Heru Andriyanto & Nurdin Hasan – Aceh offers many advantages as a safe haven for Jemaah Islamiyah to regroup, experts and sources said on Wednesday, following the arrests of four suspected members of the shadowy terror group in the province.

"Aceh is the only province to apply Shariah law and has maritime access to Malaysia and Thailand," said Badrus Sholeh, a terrorism expert at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University in Jakarta. "It's no news that JI has cells in Aceh. The group has been there maybe since the mid-'90s."

Officials in Aceh, who spoke to the Jakarta Globe on condition of anonymity, said the militant group picked Aceh because intensive police operations to monitor the movements of terror suspects were being continuously conducted in regions like Poso, Central Sulawesi, and Kalimantan, as well as Jolo Island in the southern Philippines. This has forced the group to seek secluded locations where it could conduct paramilitary training exercises discreetly.

"It sure looked to us like that they wanted Aceh to become a base for their training," one source said. "Aceh could have been picked because of its historical background. Many believe that Islam was introduced into Southeast Asia via the province of Aceh. Maybe, they wanted to repeat history, in terms of reviving [fundamental aspects of] Islam in this region."

The source added that the group seemed to remain almost isolated and participants in the training were seldom seen mingling with locals.

"Acehnese are actually very tired of conflict and want to have nothing to do with armed groups or movements," the source said. "That armed group, by the way, had nothing to do with GAM [Free Aceh Movement]. There was nothing local about them. The practices they held and their movements and their beliefs... need to be studied further."

Aceh Police Chief Insp. Gen. Aditya Warman said on Wednesday that the armed group considered the rugged mountains and forested regions of Aceh Besar the ideal location to set up base and conduct paramilitary training.

"They were undisturbed there. They believed that if they conducted such exercises there, it would only be linked to local conditions," Aditya said, a day after he confirmed the arrests as well as an ongoing hunt for 50 other suspects in the mountainous region of Jalin Jantho.

"The [training] exercises... in the beginning shocked us. The number [of people] was huge. It is not that we neglected security. Aceh is safe now, and probably that is why they thought they could come in and do whatever they wanted to."

Police detected the paramilitary training last September but chose to secretly monitor the activities before finally moving in to make arrests in an operation involving more than 100 officers from the Aceh Police and the elite Mobile Brigade.

Badrus said the arrests offered proof that JI still existed and that the danger it posed remained as potent as it was before its charismatic leader, Noordin Mohamad Top, was killed by police late last year. "Noordin was in Indonesia for at least nine years, long enough to prepare his successors," Badrus said.

Another expert said JI's existence depended largely on the spirit of martyrdom shared among its members, rather than on one particular leader.

"For militant groups like JI, abandoning martyrdom or jihad is equal to apostasy, which is considered among the worst sins for Muslims," said Al Chaidir, a former member of Darul Islam, of which, according to him, JI was a splinter group.

"They will not give up fighting until their goal, namely establishing an Islamic nation or upholding Islamic law, is achieved," he told the Globe. "Therefore, the government must not give up measures to 'de-radicalize' such groups."

Instead of crippling JI, the death of Noordin was seen by his followers as a "noble example" of heroism that could potentially attract members, he said.

Badrus also said the developments in Aceh showed militants didn't limit their targets to Java.

"Sumatra is not just a place to regroup. We've noted that several groups, such as the so-called Palembang group, have planned attacks in Sumatra," he said. "Their targets are what they call the infidels and activities considered to be an affront to Islam."