DATE=05/10/2002

TYPE=EDITORIAL

NUMBER=0-09875

TITLE=EDITORIAL: JEMAAH ISLAMIAH LEADER WANTED

INTERNET=Yes

CONTENT=THIS EDITORIAL IS BEING RELEASED FOR USE BY ALL SERVICES.

Anncr: Next, an editorial reflecting the views of the United States Government:

Voice: On Christmas Eve, 2000, twenty bombs blasted Christian churches in Jakarta and eight other Indonesian cities. Dozens of other churches narrowly missed destruction because the bombs were defused or failed to explode. Eighteen people were killed and fifty others wounded. The man most responsible for these savage attacks is Riduan Isamuddin, known as Hambali.

Authorities in Malaysia and Singapore say Hambali was the operations head of Jemaah Islamiah, a radical Muslim terrorist group with links to al-Qaida. Last year, a videotape made by Mohammed Khalim bin Jaffar, a subordinate of Hambali, was discovered in the ruins of the Afghanistan home of Mohammed Atef, a top lieutenant of Osama bin Laden. Atef is believed to have been killed by a U.S. airstrike. According to Singapore authorities, Hambali arranged for Jaffar to take the tape to Atef. It was a surveillance tape outlining a plot to murder U.S. sailors at a train station in Singapore. Jaffar was arrested by authorities in Singapore. Singapore's Home Affairs Minister, Wong Kan Seng, said the tape "shows a very direct link between the Jemaah Islamiah group detained here and al-Qaida leaders in Afghanistan." In December, Singapore police arrested several suspected Jemaah Islamia members in connection with a plot to blow up American naval vessels and Western embassies.

Philippines authorities have linked Hambali to a series of deadly bombings in Manila in December 2000. Twenty-two people were killed and more than one-hundred were wounded in those attacks. Last month, a Philippines court sentenced Rohman Al-Ghozi, an Indonesian citizen and a member of Jemaah Islamia, to twelve years in prison for his part in the bombings. A check of Al-Ghozi's cell-phone records reportedly showed that he called Hambali immediately before and after the bombings. He later told Philippines authorities that Hambali had funded the attacks.

Among other terrorists recruited by Hambali is Iqbal Uzzaman, arrested by Indonesian police in December 2000 when a bomb he was carrying in West Java exploded prematurely. Dedi Setiono, arrested last year, told Indonesian authorities that Hambali encouraged him to murder Christians as a so-called "Muslim duty."

As U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said, "We are really worried that places that have sectarian violence can become the breeding ground [for terrorism]. Indonesia is an open, very hospitable country, and it is a Muslim country. It is one we fear that al-Qaida could operate in relatively freely." That is why Hambal and his terrorist associates must be brought to justice.

Anncr: That was an editorial reflecting the views of the United States Government. If you have a comment, please write to Editorials, V-O-A, Washington, D-C, 20237, U-S-A. You may also comment at www-dot-ibb-dot-gov-slash-editorials, or fax us at (202) 619-1043.