previously linked to the disappearance of young girls in Bandung in 2007.

A 16-year-old girl who was arrested by police, said that she first joined the Holy Koran Movement before being introduced to the NII.

The 17 arrested NII officials included persons given positions as the group's southern West Java vice governor, regent, secretary to the regent, two further aides to the regent, seven presidential staff, and two recruitment officers.

They were arrested on April 20 in three different places -- Riung Bandung (Bandung City), Cililin (Bandung regency), and Cihanjuang (Cimahi) and have now been declared subversion suspects.

Dade said the recruitment of NII members was done mostly via preaching targeting companies, factories, and campuses.

All new recruits are required to undergo "sin cleansing" rituals and pledge to help establish an Islamic state. Later they become victims of extortion and are obliged to pay monthly contributions to the group's imam or highest leader.

A former NII member, Yadi (not his real name), said that as a head of a village according to the group's area structure, he was obliged to pay a monthly contribution of Rp 17 million that he had to collect from 46 members under his supervision.

To collect the funds, he ordered his members to beg for money in Leuwipanjang bus station by using envelopes with fake stamps of social or religious foundations and mass organizations.

"I was initially interested in joining the movement because it claimed to uphold Islamic sharia. I realized later that this was a lie, and what I did was to enrich the imam," Yadi said.

He also said a member who failed to collect money was forced to undergo the so-called iqab punishment, in which the person was held in a room for several days to think out why he/she failed to collect the money.

"A member's resignation was regarded as betrayal of the state and deserving of a death sentence under the Islamic state's law," he said.

Yadi said according to the NII's internal rulings, all members were compelled to contribute a percentage of their wealth and monthly income and allowed to commit burglaries and robberies to pay to the state.

Yadi decided to leave the group together with all the members in his village after learning that the funds they collected were used by the imam and his family to pay for their luxurious lifestyle.

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