Ulma Haryanto – The police and the Islamic Defenders Front have denied again allegations of collusion that resurfaced with the latest release of leaked US embassy cables from WikiLeaks.

"From the beginning, there have always been [allegations] like this, that we were funded by the military, by Bin Laden, by Saudis," said Ahmad Shabri Lubis, secretary general of the front known as the FPI. "They can say anything they like, but we get our funds from our members."

The unredacted US diplomatic cables were released by the anti-secrecy Web site last week and go into more detail than earlier allegations, including naming sources who provided the US Embassy in Jakarta with information.

One cable, classified "secret" and dated May 9, 2006, states that a contact within the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), Yahya Asagaf, had "sufficiently close contacts within" the FPI to warn the embassy that it would be attacked by the group on Feb. 19, 2006, during protests against the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

The contact accused then-National Police Chief Gen. Sutanto, now head of the BIN, of providing the FPI with funds prior to the attack and cutting off funding after the incident.

"When we questioned [the contact's] allegation that Sutanto funded the FPI, Yahya said the police chief found it useful to have the FPI available to him as an 'attack dog,'" the cable states.

Yahya also characterized the FPI as a tool that could spare the security forces from "criticism for human rights violations," adding that funding the FPI was a "tradition" of the police and BIN.

Another cable alleges the FPI had close contacts with former Jakarta Police Chief Nugroho Djayusman, who admitted the connections to embassy officials.

"He then explained defensively that it was natural for him, as the Jakarta police chief, to have contacts with all sorts of organizations," the cable continued. "This was necessary because the sudden release of energy from the Islamists, who had been repressed under [former president] Suharto, could have posed a security risk.

"'But it doesn't mean I was involved,' he said, distancing himself from responsibility for any violent activities."

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Cmdr. Baharuddin Djafar also denied the accusations. "We have no links [with the FPI]," he said. "If they are funded by the BIN, then you'll have to ask them. But [alleging links to the police] is slander."

Ismail Hasani, from the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace, said the cables had little that was new about the FPI's funding sources. "This is what they call counter-intelligence," he said. "In the end, what they do is to gather clues on the elements that may threaten the state."