An envoy of Osama bin Laden, the main suspect behind the deadly September 11 attacks in the United States, has visited Indonesia several times, a report said Thursday.
Al Chaidar, a Muslim activist who has written 18 books on radical Islamic movements in Indonesia, told the daily Rakyat Merdeka that a representative of Bin Laden had made at least four visits to Indonesia -- the world's most populous Muslim country.
"Actually a representative of Osama has already been to Indonesia. Twice to Maluku, once to Aceh and once to West Java," Al Chaidar was quoted as saying, without specifying when.
"But Osama himself has never been here."
Al Chaidar said the Darul Islam Indonesia network of largely radical Muslim groups had "a special relationship" with Bin Laden, through the thousands of Indonesians who joined the war to drive the Soviets out of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
He estimates 30,000 Indonesians fought in the war, of whom 5,000 were sent by the Darul Islam -- a radical Muslim group which staged several coup attempts to turn Indonesia into an Islamic state in the years surrounding independence from the Dutch in 1945.
"They have a special relationship with an extremely strong sense of Islamic brotherhood solidarity," Al Chaidar told the daily.
"For a long time they have been inviting Osama bin Laden to Indonesia. They want him to see the situation here and help the Islamic struggle in Indonesia," he said.
Al Chaidar, a self-proclaimed leader of a moderate faction of the Darul Islam, told AFP last week that a representative of Bin Laden had assessed the separatist conflict in Aceh to determine whether it constitutes a "jihad" or holy war.
The representative concluded that the insurgency in the northeast province by Muslim rebels did not, and therefore would not be assisted by Bin Laden.
Al Chaidar also said that Bin Laden's Al Qaeda network had supplied money and weapons for Indonesians and other Islamic fighters waging a "jihad" against Christians in the Maluku islands.
An estimated 4,000 people have died in three years of sporadic fighting between Muslims and Christians in the Indonesian islands.
In the newspaper interview Al Chaidar warned of chaos if President Megawati Sukarnoputri supports any US attack on Afghanistan -- believed to be Bin Laden's current lair.
"That's because the Islamic community will surely condemn such an attack. And if the Indonesian government supports America, I think there will be a huge flare-up here," he said.
The US State Department on Wednesday said it was allowing its non-essential diplomats in Indonesia to leave, following several anti-US protests and warnings of attacks on Americans by Muslim extremists.
Megawati has just ended a nine-day visit to the US where she condemned the terrorist attacks as the worst "in the history of civilization" and pledged Indonesia's support to fight terrorism.
However, she has made no commitment to supporting any US military strike against Afghanistan -- JAKARTA (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
