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REUTERS, Tuesday September 18, 5:50 PM
Indonesian Muslim group threatens to hit U.S. embassy
By Tomi Soetjipto
JAKARTA (Reuters) - A radical Indonesian Muslim group on Tuesday threatened to attack the U.S. embassy and seek the expulsion of Americans in Jakarta if Washington carries out revenge strikes against any Islamic nation.
Top officials in Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population, have already cautioned the United States against resorting to vengeance for last week's attacks in New York and Washington.
"If the U.S. carries out its threat in the form of military aggression against any Muslim states then the FPI will perceive it as an act of terrorism," head of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), Al Habib Muhammad Riziq Syihab, told Reuters.
"It means that we will attack the U.S. embassy," he said, adding the group would also seek out American citizens to have them expelled if any attack takes place.
The FPI is a small but aggressive group which has been behind a number of attacks in the past year or so against bars and nightclubs, including some known to be popular with foreigners.
But police, who have beefed up security outside the embassy in central Jakarta since last week, dismissed the threats.
"We don't think this is a serious threat ... no one has a right to conduct sweeps except security forces and no one has a right to attack any buildings in the name of religion," Jakarta Police spokesman Anton Bahrul Alam told Reuters.
"Of course we will take harsh action," he said.
MEGAWATI ON U.S. VISIT
President Megawati Sukarnoputri is due to arrive in the United States on Tuesday for a visit officials described as a bid to drum up investment for the world's fourth most populous nation.
She has expressed sympathy for the attacks and offered to help Washington in its war against international terrorism.
But the United States has voiced concern over some comments made by leading Indonesians over the attacks.
In a letter published in the Singapore Business Times, U.S. Ambassador to Jakarta, Robert Gelbard, said some recent comments by two former senior Indonesian officials "could create an atmosphere of misunderstanding and hatred, rather than one of compassion and healing".
Former defence minister Juwono Sudarsono was quoted in a local newspaper last week as saying Washington should wait before apportioning blame for the attacks, noting that the U.S. had wrongly accused Middle Eastern groups for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
And a former aide of ex-President B.J. Habibie wrote in an article that the attacks might lead to a recognition that U.S. policies had created a lot of enemies because many saw them as unfair.
DON'T MAKE MUSLIMS SCAPEGOAT
Vice President and leader of the country's biggest Islamic party, Hamzah Haz, urged the United States not to make Muslims a scapegoat for last week's attacks.
"Already, people have very mixed feelings about how the U.S. might respond. Then to have leaders feeding this, makes the whole situation more dangerous," one Western diplomat said.
However, the general response from the world's fourth largest population to the attacks has been one of sympathy and the fence outside the U.S. embassy is lined with floral tributes.
Indonesia has itself traditionally been deeply suspicious of extremist Muslims, fearful they would undermine the multi-ethnic country's fragile harmony which has been tested to the limit during the past three years of domestic political and economic turmoil.
The political mainstream has long rejected attempts to make Islam the official religion, which 90 percent of the population follows.
Analysts say that renewed attempts to insert a clause in the constitution to force Muslims to adopt Islamic Sharia law appear doomed to failure.
Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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