INDONESIA: Government says there is no way of stopping militants from going to Mideast
- 00:01:06
- ITN Source
INDONESIA: Government says there is no way of stopping militants from going to Mideast
Indonesia has no way to prevent Muslim militants travelling from its shores to the Middle East or elsewhere to wage war against Israel, Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said on Tuesday (August 8, 2006). The comment came after the self-styled head of the Jakarta-based ASEAN Muslim Youth Movement said last week that more than 200 militants had been sent on missions to attack Israel's interests and countries that support the Jewish state. Militant groups in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, have made claims in the past of sending volunteers to participate in conflicts overseas which have often proved exaggerated. "We are a country with a system in which people are extremely free to travel overseas and no exit permit is required. Therefore, we do not have a method of preventing our citizens from travelling. The one thing we could do in this case is to issue a travel advisory or warning," Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said. "To those who are intent on helping our brothers and sisters in Lebanon, we urge them to first and foremost not to recklessly send jihad volunteers to Lebanon because the situation there is as -- a matter of fact -- an armed conflict, thus it is not safe," he added. Moderate Muslim leaders have played down threats by radical Muslim groups to fight Israel as just "symbolic gestures". On Tuesday, a spokesman for a group led by firebrand Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, the Indonesian Mujahideen Council, said 500 volunteers were ready to be dispatched to Lebanon and Palestinian territory. "We should not let anyone stand in the way of the intention by some Muslims to go to Lebanon and Palestine," Fauzan al Anshori told Metro TV. The group said its fighters have been trained to carry out suicide bombings to revenge Israel's military strikes on the Palestinian territories and Lebanon. Dozens of young people, wearing balaclavas to disguise their identities, signed up to fight against Israel and filled in a registration form provided by organisers. "We are ready to go, to give up our possessions and our lives to destroy the Zionists of Israel," one volunteer said.
ITN Source | August 8, 2006
