The Indonesian authorities already knew that they had yet to break the back of the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorists, despite their successes in the wake of the barbarous Bali bomb attack. In particular, they are still seeking an explosives expert Azahari Husin, who is believed to have built the Bali device and the car bomb used last year against Jakarta’s Marriott hotel.
It is thus not surprising that he is also suspected of constructing the car bomb that exploded outside the Australian Embassy in the Indonesian capital yesterday. The property damage was extensive but as so often in such outrages it was entirely innocent locals who paid the price. It is hard to imagine how any human being could take pride in such wickedness or congratulate his fellow conspirators on their contribution to such carnage. Yet for years, terrorists, not simply those claiming to act in the name of Islam, but in the UK in the name of Irish republicanism or in Germany in the name of anti-capitalism, have been prepared to blast apart the bodies of hapless passers-by in the perverted belief that these crimes will advance their cause.
It is not hard to see why the Australian Embassy should have been yesterday’s target. In the wake of the Bali massacre, Australia has also worked closely with Indonesian security forces. Jemaah Islamiyah has lost three top leaders along with over 100 activists in the last two years. Reportedly the arrest last year in Thailand of the organization’s operations chief Riduan Isamuddin, known as Hambali, led to a vacuum in the terrorist leadership which is still unfilled. This has produced divisions among the rank and file. It is also suspected that the group has been infiltrated by government agents in addition to being subject to intensive electronic eavesdropping by US spy satellites.
The mounting of what the IRA would call “a spectacular” attack in the heart of Jakarta could as easily be a sign of desperation by the terrorists as a cold-hearted resumption of their depraved bombing campaign after a break of just over a year. A decade ago Jemaah Islamiyah forged close links with Al-Qaeda via one of its founders, the late Abdullah Sungkar. The Athens Olympics must have been a highly desirable target. However, thanks to the costly but effective precautions of the Greek authorities coupled with a massive security effort by a large number of national intelligence agencies, the terrorists were unable to mount any attack. Therefore pressure may have been applied to the Indonesian-based offshoot of Al-Qaeda to undertake fresh assaults.
The truth is that with every new bomb attack the terrorists are weakening their position. It is not simply that the majority of the population of Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim nation, is appalled and outraged by these crimes carried out in the name of Islam. It is also that every new attack leaves evidence. The Indonesian security services have demonstrated they can follow up the smallest forensic clues. As this intelligence mounts so the terrorists become ever more exposed to the punishment they so richly deserve.
