BALI AND INDONESIA'S JIHAD October 23, 2002 The attack on Bali on Oct 12, 2002 has left AT LEAST 190 people killed. (Some are now suggesting the toll could rise much higher, particularly as more Balinese are identified among the dead). The attack in Bali was an attack on Balinese; their economy and their religion (mainly Hindu). It was also an attack on the Indonesian government who have sought to minimise the influence of Islamic hardliners in the country. It was also an attack on Australians and westerners in general. On a terrorists checklist for success, the Bali terrorist attack was a strategic and significant hit. But, tragically it is only NOW, that the international outcry against terrorism within Indonesia is being heard. Tragically it is only NOW, that the Indonesian government appears to have the will to act firmly against terror within its borders. Tragically, over 10 000 lives have been lost in bomb attacks, sniper attacks, armed assaults and burnings of villages since January 1999 in East Indonesia. Amidst reports of the Laskar Jihad disbanding in recent weeks, the lives and families of those who have been shattered by the terror that Laskar Jihad have inflicted in East Indonesia must be wondering, where's the justice for them. For the last 3 years, media outlets and many governments around the world have dismissed Indonesia's issues as 'domestic'. There was a complete failing to see our international responsibility whilst all the time massacres were continuing to take place. What follows below is an article I wrote in December 2001. I tried unsuccessfully to have it published in the secular press. I am reproducing it again here in the hope that people can see that our responsibility to the victims and families of the Bali attack should be seen in the light of our responsibility to the victims and families of Maluku and Central Sulawesi. I trust that Bali's terror would prompt us to have a renewed concern for those indigenous Indonesians whose lives are still at very great risk. Who will care for them? Where will be the intelligence, forensic experts, Red Cross, Channel 7 phone ins, Kerry Stoke's private jet, new technology to treat burns victims...for THEM. I say this in no way to minimise the awful tragedy and horror for 95 dead or missing Australians, but simply to say, may it move us to have a wider concern to address the root causes which impact lives and communities daily in East Indonesia. Politicians and media are bending over backwards to say that the war on terrorism is not a war on Islam. And for us its not, we all understand that. HOWEVER, for those who are inflicting the terror it IS a war in the name of Islam. It is a war against the 'infidel'. And unless we perceive the underlying philosophy that is driving these horrors we will be ineffective in dealing with the problem. Finally, let us pray for the nation of Indonesia. 'Moderate' Islam is in danger of being swept into the radical tide, IF the propaganda from the radical end of town starts to take root and people perceive the United States and others as being 'anti-muslim'. This would have catastrophic effects for the nation and the region. Pray too, for the victims of persecution who after 3 years (!!!!) still sit in squalid, filthy, disease ridden refugee centres, and who, because the Indonesian government can't guarantee their security, STILL can't return to their homes and so face a very uncertain future. Finally(!) can I encourage you, if you haven't seen it already, to get a copy of the CRY INDONESIA video which is an account of what has been going on Indonesia for the last 3 and half years. It is of particular poignancy now given the events in Bali, and could be used to help other people understand the high risks that we all now face in this new world in which we live. You can order a copy on line at: http://www.dayspringdirect.com/prod415.htm Here's the article from December last year... JIHAD IN INDONESIA - getting the bigger picture 19/12/2001 You won’t find graphic footage on the nightly news, but the tragedy that continues to unfold in Maluku and Central Sulawesi, Indonesia has brought a higher toll in loss of life than the recent events in New York, Afganistan and the Middle East all put together! Scant reports in the media in recent weeks refer to ‘muslim-christian communal conflict’ in the Indonesian province of Sulawesi. Reference is sometimes made to the ongoing ‘sectarian violence’ in Maluku that has claimed at least 9000 lives since January 1999. It is suggested that these conflicts have their origins in ‘local issues’, and so there is no great cause for alarm. Subsequently, the events are under reported in the media and raise barely a whisper in political circles. But tragically we are misunderstanding the issues in Eastern Indonesia and are totally underestimating the rising wave of terror. Whilst, Indonesia has long been regarded as a moderate Islamic country, religious extremism has found many new supporters since 1998, when the downfall of President Suharto ended more than three decades of military dictatorship. Peaceful democratic rule since then has been under constant threat from splinter religious groups who have support among those who gain from economic and political instability. Along with other groups, we have been working to raise awareness of the issues affecting Maluku and Central Sulawesi, raised funds, and facilitated support teams to visit the region. In conducting numerous interviews and in following the events closely we can confidently assert that the ongoing violence impacting the region can be largely attributed to the activity of the militant Islamic force, Laskar Jihad (or ‘holy war warriors’). Led by Ja’far Umar Thalib, who fought alongside Osama Bin Laden against the Russians in Afghanistan, the 15 000 member Java-based Laskar Jihad, openly embraces ‘jihad’ as a military struggle as well as a ‘struggle within’. They see their campaign in Maluku and Central Sulawesi as one needed to defend the rights of Muslims in these regions. They resent the history and impact of Christian mission, accuse Christian populations of planning to secede from the Indonesian Republic and have mobilized thousands of Javanese (and even foreigners) to fight for their cause. Their stated goal is the Islamisation of the region governed by Islamic Shariah law. Refugees that I have interviewed describe their communities as peaceful and tolerant of religious differences prior to the arrival of the Laskar Jihad to Maluku. There was a ‘covenant of peace’ that obligated Christians and Muslims to assist one another in all things. Christians would help build the mosques and Muslims would help build the churches. Like any community there were tensions at times. The government policy of transmigration, in which people (mainly Muslim) were moved from overcrowded Java to less populated provinces added to this tension. Inevitably, the shifting ethnic and religious mix tested these principles of tolerance as competition for resources and political power began to emerge. Battles between Christian and Muslims have indeed occurred within this context and need to be taken into account. But whilst local issues have contributed to tensions in the region, these factors fall well short of explaining why the carnage has been inflicted on so wide a scale across these once ‘islands of paradise.’ The assault on Duma was one on a number of villages that illustrates the point. This rural village of 1500 was regarded as the birthplace of protestant Christianity in Halmahera, North Maluku. For that reason it came under special attention from the Laskar Jihad. On June 19, 2000, the heavily armed Jihad forces with support from the Indonesian military succeeded in invading this mainly Christian village. As their houses were being burned to the ground, the villagers gathered for protection in the local church. The men of the village sought to defend their wives and children from the inevitable. In the attack, 194 people were brutally massacred. Those unable to escape were kidnapped and forced to become Muslims. Nothing was left standing. Even the graves of the first Christian missionaries were dug up and their remains thrown into the lake. In the same week the Christian University in Ambon City was burned to the ground. Such actions can hardly be deemed, as the Laskar Jihad would have as believe, as a ‘defensive mission’. Attacks from October 2001 on the neighbouring region of Central Sulawesi further highlights the reality of the situation. No less than 21 villages have been destroyed by 7000 of the Laskar Jihad forces who announced they were shifting their military campaign to the Poso region. Armed with foreign supplied machine guns, rocket launchers, bombs and even bulldozers, these well organized militia gangs have totally outnumbered and outgunned the local police and military whose job it was to guard villagers from attack. Many have been killed and tens of thousands are now homeless with nowhere left to run. Laskar Jihad are reported to have threatened a 'Bloody Christmas' offensive. A commitment of 4500 Indonesian troops to the region last week has stemmed the violence for now, but lasting peace cannot be guaranteed until the Laskar Jihad are expelled from the region and their organization held accountable for what they have done. Both Muslim and Christian leaders have called for the expulsion of the foreign militia. There have been a number of claims linking Laskar Jihad to Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network. Islamic extremist groups within Indonesia have admitted that Bin Laden has helped to fund the Jihad in Maluku, Afghan and Pakistani nationals are reported to have trained Laskar Jihad members who proudly display posters of Bin Laden along roadside checkpoints, and last week the head of the Indonesian National Intelligence told President Megawati that Bin Laden had training camps operating within Central Sulawesi. Yet despite all this, Laskar Jihad maintains that it does not have links with al-Qaeda and that it is not a terrorist group. Of one fact we can be confident: both al-Qaeda and Laskar Jihad are motivated by an extremist ideology that justifies terror and violence against innocent people. The impact of this ideology is far reaching. In the Sudan a staggering two million Christians have been killed in recent years! We are not talking about ‘tit for tat’ battles between Muslims and Christians. We are not talking about ‘warring parties’. We are talking about an extremist ideology that if left unidentified and unchecked will be of catastrophic consequence for millions of innocent people. Consider this SOS from an aid worker in Central Sulawesi that I received yesterday morning concerning the plight of Laskar Jihad’s victims, many of whom have retreated into makeshift camps in the jungles behind their village, “Their condition is really poor, the food availability is very weak, their land and all assets is destroyed. Many of them still inside the forest, in hunger, poor health, and got lost (because they never live inside the forest before, so they weren't knew the area)…If we look at the condition of the IDPs [internally displaced persons], we saw the very sad face. They only can sit in lonely and quite when they received their ration. All of them are trauma to the violence they got. They told us many stories of violence, which they look by their own eyes.” Whilst extremist groups within Indonesia are proportionally small their rise and influence in recent years has been dramatic. To underestimate their ideology, their links with worldwide terror and their strategy of religious genocide is to turn our backs on their victims. In reducing these massacres to 'communal conflict' we absolve ourselves of having to do anything about it.