Stephen Fitzpatrick, Patrick Walters, Additional reporting: John Stapleton. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 15 June 2006: 1.
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blessing to the October 2002 attacks in the Bali tourist district of Kuta, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. [Bashir], 68, made a 12-hour pilgrimage by road last night to the al-Mukmin school in the village of Ngruki, central Java, where he inspired Bali bombers Amrozi bin Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron, alias Mukhlas, who were students there.
“Can I say something to Indonesian politicians, both those here and those who may be listening or reading in Indonesia: I want them to understand from me, on behalf of the Government, how extremely disappointed, even distressed, millions of Australians will be at the release of Abu Bakar Bashir,” Mr Howard told parliament. Mr [Downer] said the Government had told Jakarta atthe time the sentence was handed down that Bashir had been treated too leniently.
He said a UN Security Council committee had listed Bashir in April as a terrorist subject to international restrictions. Indonesia was obliged to enforce a range of restrictions on Bashir, including freezing his financial assets and banning him from travelling outside Indonesia.
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THE release of terrorist leader Abu Bakar Bashir from an Indonesian jail yesterday unleashed a wave of fury from the families of Bali bombing victims and calls for the Howard Government to force Jakarta to recognise Australian anger over his freedom.
An unrepentant Bashir last night declared US President George W. Bush a “kaffir” — or non-believer — making clear he was going to continue as a preacher of hate.
As Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone fought off a Coalition backbench revolt over tough new laws aimed at placating Indonesian anger at the granting of visas to 42 Papuan asylum-seekers, Labor accused John Howard of failing to make Jakarta recognise Australian “sensitivities”.
“Mr Howard and Mr (Foreign Minister Alexander) Downer are always listening to Indonesia’s political sensitivities,” Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said. “It’s about time Mr Howard and Mr Downer asked Indonesia to listen to Australian sensitivities.”
Mr Rudd said failure to get “an absolute iron-clad guarantee of a security clampdown” on the cleric would represent “a major defeat” for Australia in the regional war against terrorism. “You can’t talk tough on terrorism and yet let this one simply go through to the keeper,” Mr Rudd said.
But Muhammad AS Hikam, the leader of an Indonesian political delegation visiting Australia, said any additional clampdown on Bashir was unlikely. “This is the rule of the land and the law being applied to him,” he told ABC television.
Bashir, the spiritual head of the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist network, was released from a high-security jail in Jakarta early yesterday. He was convicted last year of giving his
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blessing to the October 2002 attacks in the Bali tourist district of Kuta, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. Bashir, 68, made a 12-hour pilgrimage by road last night to the al-Mukmin school in the village of Ngruki, central Java, where he inspired Bali bombers Amrozi bin Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron, alias Mukhlas, who were students there.
Other leaders in the JI network also studied at the school, as did the bomber who attacked Jakarta’s Marriott Hotel in August 2003. Bashir has pledged to resume his teaching there.
He made two stops to pray during the drive, both times emerging from his vehicle surrounded by a scrum of minders in jackets with the logo “Mujahidin”, a reference to Islamic fighters.
Bashir described Mr Bush as a “kaffir”. The word is generally used as a term of extreme derision. He earlier said the US was “a state terrorist because it is waging war against Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan”.
Bashir was greeted by thousands of supporters when he arrived in the city of Solo, which contains Ngruki, last night. He went straight to Solo’s Mummidiyah Hospital for a check-up, having complained of a sore coccyx and stomach troubles.
In Canberra, the Prime Minister told parliament “millions of Australians” would be extremely disappointed that the radical cleric had been set free.
But the Government stopped short of a fresh diplomatic appeal to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Government over the lenient sentence.
“Can I say something to Indonesian politicians, both those here and those who may be listening or reading in Indonesia: I want them to understand from me, on behalf of the Government, how extremely disappointed, even distressed, millions of Australians will be at the release of Abu Bakar Bashir,” Mr Howard told parliament. Mr Downer said the Government had told Jakarta atthe time the sentence was handed down that Bashir had been treated too leniently.
“We of course accept the decisions of the Indonesian courts, but we are deeply disappointed with that release today and we share the pain with those families that suffered so much as a result of the Bali bombing,” he said.
He said a UN Security Council committee had listed Bashir in April as a terrorist subject to international restrictions. Indonesia was obliged to enforce a range of restrictions on Bashir, including freezing his financial assets and banning him from travelling outside Indonesia.
Mr Downer said Jakarta had a strong record in fighting terrorism, having captured and convicted more than 160 terrorists, with three on death row and four serving life sentences. “Having said all that, the Australian Government cannot walk away from the fact that we are deeply disappointed that Abu Bakar Bashir has been released from prison.”
Labor lobbied the Indonesian delegation, urging them to ensure Jakarta took steps to stop Bashir from posing a future security risk. “This is a man who served only 14 months out of a short 30- month sentence and is responsible for mass murder,” Mr Rudd said.
Angry relatives of Bali bombing victims lashed out at Bashir’s release.
Peter Iliffe, father of victim Joshua, said Bashir was a “rotten bastard” who appeared proud his followers had killed so many people and whose release showed Indonesia’s hatred of the West.
Retired policeman Don Howard, whose son Adam was 27 and partying with his mates from the Coogee Dolphins club when he was killed in the blast, said Bashir’s release was an injustice to all the Australians who had died. “It is one law for them and one law for Western civilisation,” he said.