Indonesian Muslim militants claim U.S. behind Bali explosions
JAKARTA (Agencies): Two leaders of Muslim militant groups on Monday accused the U.S. of being behind the deadly Bali bomb blasts that killed at least 187 people over the weekend.
However, no evidence was offered to support their accusations.
"We deplore and condemn the masterminds, fund raisers and whoever was involved in the bomb explosions in Bali," said Habib Rizieq Shihab, leader of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), a Muslim militant group best known for its frequent attacks on bars, and other nightspots in Jakarta.
"The incident could be used as reason for the United States and its allies to justify their accusations that Indonesia is a terrorist network base," Shihab said as quoted by DPA.
Two massive explosions ripped through packed discos on Jl. Legian street in Kuta, a well-known entertainment strip in Bali, shortly before midnight on Saturday, killing at least 187 people and injuring another 300 others.
Meanwhile, Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, chairman of another militant group the Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI), also accused the U.S. of being behind the explosions in Bali.
"The U.S. intelligence agency is behind the Bali bombings in an attempt to justify their accusation that Indonesia is a terrorist base," said Abu Bakar, suspected to be the leader of Jema'ah Islamiyah (JI), a group that allegedly plans to establish a pan-Islamic state in Southeast Asia.
Dozens of JI members have been arrested in Singapore and Malaysia, where the group has been accused of having links with the al-Qaeda international terrorist organization headed by Osama bin Laden.
Indonesia, which abolished its draconian internal security act in 1998, has refused to arrest Ba'asyir on the grounds that there is no evidence that he has committed crimes in Indonesia.
Abu Bakar warned the Indonesian government and security officials not to be trapped in the U.S.'s strategy, and to refrain from declaring that a terrorist network exists in the country.
More than 85 per cent of Indonesia's 215 million people are Muslims, making it the world's most populous Islamic nation and making crackdowns on Muslim radicals a very political issue for the government.
The government of President Megawati Soekarnoputri has been widely criticized for failing to crack down on terrorist suspects in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.
Many Indonesian Muslim clerics and academics on Monday were raising questions about who could be behind the Bali tragedy, which has seemingly justified a stronger government stance against terrorists and their sympathizers.
"Such a car bomb blast could be linked to the work of foreigners, especially the U.S. in a bid to attack hard-line groups deemed as terrorists," said M. Budyatna, a noted political observer and former dean of social and political studies at the University of Indonesia.
"The terrorist label is intentionally given to Muslims in Indonesia in a bid to justify its hypothesis and in the hope of stigmatizing Indonesia in the eyes of international community," said another political expert Nadjamuddin Muhammad Rasul.
But moderate Muslim cleric Hasjim Muzadi, chairman of the Indonesia's largest Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), said that the blasts ran counter to Islamic values, humanism and nationalism.
"The bloody blast is really inflicting sorrow on the bereaved families and runs counter to the country's unity and good relations with other nations in the world," Antara quoted Muzadi as saying.
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