No shortage of Hambali successors
Posted on Monday, August 18 @ 14:29:17 BST By She Taliban

By Jane Macartney, Asian Diplomatic Correspondent SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The arrest of a stocky Indonesian Muslim cleric in a single-room apartment in an ancient Thai capital prompted elation from the leader of the world's only superpower. But the satisfaction voiced by U.S. President George W. Bush does not mean his CIA agents who tracked down the operational mastermind of Southeast Asia's link to al Qaeda can now relax. There is no shortage of eager and well-qualified replacements for the man who was the top link between Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda and Southeast Asia's shadowy Jemaah Islamiah network, say counter-terrorism experts. Asia's most-wanted man had been hunted in connection not only with last October's Bali bombings that killed 202 people, mostly foreign holidaymakers, but also as the brains behind dozens of other attacks throughout Indonesia over many years. "The problem is that there are a lot of successors," said Sidney Jones, Indonesia director for the International Crisis Group (ICG) and an expert on JI.

NO COMPLACENCY "It's best not to be complacent that with the Hambali arrest everything is wrapped up," she said. Topping her list was Zulkarnaen, whose real name is Aris Sumarsono. The radical from Indonesia's main island of Java is part of JI's central command structure and is in charge of military affairs. He has an impressive background in militant activism. He studied with suspected JI leader Abu Bakar Bashir in his Ngruki school near Solo in Java in 1979. In 1985, Zulkarnaen travelled to Afghanistan to take part in the holy war against Soviet occupation and became an instructor in charge of recruits from Southeast Asia at one of the many training camps that sprang up in that rugged land. Like Hambali, and most of those in the top echelons of JI, he is equipped with rich experience from those years in Afghanistan, says Jones. "He is a key figure because he has a combination of real in-depth expertise, a strategic sense, involvement in JI from the very beginning and wide international contacts," she said. Australian counter-terrorism expert David Wright-Neville echoed Jones's cautious approach. "While there has been a really intensive operation, there is a risk of being overly ebullient about this," said Wright-Neville, former terrorism adviser to Australia's Office of National Assessments, the equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency. He was referring to the capture of Hambali. "I think it's a blow to JI, but we can't rest on our laurels," said Wright-Neville, now at the Monash Global Terrorism Research Unit in Melbourne, Australia. "Those poised to take over will reconsolidate fairly quickly."

WAITING IN THE WINGS Another senior JI operative waiting in the wings is Mustaqim, head of JI training at a camp in Mindanao in the southern Philippines until it was closed down. He, like Zulkarnaen, is believed to be in Indonesia. He, too, is an Afghan veteran. And then there is Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, 32, another Indonesian, a self-confessed Muslim militant and a top bomb-maker. Al-Ghozi escaped on July 14 from a maximum-security detention centre in Manila where he was serving a 12-year jail term for illegal possession of explosives and falsifying travel documents. While these radicals have ties to JI, and possibly even to al Qaeda, others exist who may have only the haziest of links to known groups and whose very anonymity makes them even harder to track down. "JI has spawned a number of offshoots, people who have JI training and have acquired skills," said Jones. "They have shared jihadist goals but do not operate under JI." Another name that surfaces is that of Zulkifli bin Abdul Hir. Zulkifli is not only the suspected leader of the radical Malaysian KMM group that is linked to JI, but is an associate of al-Ghozi and elder brother of Malaysian Taufik Abdul Halim -- convicted for a JI-linked bomb blast at the Atrium Mall in Jakarta on August 1, 2001. With so many potential leaders known to be at large, and possibly many more active veterans whose names are shrouded in secrecy, the threat is high of attacks in the region. "They still have the capacity to launch attacks and I suspect they will at some point want to send a message," said Wright-Neville. "This is critical to all terrorist organisations," he said. "They have to maintain a facade of invincibility. That's where their dissident appeal rests." Thus leaders attending the October summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Bangkok, such as Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin, present an attractive target. Reuters

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Terbitan : 22 Ogos 2003

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