Indonesia cracks down on Islamist group

The controller of all of them was Hambali, said national detective chief Erwin Mappaseng, referring to a fugitive Indonesian who has been described as the link man between JI and al-Qaeda.

  

Mappaseng said the 10 were detained separately between 12-15 June.

 

“We have arrested 10 people who committed crimes with the intention of achieving the goal of Jemaah Islamiyah,” he told reporters.

Indonesia has come down heavily on Jemaah Islamiyah

 

He described them as members of a JI “wakalah” or cell in North Sumatra and said they were involved in the Christmas Eve bombings in the Sumatran cities of Medan and Pekanbaru.

 

The 24 December attacks, which were staged nationwide, killed 19 people.

  

The detective chief said eight of the group were involved in a robbery of a Bank Lippo branch in Pekanbaru on 6 May in which two security guards and a driver were shot dead and 113 million rupiah ($13,780) stolen.

  

The cash from this and the robbery of a moneychanger at Dumai in Sumatra was to seek “financial support to wage war.”

  

The group, most of whom are aged in their early 30s, is also accused of possessing arms and explosives. Six firearms and ammunition were seized.

 

“They received direct instructions from Hambali in 2000,” Mappaseng said.

 

“He was the one who planned the overall operations of JI.”  Hambali is on the run and police have said previously he may be in Pakistan.

 

“During the Christmas Eve bombings all 10 of them reported directly to Hambali. However they had no communication with Hambali for the robberies,” Mappaseng said.

  

He named a detainee called Hindrawarman, alias Togar, as the leader of the cell and said Togar reported to an Indonesian called Zoefri bin Yunus, alias Datuk Raja Ameh. Yunus was arrested on 9 May.

 

Thailand and Cambodia recently arrested dozens of people they claimed were memebers of JI, as have Singapore and Malaysia.

 

The group is accused of aiming to establish an Islamic state covering Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and the southern Philippines.