Effective media relations needed to counter Bali tragedy, says minister
Title -- 3817 INDONESIA: Effective media relations needed to counter Bali tragedy, says minister
Date -- 27 October 2002
Byline -- None
Origin -- Pacific Media Watch
Source -- Agence France Presse, via John M. Miller, fbp@igc.org, 19/10/2
Copyright -- AFP and Laksamana.Net
Status -- Unabridged
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INDONESIA 'NEEDS EFFECTIVE PUBLIC RELATIONS TO COUNTER BALI TRAGEDY'
JAKARTA (AFP-Pacific Media Watch): Indonesia needs effective public relations to counter the negative fallout from the deadly nightclub bombing in Bali, Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said Saturday.
"In the issue of terrorism and counter terrorism -- Indonesia as the largest Muslim country in the world is often misunderstood," he was quoted as saying by the state Antara news agency.
"Hence we need capable public relations to explain the actual situation," he told a group of Southeast Asian journalists.
Hassan said following the October 12 attack, Indonesia was accused as being a nest of terrorists.
"It does not mean the US is a terror hub if there is an explosion in New York. So in the same instance, Indonesia is not a terror nest following the Bali bombing," he said.
More than 180 people are believed to have died when a powerful car bomb exploded last Saturday outside a nightclub packed with foreign tourists, primarily Australians.
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Laksamana.Net
October 20, 2002
THE ANTARA ANGLE
A collection of unedited articles by state news agency Antara on the Bali bombings, Indonesia's new anti-terror legislation, and the arrest of radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir.
Some of the articles are rife with errors, such as stating that Bashir is in his late 70s. He is actually 64. Antara also wrongly claims he has been accused of plotting to assassinate President Megawati Sukarnoputri.
FOREIGN POWER POSSIBLY BEHIND BALI BOMBINGS, SAY INTELLIGENCE EXPERTS
20 Oktober, 2002 12:31:19 AM
Jakarta, Oct 19 (ANTARA) - The Bali bombings could well have been the work of a foreign power because they showed not only good organisation but also signs of having been carried out by skilled demolition experts, two local intelligence observers said here Saturday.
"It is impossible for Indonesians or people of any other Asian country to have such a terrorizing concept. It is not impossible that the bombing architects are people from one of the big powers," AC Manullang told a talk show.
The talk show, themed "The Bali bombings: Who is Playing with Fire", also featured Suripto, a former intelligence official.
Manullang said the prime target of the Bali bombings showed that there are indeed terrorists in Indonesia who are intent on destabilizing the country's economy.
Big powers like the United States had a vested interest in controlling Indonesia because they know the country's strategic position, its natural resource and social richness, he said.
"The United States is concerned about the possibility of threats to its interests in Indonesia so it wants to prevent radical Islamists from ever coming to power in Indonesia. Therefore, what happened in Bali was not a religious or social war but an intelligence war," he said.
In the world of intelligence, agents are not assigned to reveal an event but to detect it prior to the eventualities, Manullang said.
"(Therefore) the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) should have been able to detect (any dangerous event) in advance. If it had, the Bali bombings would not have happened," he said.
"The duty of our intelligence agents was to analyze information, like the fact that there had been various bomb blasts in Indonesia. From that information, they can predict there will be bigger actions," he said.
Meanwhile, former secretary general of the Forestry Ministry Suripto who was formerly active in the world of intelligence, said the Bali bombings were carried out by a well-organised intelligence agency.
"I have a strong felling that the tragedy had to do with an intelligence operation ... by a foreign intelligence agency with global capabilities," he said.
He said his view was based on the fact that the bombing perpetrators were able to observe the situation, and professionally analyze where and when the bombs had to be detonated to produce the biggest possible impact.
The bombers were well trained because they could smuggle the bombs in a big number and keep them before being used, Suripto said.
The bombers had even calculated their chances to leave Bali island using the last flights on the same day, he said.
The Bali bombings occurred in the Kuta area last Saturday, killing almost 200 people and wounding hundreds of others. Among the victims were Indonesians, Britons, Canadians, and Australians.
Shortly after trans-national media released reports on the tragedy, Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri and world leaders, including US President George W. Bush and Australian Premier John Howard, condemned the bombings.
Howard and other Western leaders accused Usamah bin Ladin-led Al Qaida network of being behind the terror. Chairman of the Indonesian Mujahiddin Council (MMI), Ustadz Abubakar Ba'asyir, was allegedly involved in it.
Ba'asyir denies all the allegations and says he is ready for the police questions.
However, Omar al Farouq, who is being held by the US, should be returned to Indonesia to help reveal the bombings, Ba'asyir's lawyer, Mahendradatta SH, said.
INDON MUJAHIDDIN COUNCIL CALLS ON GOVT NOT TO MAKE INDONESIANS VICTIMS
Saturday, October 19, 2002 4:35:26 PM
Jakarta, Oct 19 (ANTARA) - The Indonesian Mujahiddin Council (MMI), whose chairman Abu Bakar Ba'asyir has been linked to the Oct 12 bomb explosions in Bali, has called on the government not to make Indonesians the victims of its foreign political interests.
In a statement made available here early Saturday, the Council said the summons issued to Ba'asyir by the Indonesian Police's intelligence division over the Bali bombings is improper.
It declared that Ba'asyir has neither done anything anarchic nor asked others to damage public facilities or do other actions that violate the syariah (Islamic law).
"We thus reject the allegation stipulated in the summons," said the statement signed by Council head, Irfan S Awwas, and secretary, M Shobbarin Syakur.
The Council further called on the Indonesian government not to hand its citizens to foreign parties for any reason, saying there are indications that Ba'asyir will be extradited to another country.
"If this happens, we will not take any responsibility for anything that might be done by Indonesian Moslems in defense of their ulema," it said.
The Council also asked the government not to detain Ba'asyir during his questioning.
Ba'asyir, in his late 70s, was rushed to the Muhammadiyah Hospital in Solo, Central Java for breathing difficulties an hour after giving a press conference on Friday.
Police said on Friday they have named Ba'asyir as a suspect in several high-profile cases, including a string of bomb attacks across the country, and treason.
The charges were based on the results of an investigation conducted by a police team dispatched to the US to question alleged terrorist, Omar Al-Faruq. Al-Faruq was arrested in Bogor, West Java a few months ago and turned over to the US government.
Quoting Al-Faruq, police team leader, Brig Gen Ariyanto Sutadi, said both Al-Faruq and Ba'asyir were involved in the series of bomb attacks in Indonesia, including the Istiqlal Mosque bombing in 1999 and the bombings on Christmas Eve 2000.
Al-Faruq admitted to being the top representative of the Al-Qaeda in South-East Asia.
The United States has blamed the Al-Qaeda for the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon on Sept 11 last year.
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