[Kabar-indonesia] Howard Says Yudhoyono, Musharraf Are "Antidotes" to Terror [+Philippines]

[Joyo at aol.com]

also: Philippine Bombing Suspicions Fall On Indonesian Militant;
Philippines South On Highest Terror Alert - Military; and

Australian prime minister says Indonesian, 
Pakistani leaders are "antidotes" to terror

By ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press Writer

CANBERRA, October 12 (AP) - Moderate Muslim leaders like the
presidents of Indonesia and Pakistan are the "greatest antidotes" 
to global terrorism, Prime Minister John Howard said Thursday, the 
fifth anniversary of the Bali bombings.

Howard singled out for praise Indonesia's first directly elected
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Gen. Pervez Musharraf -- 
who seized control of Pakistan in a military coup -- in a speech to
Parliament commemorating the tragedy.

"The greatest antidotes against Islamic terrorism and those people of
the Islamic faith who blasphemously distort the values of that great
religion ... are moderate Islamic leaders like President Yudhoyono of
Indonesia and President Musharraf of Pakistan," Howard said.

"We must hope in the name of fighting terrorism that their leadership
triumphs over the more extreme elements in their society," he added.

The Bali blasts, which killed 202 people including 88 Australians,
were blamed on the al-Qaida-linked regional terror group Jemaah
Islamiyah. The attacks thrust Indonesia, the world's most populous
Muslim nation, onto the front lines of Washington's proclaimed war on
terror.

Pakistan and Australia have also been key U.S. allies since the Sept.
11, 2001 attacks.

Howard described Yudhoyono's commitment to fighting terrorism as
"undoubted and unconditional."

"As we reflect on those events (in Bali) and the possibility that
terrorism will strike again in our region -- and the possibility of it
striking on our own homeland cannot be ruled out -- we should hope
that moderate Islamic leaders like President Yudhoyono are supported
and are successful," Howard said.

Around 300 suspected militants have been rounded up in Indonesian
security sweeps and around 200 have been tried and convicted.

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Philippine Bombing Suspicions Fall On Indonesian Militant

MANILA, October 12 (AP)--Three homemade bombs that exploded this week
in the southern Philippines, including one that killed six people,
were set off by mobile phones, a sign that officials believe points to
Dulmatin, an Indonesian militant and one of Asia's most wanted terror
suspects.

A fourth unexploded bomb, made of two 81 mm mortar rounds attached to
a Nokia mobile phone, was found Wednesday near a public plaza in
southern Makilala town, site of the explosion that killed six people
and wounded 29 the night before, police said.

When investigators examined the mobile phone, it had one missed call -
an eerie indication of the attacker's failed effort to trigger a
deadly explosion, a police official said Thursday on condition of
anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to the media.

While an investigation has just begun, officials strongly believe it
will eventually lead to Dulmatin and his group, the Indonesian-based
Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been blamed for some of the region's worst
terrorist strikes.

Police intelligence officials have said Dulmatin introduced bombs made
with mobile phone-triggered mortar rounds with small electrical boards
to Filipino guerrillas in secret training camps in the south.
Previously, Filipino Muslim rebels generally used grenades or other
forms of hand-thrown explosives.

Although authorities haven't seen Dulmatin - his black-and-white mug
shot on U.S. most-wanted terrorist posters is several years old -
investigators have followed the bloody trail of lethal bombings he
allegedly helped stage from Indonesia to the Philippines.

Indonesian police have accused Dulmatin of building the bombs that
tore through two Bali nightclubs four years ago Thursday, killing 202
people in one of Southeast Asia's bloodiest terrorist attacks. He also
is suspected of assembling the bombs used to attack Roman Catholic
churches in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, and in Batam and Lombok
islands in 2000, according to Indonesian police.

The targets of a massive manhunt, Dulmatin and Umar Patek, another
suspected leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, are believed to have fled
sometime in 2003 to the southern Philippine region of Mindanao, scene
of a decades-long Muslim separatist war.

In Mindanao's jungles, Dulmatin continued to wage jihad, or holy war,
training Filipino insurgents in bomb-making and helping plot attacks,
including a February 2004 bombing that gutted a ferry and killed 116
people near Manila, Philippine security officials said.

His war also may have turned personal. Last week, troops captured his
wife, Istiada Binti Oemar Sovie, and took custody of his two sons on
southern Jolo island, where Dulmatin, Patek and leaders of the Abu
Sayyaf rebel group have been targeted by a U.S.-backed offensive.

"We're looking into the angle that the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah
did the bombings to retaliate against the capture of Dulmatin's wife,"
military chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon told reporters Wednesday. [
12-10-06 0817GMT ]

The Philippines has braced for more bombings. The U.S., British and
Australian embassies have issued travel warnings about the danger of
venturing to Mindanao and crowded spots in the capital, Manila.

Authorities know little about Dulmatin. A U.S. government Web site
that offers a $10 million reward for his capture describes him as an
electronics specialist who trained in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan
and is a senior Jemaah Islamiyah figure.

An Indonesian militant captured last year in eastern Jakarta, Abdullah
Sunata, told interrogators he first met Dulmatin and Patek in 1999 in
Indonesia's Ambon region, where the two were prominent insurgent
leaders.

Dulmatin's wife said her husband, whose real name is Ammar Usman, is
from Petarukan, Indonesia, and was born in June 1969. They have six
children, all in Mindanao, according to an interrogation report seen
by The Associated Press.

Dulmatin's wife told Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales last week he was
fighting the Philippines because of its closeness to the U.S.

Asked if Dulmatin might surrender, "All she said was that her husband
will fight it out to the last," Gonzales said.

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Philippines South On Highest Terror Alert - Military

MANILA, October 12 (AP)--Philippine authorities have placed the
country's south under "extreme critical alert" - the highest of a
four-step public terror warning system - after three bombings this
week and fears of more attacks, the military said Thursday.

Three bomb attacks separately struck the southern Mindanao region
Tuesday and Wednesday, including one that killed six people and
wounded 29 others during a town fiesta in Makilala in North Cotabato
province, officials said.

Police and military officials said two al-Qaida-linked groups - the
small but violent Abu Sayyaf and Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah -
may have staged the bombings to divert the military's attention from a
U.S.-backed offensive against the militants on southern Jolo island.

The militants may also have acted to avenge last week's capture of the
wife of top Indonesian militant Dulmatin on Jolo, about 940 kilometers
south of Manila, officials said.

Military chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon said the alert level for
Mindanao was raised because of the presence of terrorist groups that
have the intent and capability to launch attacks, referring to the Abu
Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah.

"We know that they have the capability and therefore we have put up
the extreme critical alert level in Mindanao," Esperon told reporters.

Government troops and police intensified security patrols and
intelligence gathering and set up checkpoints, he said.

The U.S., British and Australian embassies advised their citizens
against traveling to Mindanao due to "credible information" that
terrorists could strike.

Among the places being closely watched by security forces is the
southern port city of Zamboanga, where a weeklong Christian religious
festival culminated Thursday with a public parade, police officials
said.

In 2002, suspected Abu Sayyaf guerrillas detonated a bicycle bomb
during a religious festival at Fort Pilar in Zamboanga, killing one
civilian and wounding 12 others.

Fort Pilar is a complex that includes the centuries-old remains of a
Spanish fort, a shrine to the Virgin Mary and an open-air worshipping
area where Mass is celebrated.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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