Date:17/08/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/08/17/stories/2003081701411200.htm

International

Jakarta wants 'quick access' to Hambali

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE Aug. 16. Indonesia is eager to gain "a quick access'' to Hambali, suspected terror master-mind now in U.S.' custody at an unspecified location following his capture in Thailand a few days ago.

The Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said in Jakarta today that the Government would "take necessary steps to gain access to and question Hambali''. Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, is a national of Indonesia by birth, and Jakarta's move to interrogate him is related to his suspected complicity, as planner and executioner, in the Bali terrorist carnage last year as also the recent bombing of a luxury hotel in Jakarta besides several other incidents which were originally viewed as manifestations of communal violence.

The U.S.' claim to have precedence over all other countries in the matter of Hambali's interrogation is traced to the suspicion that he was a key player in the serial terrorist strikes on American targets on September 11, 2001. Moreover, the proactive role played by the U.S. secret services in effecting his capture, albeit in some coordination with the Thai authorities, has automatically given Washington a clear advantage over all other countries with a claim to investigate him.

Indonesia is smarting under a sense of alienation over the manner in which Hambali's capture and the follow-up actions have been carried out by the U.S. with the help of Thailand, according to some diplomats and analysts in the Asia Pacific region. Not surprisingly, but without openly expressing dismay over the U.S.' action of playing the global super-cop, Jakarta underlined their own "claim of jurisdiction'' over Hambali.

The overall context of Jakarta's plea is that Hambali, the only person of non-Arab stock suspected to be a chief functionary of the Al-Qaeda, is also known to be the alleged operations-chief of the regional Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). In Indonesia, the role of Thailand, a fellow-member of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), has also come under the spotlight, given that Bangkok has acquiesced in the U.S.' decision to keep Hambali under its own custodial jurisdiction. It is in this context that the Indonesian Justice and Human Rights Minister, today commented, with a note of implied meaning, that "Thailand's decision (to let the U.S. take him under its custody) should be respected, even though Indonesia deserves the right (just as well) to investigate Hambali''.