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Jakarta Post

Why are they targeted?

Comr

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Thu, March 17, 2011

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Why are they targeted?

C

strong>Comr. Gen. Gories Mere

With credentials as the nation’s counterterrorism czar and a Catholic activist, Gories is an obvious target of attacks for terrorist groups.

While Gories currently serves as chief of the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), analysts agree that the position camouflages his real work: Coordinating all of the National Police’s counterterrorism activities.

Born in East Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, on Nov. 17, 1954, Gories established a new breed of police counterterrorism experts under the aegis of the prestigious, off-the-radar “Satgas Antiterror”, or Antiterrorism Working Group.

Gories’ prodigies also hold most of the key posts at the newly established National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT).

On the front lines of the nation’s terrorist fight since 1999, Gories, who has a reputation as a
low-key leader, has become more prominent since former National Police chief Gen. Sutanto took office in 2005.

While Gories’ official position in the National Police hierarchy has no direct connection to counterterrorism, he has played a crucial role behind the apprehension and the killing of several terrorist leaders.

Gories was thought to have played a behind-the-scenes role in the shooting of Indonesia’s most wanted terrorists, Malaysians Azahari Husin and Noordin M. Top.

Azahari was shot and killed in Malang, East Java, in 2005 while Noordin was killed in Surakarta, Central Java, in 2009.

Another terrorist mastermind, Dulmatin, was shot dead in a raid in South Tangerang in 2010.

Due to Gories role in leading the nation’s counterterrorism efforts, followers of Abubakar Ba’asyir — currently on trial for allegedly masterminding a terrorist training camp in Aceh — have repeatedly called for Gories’ assassination.

In a recent trial session attended by dozens of the notorious firebrand cleric’s followers, posters condemning Gories and his officers were brought into the South Jakarta District Court.

However, Gories opponents may not be limited to terrorist groups.

Several TNI generals were said to have tenuous relationships with Gories for several reasons.

A serving three-star Indonesian Army general was said to have been annoyed by Gories after the police accused the general of harboring terrorists several years ago.

The latest incident involved a unit of counterterrorism operatives that entered an Indonesian Air Force base in Medan, North Sumatra, without authorization during an operation in 2010.

While the incident did not ignite a shoot-out, several top Air Force commanders logged complaints with the National Police.

 


Yapto Soelistyo Soerjosomarno

An Indonesian man of Jewish descent called “Si Bule” (the blonde) who is also a fervent opponent of any form of religious radicalism presents another attractive target for hard-line extremists.

Yapto, the son of an Army general and Dutch Jewish woman, is the chief patron of the Pancasila Youth organization, whose members have allegedly been involved in underground protection rackets for three decades.

Born on Dec. 16, 1949 in Surakarta, Central Java, Yapto made a name for himself in the mid-1960s as the leader of the “Anak Siliwangi 234” group, whose members were mostly children of mid- and high-ranking officers living in an Indonesian Army housing complex on Jl. Siliwangi in Central Jakarta.

Yapto, a natural leader and a scrappy fighter became one of the city’s most prominent gang leaders in the 1970s before he was elected to run the Pancasila Youth in 1981.

The father of three was set to lead the organization until 2014 after he was re-elected in 2009.

However, he said he plans to quit in 2011.

The Pancasila Youth, established in October 1959 by legendary military hero Gen. Abdul Haris Nasution, was initially formed to confront the rise of the Indonesian Communist party.

However, since 1978 the organization devolved into muscle for the Soeharto regime and eventually into organizers for the Golkar Party, which used its members to mobilize youth during elections.

After the end of Soeharto’s rule in 1998, Pancasila Youth lost its political and security clout.

Yorrys Raweyai, one of the group’s most influential figures and financiers, fell out with Yapto over a decision to set up a political wing for the Pancasila Youth, the Patriot Party.

Yorrys went to Golkar and eventually became a legislator for the party.

The Patriot Party failed meet the threshold for parliamentary representation in both the 2004 and 2009 general elections.

With funding, most notably from Yorrys, drying up, most of the group’s members now moonlight for other mass organizations, including the Betawi Brotherhood Forum (FPR), the Islam Defenders’ Front (FPI) and Laskar Jayakarta.

Sources said Yapto was currently preparing his youngest son, Jedidiah Shenazar, to succeed him at the Pancasila Youth, which currently has around 100,000 members in Greater Jakarta alone.

Yapto was recently hired by Soeharto’s eldest daughter, Siti Hadijanti “Tutut” Rukmana, to help her out in a rift with media tycoon Harry Tanoesidbyo over ownership of a TPI television station.

 


Ulil Abshar Abdalla

Ulil’s outspoken advocacy of moderate Islam has drawn criticism from not only mainstream Muslims but also from radical groups that accused him of twisting the Koran for his own benefit.

He has been on a radical group’s death list since 2001 after Kompas newspaper published articles where he questioned the role of the Prophet Muhammad as God’s messenger.

The Islamic Ulema Forum (FUUI), a hard-line group, repeated calls to assassinate Ulil in 2005, saying it would be halal to kill him for writing articles that lambasted those who wanted to form an Islamic state.

Born in Pati, Central Java , on
Jan. 11, 1967, to a family of conservative Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Muslims, Ulil became a national icon for moderation for his work with the Islamic Liberal Network (JIL).

Ulil helped found the network in 2001 as a loose alliance of intellectual Muslims who wanted to stimulate debate on Islamic topics.

JIL made its debut on the Internet as a mailing list whose first topic discussed whether a secular state was acceptable under Islam.

The network launched a radio talk show in cooperation with radio station 68H in Utan Kayu, East Jakarta, which currently airs on dozens of stations throughout Indonesia.

Ulil whose Twitter account, @Ulil, boasts more than 50,000 followers, was educated until the age of 19 at an Islamic boarding school run by his father and grandfather.

He received a bachelor’s degree in sharia law from the Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies in Jakarta before completing a graduate degree in religious studies at Boston University.

In between his time in academia, Ulil served as a director of the Freedom Institute, primarily funded by the influential Bakrie family.

Ulil is also an executive director for the Institute for the Study of Free Flow of Information (ISAI), an NGO advocating freedom of expression and free press in Indonesia .

Despite his critical thinking, Ulil remains a member of NU and was previously nominated to serve as one of its chairmen.

He was also involved in establishing the Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace (ICRP), a national chapter of the World Conference on Religion and Peace (WCRP) based in New York, and eventually became ICRP’s executive director.

Last year, Ulil joined President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party, serving as the party’s chairman for the center of strategic policy and development.

Ulil is currently a doctoral student at Harvard University’s Islamic studies program. JIL co-founder Luthfi Assyaukanie called the letter bomb sent to Ulil a threat to the country’s pluralism. “It’s not solely a threat to JIL... it is indeed a threat to our pluralistic society,” he said.

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