Jakarta – Groups of militant Indonesian Muslims on Sunday showed up at five international hotels in the Central Java city of Solo, demanding to know if any American citizens were staying there.
Six groups of Muslims, each of about 25 to 30 men, separately checked the five hotels and the city's airport, Detikcom online said. No US citizens were found.
The men, claiming to belong to the Anti-American Terrorist Force, checked with reception staff at the Novotel Hotel, the Sahid Raya, the Agas, the Solo Quality Hotel and Lor Inn and with officials at the Adi Sumarmo airport.
The hotel sweep came despite a call by the central Java military commander, Major General Sumarsono, for Muslims to refrain from intimidation of Americans in the face of possible US reprisal strikes on Afghanistan.
Detikcom said that the force comprised members of several known militant and hardline Islamic organizations in Solo, including the Muhajedin and Hezbollah forces, the Solo chapter of the Front for the Defenders of Islam, the Al Islah an Jundullah forces and the Hawariyun and Salamah groups.
They also left pamphlets warning: "If Afghanistan is attacked, people from America and its allies should leave Solo." The spokesman of the operation, Abdul Khoir, told Detikcom that the sweep was just a taste of what was to come should the US attack Afghanistan.
Another leader of the operation, identified only as Kalono, said that the move was a sign that Americans should not take their threat lightly. "This action shows that we are not playing around in retaliating, if the mother of all terrorists, which calls itself America, attacks Afghanistan. Even just the threat of the attack is already an act of terrorism," Kalono said.
Nine hardline Indonesian Islamic groups on Wednesday threatened to raid US facilities and expel Americans nationwide if Washington attacked Afghanistan, believed to be harbouring Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in September 11's attacks on New York and Washington.
Earlier on Sunday, several moderate Muslim groups had opposed the plans. "We do not need to expel US citizens, staging protests would be enough. Indonesia is an open country," Imam Addaruqutni, who heads the youth group affiliated to the country's second largest Muslim organization, the Muhammadiyah, was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying.
One of the co-chairmen of the country's highest authority on Islam, the Indonesian Council of Ulemas (MUI), Amidhan, also told the same daily that peaceful protests were more than adequate as a response. "Why should they launch raids?," Amidhan said. "Personally I disagree with that plan," he added.
Anti-American protests have been mounting in several cities and towns in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation where more than 80 percent of its some 210 million people follow Islam. On Saturday, hundreds of Muslims held rallies in at least three cities to protest the US threat against Afghanistan. The largest took place in Makassar, the main city in South Sulawesi, where more than 1,000 people rallied at a downtown monument, burning US flags.
On Friday, US Ambassador to Indonesia Rober Gelbard made an official visit to the national police headquarters in Jakarta to demand guarantees of protection for US facilities and citizens. Indonesian police have deployed hundreds of snipers and crack personnel to guard 17 key United States facilities in the capital in view of rising anti-US sentiment.