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Indonesian police on Thursday arrested two suspected Muslim militants, including the key leader in a string of religious-inspired violence in the strife-torn eastern island of Sulawesi. In 2000, Laskar Jihad sent hundreds of young men to the eastern Maluku Islands to wage jihad against Christians living there in a conflict that killed as many as 10,000 people.

ETAN Condemns Administration Waiver Permitting Weapons Sales to IndonesiaFor Immediate Release Contact: John M. Miller (718) 596-7668; (917) 690-4391 (cell) Karen Orenstein (202) 544-6911 November 22, 2005 - The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) strongly condemned the State Department’s waiver of newly legislated restrictions on U.S. military assistance to Indonesia. The Department announced today that “it is in the national security interests of the United States to waive conditionality pertaining to Foreign Military Financing (FMF) and defense exports to Indonesia.” The restriction was contained in the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2006, which became...

An American-hosted soft porn Internet site also doubles as a cyber home for radical Islamic video propaganda. One approximately six-minute video housed on the Japanese site which we will not list because it so horrendous. Titled, "The Ambon Massacre," it starts with a picture of the ocean waves lazily lapping at dusk. The scene soon shifts to video of a burning building and people being massacred. Then viewers see rows of dead bodies covered with newspaper, followed by scenes of burning, decimated houses. The horrifying footage is followed by graphic video of burned, dead bodies with holes in their heads,...

AMBON, Indonesia (Reuters) - Snipers killed one policeman and wounded two in Indonesia's strife-torn Ambon on Tuesday as police and soldiers patrolled the streets to restore order, officials and witnesses said. The death toll from clashes between Christian and Muslim residents rose to 30, police said, but most of the deaths were from fighting on Sunday, and there were signs the violence in the capital of the eastern Moluccas islands was easing. But in comments that could stoke tension, defunct militant Muslim organisation Laskar Jihad threatened to regroup and send fighters. Laskar Jihad sent several thousand fighters to the Moluccas...

A MEMBER of a violent Indonesian group with suspected links to Jemaah Islamiah and al-Qa'ida has been actively fundraising in Sydney for "jihad", while working as a shuttle bus driver at Sydney airport. The Australian understands the man, who is known as Dance Darmince but often uses the alias Mohammad Darimi, heads a small group of Laskar Jihad members in Sydney and has been co-ordinating their fundraising efforts for the past five years. Mr Darmince is an Australian citizen and has lived in Sydney's Lakemba for about 20 years. From about 1999, he drove airport shuttle buses transporting passengers to,...

An Islamic militant group that has slaughtered thousands of Christians in Indonesia continues to operate despite formally announcing it had disbanded. Laskar Jihad, which wants to make Indonesia an Islamic state, has established at least 12 military training camps with more than 2,000 fighters in the eastern province of Papua, the former Irian Jaya, according to recent reports from human rights groups, the Assist News Service said.

This week's terrorist atrocity in Bali may or may not prove to have been the work of Al-Qaeda – or its allies. However, the consequences of the bomb attack, which has killed nearly 200, could prove disastrous for Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation. Terrorism in Indonesia is hardly a new phenomenon. Although the group that has received most media attention is Jemaah Islamiah, local intelligence experts point to the existence of many smaller militant organisations. These are often tiny, independent cells that have been involved in attacks against targets which their members regard as violating Islamic customs such...

Al-Qaida’s Asian Web Yael Shahar ICT Researcher It would be ironic, if it were not so tragic. For months the Indonesian government has denied allegations that al-Qaida militants were setting up shop in the country. When Singapore’s investigation into a plot to bomb Western interests pointed to the involvement of Indonesian operatives, Indonesia refused even to entertain the possibility. Now, in the wake of what is being called the worst terrorist act in Indonesian history, these denials appear not only preposterous, but criminally remiss. There can be little doubt that the bombing of Bali’s popular nightclub district was aimed at...

Blast rocks Philippine consulate in Indonesian city Sat Oct 12,10:19 AM ET MANADO, Indonesia (Reuters) - A suspected bomb exploded in the front yard of the Philippines consulate in the Indonesian city Manado on Saturday, causing some damage but no casualties in an attack that officials blamed on terrorists. The explosion, which occurred around dusk, blew out the windows of the two-storey consulate in the country's northeast and knocked over the gate of the compound. "We suspect that this was a homemade bomb placed in the yard," one police officer on the scene, who declined to be identified, told Reuters....

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Sep 20, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- The United States has warned Americans traveling to a popular tourist area in Indonesia to be vigilant, saying it has received credible information that Westerners may be the target of violence. The notice was issued Thursday night to American citizens living in Indonesia and follows the closure last week of the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta for four days. The closure of U.S. Embassies in Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam was prompted by what officials described as security threats that preceded the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The...

The second front in America's war on terror is yielding limited results THE arrival in January of 1,200 American soldiers in sleepy Basilan island in the southern Philippines drew attention to a wider threat of international terrorism in South-East Asia. Abu Sayyaf, a militant group the Americans have been helping to fight, is just one of many in the region, after all. Its founder, Abubakar Janjalani, trained with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Two of the September 11th hijackers had spent time in Malaysia. Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the first bombing of the World Trade Centre, in 1993, used...

JAKARTA, 27 July — Seven Saudi nationals have been expelled from the Indonesian province of Maluku, the scene of years of bloody Muslim-Christian clashes, it was announced yesterday. The Saudis, who arrived Wednesday, were expelled because they did not have the special permit required of foreign visitors to the Malukus, said provincial Gov. Saleh Latuconsina. Latuconsina said he did not know why the Saudis had come to the province, according to the state Antara news agency. "In principle, any foreigner visiting Maluku without the special permit will be expelled, as part of efforts to prevent any untoward eventuality," he said....

A WOMAN died when a bomb exploded on a bus near Poso, a town in central Sulawesi with a history of violence between Muslims and Christians, media reports said today. It was the second deadly bus bombing in the region in the past two months. On June 7, four people died in a similar incident. The Jakarta Post newspaper said a woman died and four other passengers were injured in yesterday's blast, which occurred just outside Poso, a district capital and the site of much of the religious violence. It said nobody had claimed responsibility for the explosion. Authorities in...

<p>AMBON, Indonesia--For violent religious conflict--especially between Muslims and non-Muslims--the world's attention is directed at the Mideast and the threats emanating from al Qaeda.</p> <p>But this archipelago nation has its own share of bloody discord, and like other countries facing such trouble it is attempting its version of a peace process, with mixed results so far.</p>