EDITORIAL
Successive governments of Indonesia over the past six years deserve extensive credit for their suppression of regional terrorism. Not only has the government defeated the top echelons of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and brought its bombers to justice, it has gained the support of the country to keep the pressure on.
That pressure brought more success against a would-be JI revival early this month. Police arrested a Singaporean and nine Indonesian men with a cache of terrorist bombs deadlier than anything ever seen in the region. The alarming news is that authorities think at least parts of the bombs may have been smuggled from abroad, quite possibly Thailand.
Such smuggling of war materiel is nothing new. The violence and near-anarchy of the deep South has fostered arms smuggling for years.
Former president Megawati Sukarnoputri complained publicly during her official visit to Thailand in September 2003 that she hoped Thai security forces could help to end such smuggling to the then-murderous civil war in Aceh. There is now peace in Aceh, and thus not much of an arms market. But last week's report that Thai-type materiel was found in bombs in South Sumatra should concern authorities in both countries.
Indonesian police said the bombs seized in the raid on the terrorist safe house were unusually powerful and deadly. Experts estimate that if used against civilian targets, they would cause 10 times the damage and casualties of the bombs used in Bali and in other major terrorist bombings in Jakarta and elsewhere.
For one thing, the bombs were filled with rifle ammunition, bullets that would be "fired" randomly when the bomb exploded. Indonesian national police chief Sutanto said such explosives have a double impact.
There is no proof - yet - that these new, deadlier explosives have a Thai connection. But it is crucial for several reasons to find out. Most importantly, security officials in Indonesia, Thailand and other countries must determine if the JI gang in Indonesia has contacts with the violent gangs in the Thai South. So far, the separatist groups in Thailand have had little contact with the al-Qaeda subsidiary based in Indonesia. But the JI in particular continues to change its tactics and personnel in an effort to escalate the bloodshed.
As for the insurgents in the deep South, the setbacks they have suffered in recent months have not made them less dangerous. Bombs and bullets have become their main weapons against the authorities, and their tactics include acts of extreme terrorism to intimidate residents of the region. Last week, they killed and then burnt the bodies of a couple on their way to work. Their continuing attacks on schools, guards, teachers and students show how ruthless the insurgents can be.
Experts in Jakarta last week told the media that the porous sea borders of Indonesia mean it is almost impossible to stop weapons smuggling if it occurs. Southern Thailand and the southern Philippines both have groups of sympathetic pro-terrorists, as well as possibly corrupt security forces.
Most of the original top JI field commanders are dead or on the run. But there still is a so-called new generation of hard-core terrorists able to organise small but deadly gangs committed to creating bloody murder. The job of the authorities in Indonesia or Thailand and throughout the region does not end when a group is arrested. It is necessary to follow up their terrorist connections. It is vital that Thai authorities learn if there is a threat from any JI connection with southern insurgents.
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