Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Southeast Asia

Experts: Extremist groups spread disinformation online to provoke conflict during Indonesian election

2024-01-07

[Be arNews] Radical and bully boy groups in Indonesia have spread political disinformation online ahead of next month’s general election, with hoax content on the internet up nearly 80% last year compared with during the 2019 election, experts said. The intent isn’t to influence the election result, researchers said, but to provoke conflict in society and undermine the electoral process ahead of the nationwide polls set for Feb. 14 in Southeast Asia’s largest country.

Hoaxes and fabricated stories about the election have been circulating on social media platforms like Facebook, X, and Instagram. While some are mere political mudslinging, others could have serious repercussions, observers said.

Husen Asyhari, from LPTI Pelataran Mataram, a research institute in Yogyakarta, sees a clear attempt to deliberately mislead the electorate with false information.

"There are efforts to influence voters through targeted disinformation, and some of it comes from terrorist groups with a historical anti-democratic stance," Husen told BenarNews.

Among the groups Husen was referring to are Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which was responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings, and the Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group-linked Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), members of which targeted three churches almost simultaneously in suicide kabooms in Surabaya in 2018.

Both groups want Indonesia to be governed by Islamic law.

In fact, in late October police said they had arrested 59 suspected faceless myrmidons from across the country belonging to JI and JAD as part of a pre-polls crackdown. Those arrested included the leader of a 40-member JAD team suspected of planning to disrupt the election, police said.

The Indonesian Anti-Defamation Society (Mafindo), which provided the data on the increase in hoax content in 2023 versus 2019, researched how much and what kind of fake material was put online last year. Mafindo said it identified 2,178 pieces of hoax content from Jan. 1 to Dec. 22 last year, with 53% of that related to political disinformation.

LGBT ISSUES A TARGET

A fashionable subject in the West, so everyone else needs to address it as well, I guess.

With the race for the presidency set to be among three candidates,Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, former Central Java Gov. Ganjar Pranowo, and ex-Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan, who is popular among conservative Moslems, they have become targets, of course.

Among the plethora of disinformation was a TikTok video that claimed without basis that Anies would establish a caliphate if he became president.

According to Mafindo, some online hoax content has targeted Ganjar and his running mate, Mohammad Mahfud MD, over their alleged views on pornography and LGBTQI+ issues.

One of the fabricated stories claimed that ruling party nominee Ganjar had admitted to watching pornography since he was a child. However,
some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go...
according to Mafindo, he had only said, "So what if I watch pornography?" without a word about his childhood.

Another piece of fakery circulated on Facebook was a doctored photograph of Ganjar kissing a very young woman, with a post above the picture saying: "If this kind of person becomes the president, Indonesia will be destroyed."

A false story attributed a statement to Mahfud MD that being LGBTQI+ was natural. Mafindo verified this was false and Mahfud MD denied making such a statement.

Link

Southeast Asia

Report: Muslim militants remain a threat in Indonesia’s Poso region despite crackdown

2023-06-29

[BenarNews] Moslem murderous Moslems remain active in Central Sulawesi’s Poso regency despite years of Indonesian security operations, de-radicalization programs and the recent elimination of a group that had terrorized the populace, according to a report published Tuesday.

Authorities last year declared they had finally wiped out the Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT), a pro-Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group that carried out deadly attacks for more than a decade, but Poso is vulnerable to the rebirth of radicalization because bully boy networks still exist, said the new report by the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict.

Link

Southeast Asia

Task force commander urges gradual end to counter-militancy operations in Poso

2022-10-05

[BenarNews] Although government forces have wiped out the Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT) organization, counter-militancy operations in Central Sulawesi should be terminated gradually because sympathizers of murderous Moslem groups are still present there, a security bigshot said.

Last week, authorities announced that they had killed the last armed member of MIT, after seven years of tracking a dwindling number of runaways in the region’s forested mountains.

A decision is expected soon from authorities in Jakarta on what personnel are needed in Central Sulawesi to ensure that the province is safe post-MIT, senior Police Commissioner Arif Budiman told BenarNews.

"Radical groups and Jemaah Islamiyah sympathizers in Poso and its surroundings still exist," Arif told BenarNews, referring to a regency that was a hotbed of MIT activity. He did not name groups other than JI, the al-Qaeda affiliate that carried out major bombings in Bali in 2002 and 2005.

Arif heads the 1,378-strong Madago Raya Task Force operating in three regencies of Central Sulawesi — the latest in a series of joint police and military operations deployed in the region since 2015.

He said that termination of such operations should be "carried out in stages."

The last known MIT member, Al Ikhwarisman (also known as Jaid and Pak Guru), 34, was rubbed out by members of Densus 88 in Poso Pesisir Utara district on Sept. 29, authorities said.

MIT was formed in 2010, rooted in the bloody conflict between the Moslem-Christian community in Poso that killed more than 1,000 people between 1998 and 2001. It was known for terrorizing local farmers, occasionally beheading them, and as the first turban group in Indonesia to pledge allegiance to the Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
, in June 2014.

The following year, Indonesia deployed a joint military-police security operation aimed at wiping out MIT, which at the time had about 40 members, including three foreigners. MIT’s leader at the time, Santoso, was killed in 2016.

Bambang Rukminto, an analyst at the Institute for Security and Strategic Studies (ISESS), said the police refusal to immediately disband the "ad-hoc" task force could be financially motivated.

"My guess is that one of the reasons is because of vested interests, the idea that the task force is a [lucrative] project," Bambang told BenarNews.

Yanuardi Syukur, a researcher at the University of Indonesia’s Center for Strategic Policy Studies, said the operation should be wrapped up.

"Logically, when the last terrorist is removed, the operation is also over," Yanuardi said.

Authorities could instead now engage religious leaders to promote religious moderation and award scholarships to young people in Poso to boost their education, he said.

"The government needs to win the hearts and minds of the people so that together they can live in peace," he said.

Link

Southeast Asia

Uyghur convict in Indonesia deported amid fears he was sent to China

2022-09-28

[BenarNews] Indonesia deported a Uyghur terror convict in July after he served his sentence, police revealed without saying where he was sent amid fears that he was expelled to China which, the United Nations
...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly...
says, represses Uyghurs and other Moslem minorities.

Ahmet Bozoglan, 35, who was convicted in 2015, had a ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish passport when he was arrested in Poso, a regency in Central Sulawesi province, the year before.

Link

Southeast Asia

Repentant former Islamic militant works to draw youth away from radicalism

2022-08-31

[BenarNews] At 36, Supriyadi has twice been in prison for terror-related activities in Poso, a regency in Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province once torn by Moslem-Christian violence.

Now, the repentant co-founder of the Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT) murderous Moslem organization wants to dedicate his life to drawing people away from extremism because, he says, he still has a conscience and opposes the killing of civilians.

Authorities have said that MIT members were responsible for several killings, not only of coppers, but of civilians they suspected were police informants, in Poso and its surroundings since 2012.

In May 2021, MIT killed four farmers in Central Sulawesi, and six months earlier, they killed four villagers living in a Christian community in Sigi regency near Poso. Similarly, in 2015, MIT suspects beheaded at least three non-Moslem farmers in Parigi Moutong regency.

These killings troubled Supriyadi (alias Upik Pagar).

"I still have a conscience. I don’t want to kill people carelessly. I disagree with MIT’s [killing of civilians.] That’s why I don’t want to deal with them anymore," he told BenarNews.

"Killing farmers, it is very wrong and not in line with the jihad struggle that I believe in."

Supriyadi was a member of the al Qaeda-affiliated Jemaah Islamiyah, the group behind the 2002 Bali bombings, when he was first arrested in 2007 for illegal possession of firearms.

After his release in December 2009, he returned to Poso and sought out friends from his former terror organization to form JI’s splinter group, the Poso-based Jamaah Anshorut Tauhid (JAT), the following year.

"You could say I’m one of the founders of Poso-based JAT," he said, adding that JAT later became MIT with a new man running it.

Like its predecessor, MIT, too, aimed to establish an Islamic caliphate. But, before the group could could carry out any attacks, Supriyadi was again arrested by the anti-terror squad in 2011.

"I was also charged with engaging in military training. I was sentenced to four years in prison," he said.

Even though he tried to stay away from MIT after his release in 2015, Supriyadi was contacted by the murderous Moslem group several times.

"They knew when I was free, that’s why they kept contacting me through their people," Supriyadi said.

He still refused to engage with them, because he was determined not to return to the path of violence, he said.

Since then he has been working on his small business of raising chickens for eggs and with efforts to promote peace and spread the message to the youth to move away from radicalism.

"Thank God, my life is getting better. The profit from business is sufficient for living expenses with the family. All three of my children have also gone to school," he said.

Supriyadi has since worked with an ex-terrorist on a film, "Courier," that tells the true story of a cocoa farmer who was forced to become a courier for an Islamic murderous Moslem group so he could keep working his fields without fear of attack.

"For my brothers who are still with the [MIT] group, wherever you are, repent, remember your wives and children at home," he said.

The former murderous Moslem said he wanted his former enemy, the government, to pay more attention to repentant ex-convicts.

"The regional government in Poso knows that we are no longer active in radical groups and terrorism. But they don’t pay attention to us, except for the BNPT [National Counterterrorism Agency] and NGOs," Supriyadi said.

He said he is ready to work with the government to campaign against radicalism so that the younger generation in Indonesia, especially Poso, doesn’t get involved in the activities of radical groups.

"Because I used to be a perpetrator, of course I know how to prevent these young people from trusting and wanting to join krazed killer groups," he said.

"To the government: ’If you want to take me, I’m always ready.’"

Link

Southeast Asia

Police: Arrested IS-linked militants sought to join MIT insurgents in Central Sulawesi

2022-05-20

[BenarNews] Many of the 24 suspects arrested in Central Sulawesi with alleged links to a pro-Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
holy warrior group wanted to join another hard boy outfit whose decimated membership has dwindled to two, Indonesian police said Wednesday without disclosing details.

The suspects are members of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah

...founded by our old friend Abu Bakar Bashir of Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah fame, JAD translates cleverly as Partisans of the Islamic State, but really only means (Wink! Wink!) ISIS in Indonesia...
(JAD), a domestic holy warrior network affiliated with IS, said Sr. Commissioner Arif Budiman, the head of an operation tasked with hunting down the last remaining holdouts from the Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT) group in the mountains and jungles of Central Sulawesi province.

"All of them are members of JAD. Various pieces of evidence were seized," Arif told BenarNews, adding that the arrests were a "pre-emptive" move to stop them from joining the two MIT runaways and carry out acts of terrorism.

Arif said the 24 suspects were being held in Poso, a regency in Central Sulawesi where MIT holy warriors, who are accused of carrying out beheadings and bombings, have been most active.

MIT is one of two pro-IS groups operating in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Moslem-majority country. The other is JAD, which Indonesian authorities have blamed for most terror attacks in the archipelago nation during the past six years.

Earlier this week, national police front man Ahmad Ramadhan said that some of the two dozen suspects had pledged allegiance to the overall IS leader, Abu Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, through the WhatsApp messaging service. al-Qurayshi died during a counter-terrorism raid by U.S. special forces in Syria this past February.

Some of the suspects had sought to deliver food and other supplies to the MIT Lions of Islam on the run or had withheld information about them, according to Ramadhan.

Police seized eight rifles, silencers, a revolver, and hundreds of bullets from the suspects, he said.

On Wednesday, police also said they had had arrested two more JAD holy warrior suspects, bringing to 26 the number of people who have been nabbed since Saturday.

"Both are Poso residents and supporters who wanted to join MIT," Provincial police front man Didik Supranoto told BenarNews, without providing details on accusations against them.

Authorities believe that MIT’s strength has been reduced to two people after security forces killed Suhardin (also known as Hasan Pranata) during a shootout in Parigi Moutong regency last month.

On Sept. 18, 2021, police and military members of the Madago Raya task force shot full of holes Ali Kalora, MIT’s top commander at the time, and a follower identified as Jaka Ramadhan in the jungles of Parigi Moutong.

In January 2016, the government launched Operation Tinombala, a joint military-police task force, with a mission to capture or kill MIT holy warriors. The name changed to Madago Raya (Kindness), as part of a strategy that focused on humanitarian and social activities, police said.

‘EXCESSIVE’
Meanwhile,
...back at the shootout, Butch clutched at his other leg......
a member of the Central Sulawesi legislative council, Muhaimin Yunus Hadi, called the arrests "excessive" and said they involved the destruction of several residential homes in Poso and Tojo Unauna regency.

"Ten residents complained to me that their family members who were arrested were treated badly by the Densus," Muhaimin told BenarNews in Palu, referring to the anti-terror police unit.

He said relatives of the suspects had been left in the dark about their loved ones’ status.

"From the reports I have received, those arrested were mostly youths, some of them teenagers," he said, adding that those arrested included ordinary residents and construction workers.

Andi Akbar, a member of the Central Sulawesi Moslem Legal Team, which provides legal representation for suspected holy warriors, said he received information that officers had acted unlawfully, including intimidating residents.

"Densus even destroyed several residents’ houses. We are still collecting reports from residents in Poso and Tojo Unauna," he told BenarNews.

Akbar said a mother had not received news about the whereabouts of her son.

"Maybe her child was one of those arrested," he said.

"If that’s the case, Densus should provide information to the family so they don’t panic."

Link

Southeast Asia

Indonesia’s manhunt for MIT holdouts drags on

2022-04-06

[BenarNews] The men moved stealthily through the jungle, squatting back-to-back, aiming their weapons into the green shadows and spaces as they scanned the terrain in search of an elusive target.

They carried loaded Steyr rifles, AK-101s, and Sig Sauer pistols as they patrolled a mountainside in Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province, as part of a manhunt to catch or kill members of the dreaded pro-Islamic State

Link

Southeast Asia

Indonesian Forces Gun Down Suspected Pro-IS Militant in Central Sulawesi Mountains

2022-01-05

[BenarNews] Indonesian security forces on Tuesday rubbed out a suspected member of a pro-Islamic State

His death brought the number of suspected members of the Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT) down to three men, according to officials.

Link

Southeast Asia

Indonesian Court Condemns Militant Bomb-maker to Life in Prison

2021-12-09

[BenarNews] An Indonesian court sentenced a bomb-maker for the Jemaah Islamiyah holy warrior group to life in prison on Wednesday for his involvement in a series of deadly bombings in Central Sulawesi province in the mid-2000s.

JI still has other members who are skilled in bomb-making, thanks to their participating in military training in places such as Afghanistan, the southern Philippines and Syria.

The 42-year-old defendant, Taufiq Bulaga (also known as Upik Lawanga), one of the top leaders of JI, a regional holy warrior network affiliated with al-Qaeda, was arrested late last year after being on the run for 14 years. Indonesian authorities have blamed JI for carrying out the 2002 Bali bombings — the country’s deadliest terrorist attack to date — as well as attacks on hotels in Jakarta in the 2000s, among other atrocities.

Judges at the East Jakarta District Court found Taufiq guilty of assembling bombs used in three terrorist attacks that left 29 people dead in Poso regency, which was the scene of Moslem-Christian violence at the turn of the century.

Link

Southeast Asia

Indonesian Analysts: MIT Leader’s Killing May Bring about Militant Group’s Demise

2021-09-22

[BenarNews] The killing of an Indonesian hard boy leader during a shootout with police in Central Sulawesi province may spell the demise of his pro-Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group because he had no apparent successor, terrorism analysts said.

The deaths reduced MIT’s members to four, with police vowing to capture the remnants "dead or alive."

Security forces bumped off Ali Kalora, the top commander of the Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT), and one of his followers who was identified as Jaka Ramadhan, in the jungles of Parigi Moutong regency on Saturday. The deaths reduced MIT’s members to four, with police vowing to capture the remnants "dead or alive."

Link

Southeast Asia

Indonesia Retrieves Most-Wanted Militant's Body From Jungle

2021-09-20

[ENGLISH.AAWSAT] The bodies of Indonesia’s most wanted holy warrior with ties to ISIS group and a follower, who were killed in a jungle shootout with security forces, were evacuated early Sunday to a police hospital for further investigation, police said.

The military earlier said the Death Eaters killed late Saturday were Ali Kalora, leader of the East Indonesia Mujahideen network that has claimed several killings of coppers and minority Christians, and another suspected krazed killer, Jaka Ramadan, also known as Ikrima.

The two men were fatally shot by a joint team of military and coppers in Central Sulawesi province’s mountainous Parigi Moutong district. It borders Poso district, considered an krazed killer hotbed in the province.

Several pictures obtained by The News Agency that Dare Not be Named from authorities showed an M16 rifle and backpacks laid near their bloodied bodies. The Central Sulawesi Police Chief Rudy Sufahriadi told a news conference on Sunday that security forces also seized two ready-to-use bombs from their backpacks, which also contained food and camping tools.

He said the bodies of Kalora and his follower have been evacuated to a police hospital in Palu, the bucolic provincial capital, after the rugged terrain and darkness hampered earlier evacuation efforts from the scene of the shootout in the forested village of Astina.

"We urged the other four wanted hard boyz to immediately surrender and dare to take responsibility for their actions before the law," said Sufahriadi, referring to remaining members of the East Indonesia Mujahideen who are still on the lam in the jungle on Sulawesi island.

The holy warrior group pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2014, and Indonesia has intensified its security operations in the area in recent months to try to capture its members, particularly the leader, Kalora.

Two months ago, security forces killed two suspected members in a raid in the same mountainous district, several days after authorities claimed that Kalora and three group members planned to surrender. The surrender was reportedly cancelled after other members rejected the plan.

Kalora had eluded capture for more than a decade. He took over leadership of the group from Abu Wardah Santoso, who was killed by security forces in July 2016. Dozens of other leaders and members have been killed or captured since then.

Link

Southeast Asia

Indonesia's most wanted ISIS militant killed in shootout

2021-09-19

[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Indonesia’s most wanted bully boy with ties to ISIS was killed Saturday in a shootout with security forces, the military said, in a victory for the counterterrorism campaign against snuffies in the jungles of Sulawesi island.

Ali Kalora was one of two holy warriors killed in the shootout, said Central Sulawesi’s regional military chief Brig. Gen. Farid Makruf. He identified the other suspected murderous Moslem as Jaka Ramadan.

The two men were fatally shot during a raid late Saturday by a joint team of military and coppers in Central Sulawesi province’s mountainous Parigi Moutong district, Makruf said. It borders Poso district, considered an murderous Moslem hotbed in the province.

"Ali Kalora was the most wanted terrorist and leader of MIT," Makruf said, referring to the Indonesian acronym of the East Indonesia Mujahideen network, an murderous Moslem bully boy group that pledged allegiance to the ISIS in 2014.

He said that security forces were searching for the four remaining members of the group.

The East Indonesia Mujahideen

..also Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen, known locally as Mujahidin Indonesia Timur (MIT). One of two ISIS provinces in Indonesia, they swore allegiance to ISIS in 2014...

has grabbed credit for several killings of coppers and minority Christians.

Security operations in Central Sulawesi have intensified in recent months to try to capture members of the network, particularly targeting Ali Kalora, the group’s leader.

Kalora had eluded capture for more than a decade. He took over from Abu Wardah Santoso, who was killed by security forces in July 2016. Dozens of other leaders and members of the group have been killed or captured since then.

In May, the holy warriors killed four Christians in Kalemago village in Poso district, including one who was beheaded. Authorities said the attack was in Dire Revenge for the killing in March of two bully boys, including Santoso’s son.

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Moslem-majority nation, has kept up a crackdown on holy warriors since bombings on the tourist island of Bali in 2002 killed 202 people, mostly foreigners.

Benar News adds:

Indonesian security forces on Saturday said they shot dead a man believed to be an Islamic State-linked militant group’s leader, reducing the outfit to four people.

Two bodies, believed to be of Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT) leader Ali Kalora and one of his followers, are yet to be recovered from the jungles of the mountainous Parigi Moutong regency in Central Sulawesi province, said Brig. Gen. Farid Makruf.

“There was an exchange of gunfire and two terrorists were killed,” Farid, the deputy chief of an operation to hunt down MIT suspects, told BenarNews.

“[They] are suspected to be Ali and Jaka,” he said, referring to the other militant suspect Jaka Ramadan.

The operation to hunt MIT suspects, codenamed Madago Raya, conducts regular patrols in Parigi Moutong and surrounding areas.

Still, the militant outfit in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country has been a thorn in the side of security forces despite its reduced numbers from a high of 40 in its early years. MIT has survived in the mountains and jungles of the province of Central Sulawesi, terrain the group knows well.

The province’s Poso regency – that abuts Parigi Moutong – has long been a hotbed of MIT activity, and is an area that security forces find difficult to penetrate, Inspector Gen. Imam Sugianto, the national police deputy for operations, told BenarNews late last year.

MIT’s insurgency in the country’s Sulawesi region has its roots in a bloody Muslim-Christian conflict at the turn of the century, which left more than 1,000 people dead between 1998 and 2001.

The outfit pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group in 2014. MIT’s now-dead founder Santoso was the first Indonesian militant to pledge allegiance to IS publicly.

MIT has claimed responsibility for killing many police officers and minority Christians. In May, members of the group killed four farmers in Central Sulawesi. And in November last year, they killed four villagers living in a Christian community in Sigi regency near Poso.

The group is one of two pro-Islamic State groups operating in Indonesia. The other is Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), which authorities have blamed for terror attacks in the archipelago nation during the past five years.

In May, police said MIT had split into two groups in an attempt to elude authorities, with one group led by Kalora, active in Sigi regency, and the other under the leadership of Muhammad Busra, or Qatar, operating in Poso. Qatar was killed in a security raid in Central Sulawesi province in July, and with Kalora’s supposed death, MIT appears to be on its last legs.

Earlier this year, Farid said Ali and his followers wanted to turn themselves in to the authorities but feared reprisals after the faction led by Qatar threatened to kill their families.

Farid said intelligence suggested that Ali and Qatar had been at odds since the death of Santoso, who was killed by security forces in 2016.

Kalora had eluded capture for more than a decade, the Associated Press news agency reported, citing Madago Raya deputy chief Farid.

Link

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