Bali: 'Fingerprints'point to al-Qaeda, allies

2002-10-14 12:23

Jane Macartney

Singapore - The marks of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda and its southeast Asian network were stamped across the weekend Bali bombing and Indonesia must not hesitate to destroy its cells, said a leading expert on the terrorist network.

Rohan Gunaratna, author of Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror, described al-Qaeda as commanding a robust presence in southeast Asia.

He did not hesitate to identify the fingerprints in the world's most-devastating attack since the September 11, 2001 strikes against Washington and New York.

"The only organisation that could have conducted such a professional terrorist attack of the scale we have witnessed in Bali is al-Qaeda and its southeast Asian network, Jemaah Islamiah," said Gunaratna in Singapore.

No claim of responsibility is known to have been made in the weekend Indonesia bombings.

But, they came days after Washington issued a global terror alert, amid fears that al-Qaeda, the Islamic militant network blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, had regrouped after being routed by US forces in Afghanistan.

Indonesia's neighbours have repeatedly pointed fingers at Jemaah Islamiah as a terror threat, but Jakarta has declined to act, saying it has no evidence against the group, which is believed to want to set up an Islamic state in southeast Asia.

'Must be disrupted, degraded and destroyed'

"The most dangerous terrorist organisation active in southeast Asia is al-Qaeda's southeast Asian network, the JI," said Gunaratna. "This organisation must be disrupted, degraded and destroyed."

He described al-Qaeda as potent among southeast Asia's 240 million Muslims and able to inspire widespread support - especially amid simmering anger at a possible US war on Iraq.

"The JI is an independent Islamic network that has been infiltrated by al-Qaeda," he said.

"Al Qaeda has taken full control of the JI organisation... We see extensive links between the core and penultimate leadership of al-Qaeda and the JI leadership resident in Indonesia."

Gunaratna, regarded as a leading authority on al-Qaeda, "the Base", said he saw no proof bin Laden was dead and attacks such as the Bali bombing would underscore the argument that the man regarded as the mastermind behind September 11 was alive.

"The mood of Islamic parties and terrorist organisations that are linked to al-Qaeda suggest that Osama bin Laden is not dead," he said.

Swift to deny links to bombing

That mood was clearly a source of inspiration to the Jemaah Islamiah, and Gunaratna was outspoken in linking the group and the man regarded as its pivotal force, Abu Bakar Bashir, to the weekend blasts.

"Abu Bakar Bashir is the ideological, political and spiritual leader of al-Qaeda's southeast network," he said. "It is very important to arrest Abu Bakar Bashir."

Bashir has been swift in denying any links to the bombing in Bali that killed at least 183 revellers at a popular nightspot and wounded several hundred.

The leaders of al-Qaeda and their supporters around the world - from Tunisia to Indonesia - communicated by courier, with bin Laden and his top lieutenants passing on their strategic goals to groups such as Jemaah Islamiah and leaving local cells to decide on tactics, he said.

Bears the signature, says expert

The Bali bomb was completely smudged with JI fingerprints, he said.

"The Bali bombing has been conducted by JI because it bears all the hallmarks or the signature of JI," he said, citing similar co-ordinated and simultaneous church bombings on December 24 2000. The United States has linked JI to those attacks, but Indonesian authorities have not identified a main suspect.

Gunaratna warned of more attacks, saying about 400 JI members had received training in camps in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as in Afghanistan and had learnt to build bombs.

But with the Bali attack, the perpetrators had certainly placed Indonesia and local extremists in the world spotlight.

Gunaratna said: "The Bali attack is the most devastating since 9/11 and that will draw significant attention from the international intelligence community."

- Reuters