Indonesia pledges terror crackdown after Bali bombing

Indonesia today vowed to press ahead with tough new anti-terror laws and formed an international team to hunt down those behind the Bali nightclub bombing.

But the government’s resolve seemed to be faltering already. The security minister denied an Islamic extremist group identified by many as a likely culprit even exists in the Southeast Asian country.

Jemaah Islamiyah is reportedly linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida. Its spiritual leader, meanwhile, denied there was any such organisation, or that it was tied to bin Laden’s terrorist network.

“There is no link between al-Qaida and the bomb blast,” Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir said, calling the accusations “the invention of infidels”.

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said the government was working on giving President Megawati Sukarnoputri authority to impose, by decree, an anti-terrorism law that has been stalled in Parliament for months.

Indonesia and Australia, which lost dozens of citizens in the explosion, have agreed to form a joint intelligence team following the blast and have invited other nations to join, Australia’s Foreign Minister said.

Officials still “do not have any hard evidence as to who is responsible” for the explosion, Alexander Downer added.

The government is struggling to shake off its image that it ignored months of warnings about terrorists being active in Indonesia – particularly Jemaah Islamiyah, which wants to establish a pan-Islamic state in Southeast Asia.

US officials would not comment on a report in The New York Times that Ambassador Ralph Boyce delivered the latest warning of an imminent attack to Megawati the day before the Bali bombing.

No suspects have been arrested in Bali attacks, but suspicion has fallen heavily on Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been accused of plotting to attack Western targets in Singapore earlier this year.

Malaysia and Singapore have arrested scores of suspected members.

But Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono today claimed that “as an organisation, Jemaah Islamiyah does not exist in Indonesia.”

But he said it does exist in Singapore and Malaysia and that Indonesian citizens, including Bashir, “were the former leaders”.

Foreign countries have repeatedly urged Indonesia to arrest Bashir, who runs an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia. He denies any involvement and the government has not moved against him, fearing a backlash by extremists.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday added his voice to calls for Indonesia to take a harder line.

“You cannot pretend it does not exist in your country,” Powell said.

Bashir was scheduled to submit to police questioning today and tomorrow at his own initiative, to press a libel suit against Time news magazine over an article that implicated him in terrorist activities.

Police would not confirm rumours that he would be arrested.

“I have not heard that there is a warrant for my arrest,” Bashir told The Associated Press. “The police have no basis for that arrest. It is like a witch hunt. They are cracking down on Muslim fundamentalists.”

Bashir said he had been summoned to appear before police tomorrow to give evidence in the libel suit.

“I will not answer any questions about the Bali bombing,” Bashir said. “It is not within the scope of the order that they gave me in that letter.”

On the island resort meanwhile, Balinese police continued questioning two Indonesian men, neither of them locals, Bali Police Chief Budi Setiawan said.

Police have said they were being “intensively interrogated,” but denied reports they had been arrested. More than 50 people have been questioned in the investigation.

Setiawan said he knew nothing about a report in The Washington Post newspaper that a former member of the Indonesian Air Force had confessed to building the bomb, which killed at least 181 people on Saturday night.