Keyko Ranti Ramadhani & Ronna Nirmala – The US government's decision to declare convicted terrorist Abu Bakar Bashir's Jamaah Anshorut Tauhid group a terrorist organization will not affect its status in Indonesia, officials said on Friday.
The United States announced on Thursday that it was placing sanctions on three leading members of JAT and banned US citizens and businesses from engaging in transactions with them.
In Indonesia, responding on Friday to media reports about the ban, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said any US decision only applies in the United States.
"If a country decides to brand an organization as a terrorist group, then it applies only regionally or locally. To apply globally, it [the decision] must be through a UN [United Nations] resolution," he said. The minister added that Indonesia had yet to receive any formal notification of the ban.
JAT leaders claimed to be amused by the US attention. "JAT is a small organization compared to others, but the funny thing is that we have been declared a threat," JAT spokesman Son Hadi bin Muhadjir said with a laugh on Friday.
Son Hadi said he saw the US declaration as evidence of paranoia, describing the accusations as wild and lacking substance. He added that he suspected the timing of the announcement was meant to undermine Bashir's appeal with the Supreme Court against his terrorism conviction. Bashir is serving nine years in prison for funding terrorist activities.
The US State Department said JAT, which Bashir founded, was behind a Java church bombing last September, deadly attacks on Indonesian policemen and bank robberies to raise money for weapons and bomb materials.
"JAT seeks to establish an Islamic caliphate in Indonesia, and has carried out numerous attacks on Indonesian government personnel and civilians in order to achieve this goal," it said in a statement.
The US Treasury also announced its ban on conducting transactions with three JAT leaders. They are the group's acting leader, Mochammad Achwan, spokesman Son Hadi, and Abdul Rosyid Ridho Ba'asyir, a recruiter and fund-raiser.
The United States "is taking another step to ensure that terrorists are cut off from the international financial system and find it ever more difficult to carry out their acts of violence, no matter where they are based," said Adam Szubin, director of the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.
The Indonesian police, however, will not ban JAT. National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Saud Usman Nasution said the United States could make any decision it wanted, but JAT can "carry on in Indonesia as long as it is not breaking the law."
Still, National Police Chief Gen. Timur Pradopo said the police would monitor its activities.
"We will follow it up. I just heard the news," he said, adding that the police would discuss the issue with the Foreign Ministry. "We should be careful because terrorism is a cross-border crime," he said.
Lawmaker T.B. Hasnuddin challenged the United States to prove its accusation. "They should be careful in branding a group as terrorists," he said. "The US should support its claim with evidence."
[Additional reporting from AFP, Antara & Ezra Sihite.]