Indonesia Bombing Seen as Opening New Front in Fight on Terror

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, October 14, 2002

Indonesia Bombing Seen as Opening New Front in Fight on Terror

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The blast that killed nearly 200 people on the Indonesian resort island of Bali this weekend is a different type of terrorism from what the Bush administration has campaigned against, and will open a new geographic front in that campaign, Western officials said Sunday.

The target was not an American embassy, military outpost or financial institution that would represent American power, of the sort that terrorists have attacked in the past. Rather, it was a nightclub whose revelers were mostly Europeans and Australians; indeed, Indonesians were often turned away at the door.

US President Bush called the attack "heinous," and Prime Minister John Howard of Australia said it was "an act of barbarity."

The State Department ordered all dependents of American diplomats in Indonesia to leave the country, along with all nonessential personnel, a department official said last night.

The attack puts intense pressure on the Indonesian government to face the terrorist threat at home more seriously, Western officials said.

For months, American and Singaporean officials have been saying Al Qaeda cells were hiding in Indonesia, a Muslim nation with porous borders and weak law enforcement. The attack confirms those warnings, which the Indonesian government has until now ignored, Western officials said.

Prime Minister Howard of Australia said, "We would like to see a maximum effort on the part of the Indonesian government to deal with the terrorist problem within their own borders." He added, "It's been a problem for a long time."

The attack killed mostly foreigners, and an early tally of the dead who have been identified included at least 15 Australians, 3 Singaporeans, 2 Britons, several others from elsewhere in Europe and one Ecuadorean. Two Americans were reported to be among the dead, and three Americans were wounded.

The outpouring of condemnation of the attack and sympathy for the victims echoes that which followed the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon 13 months ago.

"This will be the event that changes Indonesia's perception of terrorism like 9/11 did ours," a senior Bush administration official said.

With cold calculation and meticulous planning, including reconnaissance, the bombers chose an unusual target, one that was certain to sow fear far beyond Bali, said a Western security analyst in Jakarta.

It was on a faraway island, primarily populated by Hindus, with a reputation for tranquillity, and popular as a resort with backpackers and the wealthy alike.

It was one of the deadliest attacks on civilians anywhere in the world in the last decade, one that seemed intended to undercut feelings of safety even in a remote enclave.

The response will be a renewed determination against international terrorism, several world leaders made clear yesterday. The search for Al Qaeda operatives so far has been focused in Pakistan, and to a lesser degree in Yemen, with the cooperation of those governments.

"There is a definite terrorist link here," Senator Richard C. Shelby, senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said yesterday. He was briefed Sunday morning by the F.B.I. and the C.I.A.

Speaking on the ABC News program "This Week," Mr. Shelby said: "We don't know all the facts. Is it directly Al Qaeda? Is it an affiliated group?"

"I believe that this is the beginning of a lot more that we're going to see," he added.

In Indonesia, the United States Embassy was bracing for more attacks, and other governments were responding similarly, the Western security analyst said.

Although lacking any immediate evidence, American and Australian officials concluded that based on earlier intelligence gathering and the nature of the blast, the bombing was probably the work of Jemaah Islamiyah, a regional fundamentalist Islamic organization based in Indonesia and headed by Abu Bakar Bashir. Many of the group's members have trained at Al Qaeda camps in Indonesia, they said.

"As far as I'm concerned this is Jemaah Islamiyah, in some form," said the security analyst, who has worked in Indonesia for many years.

"A lot of planning went into this, into the preparations and execution," he said. "This is not the work of some weirdo radical group."

"This bomb was beyond the expertise of Indonesian terrorists working alone," he said. The blast compared in magnitude to the attack on two American Embassies in Africa in 1998, he said.

Singaporean intelligence officials said in a recent interview that there were not many explosives experts who knew how to make and detonate bombs capable of destroying large buildings, and that Jemaah Islamiyah had at least two experts who had been trained at Al Qaeda camps.

Australia's foreign minister, Alexander Downer, said Australia had been worried about an attack on Australians in Indonesia since Jemaah Islamiyah plotted to blow up the Australian Embassy in Singapore in December. That plot that was foiled when the Singaporean authorities rounded up a score of suspected members of the group.

He added that Jemaah Islamiyah had "financial as well as personnel links to Al Qaeda."

When Australian troops were in East Timor, which is predominately Christian, in support of that country's transition to independence from Indonesia, Osama bin Laden, the Qaeda leader, publicly accused Australia of being on a crusade to break up Muslim Indonesia.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw of Britain said there was "no question this is a terrorist outrage." The British government advised its citizens to stay away from Bali and offered assistance to the Indonesian president, Megawati Sukarnoputri.

In an open letter to her, the French president, Jacques Chirac, offered to provide "all possible assistance to identify the perpetrators of these ignoble deeds and their commanders, and to bring them before justice."

The pressure will now be on Mrs. Megawati to cooperate with other governments and to crack down on the Islamist fundamentalists at home, to arrest Mr. Bashir and to mount a serious search for Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, who Singaporean intelligence says is the operational head of Jemaah Islamiyah.

Mr. Hambali has pledged personal fealty to Mr. bin Laden, a senior Singaporean intelligence official said in a recent interview. After the suspected Jemaah Islamiyah members were arrested in Singapore in December, Mr. Hambali "was so angry that he vowed revenge," the official said.

Mr. Hambali, an Indonesian national who lived and operated in Malaysia alongside Mr. Bashir, has not been seen since December. Singaporean officials believe that he has been hiding in Indonesia, a view shared by American officials, though with somewhat less certitude.

The attack will strengthen those in Mrs. Megawati's government who want to take a stronger stand on terrorism and against Mr. Bashir, Western officials said. But she will still have to face her vice president, Hamzah Haz, and his allies who have been open admirers of Mr. Bashir.

Source: agencies

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