President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono says terror suspects arrested in recent police raids are targeting their own people in their efforts to establish an Islamic state in Indonesia.
He said this explained the shift from targeting the Western presence in the country to domestic targets including Indonesians and the national government.
The President and other high-ranking officials, as well as a number of foreign dignitaries, were reportedly the intended targets of a terror attack planned against the State Palace during the country’s Independence Day celebrations on Aug. 17, the police unveiled last week.
“It is interesting to see how they’ve turned their targets from foreign ones to their own people, including the government,” Yudhoyono said Monday in a press conference at Halim Perdana Kusumah airport in Jakarta before his departure to Singapore for a three-day Singaporean-Malaysian visit.
“The results of investigations have revealed they want to use terrorism to establish an Islamic state.”
The President expressed his sorrow over the terror suspects’ intentions, saying that while Indonesia was not an Islamic state, the government always respected Islam and practiced Islamic values.
“If these groups want to change the Constitution and framework of our country, then of course we Indonesians can’t accept it. They also reject democracy, and this is contrary to what all Indonesians — except these groups — want,” he added.
The President said many of the arrested terror suspects and those in hiding had been involved in terrorism acts for the past 10 years, some had even been detained on previous terror-related charges.
“Besides facing those who have been involved in terror for the past 10 years, we’re also facing newly-recruited members,” he added.
The President called on parents to help the country defeat terrorism by guiding their children away from radicalism.
He also specifically requested regional administrations to stay alert for possible terrorist activity in their areas, citing how certain regions, such as Aceh, have been made chosen as training grounds by terrorists.
On Monday, the National Police said they learned of the plan to attack the President from the testimonies of arrested suspects and confiscated documents.
“We cannot reveal the document due to ongoing investigations,” said National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang.
He said forensics reported that seized guns, rifles and ammunition were mostly made outside the country. However, he said police also found that some of them were formerly of the National Police.
“The group got them from three former officers who were involved in the group,” he told reporters.
The recent raids revealed the involvement of some members of Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT), an organization founded in 2008 and led by hardline cleric Abu Bakar Ba’asyir.
Terrorism experts and police said they could not be sure whether the members were involved individually or as representatives of JAT.
In a statement, JAT wrote in April last year that democracy was not in line with Islam. The statement, signed by Ba’asyir, listed 13 points where democracy opposed Islam principally. Below, Ba’asyir recommended his followers sever themselves from democracy.
Ba’asyir has denied involvement with Jamaah Islamiyah.
Intelligence experts have said as long as Ba’asyir is allowed to proselytize, terrorist groups would continue to find new recruits. (rdf)
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