Jakarta, Dec 11: The Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) regional terror network has staged some 50 bombings or attempted bombings in Indonesia since April 1999 including the Bali blast, an international research group said today.
The International Crisis Group (ICG), in a report entitled "Indonesia's Terrorist Network: How Jemaah Islamiyah Works", calls for the reopening of investigations into these blasts "as a top priority" and with international help if possible.
It says intelligence resources must be strengthened but these should go to the police and not to the National Intelligence Service (BIN) or military intelligence.
While BIN had done some important legwork on the Bali bombing, "there is too much history between some of the JI players and BIN to make it an impartial participant on this one."
ICG also says it suspects that "someone in the armed forces" must have known that church bombings in the city of Medan were being planned for Christmas eve 2000 and saw an opportunity falsely to blame them on the free Aceh movement
(GAM).
It says there is a "curious link" in the Medan attack between Acehnese figures close to JI and military intelligence, because both bitterly oppose GAM.
While military intelligence was not necessarily working with JI, "it does raise a question about the extent to which it knew or could have found out more about JI than it has acknowledged."
Bureau Report
