October 26

Kyodo/Reuters - Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has said the Government will ban Jemaah Islamiah (JI), which is believed to have links with international terrorist network Al Qaeda, if it is proven to exist.

His cautious comments on JI may disappoint Western governments, who have no doubt about the network's presence in the world's most populous Muslim nation and who want the former general to confront terrorism head on.

In an interview to appear in Time magazine's November 1 edition, Mr Yudhoyono said he will review steps being taken to deal with terrorism by judicial, intelligence and police agencies.

His comments come two days before a militant cleric, Abu Bakar Bashir, faces trial on charges of leading JI and involvement in the 2002 Bali blasts that killed 202 people and a strike at a luxury Jakarta hotel last year that killed 12.

According to the new Indonesian President, the review will cover both JI, which is believed to be Al Qaeda's South-East Asia wing, and Islamic boarding schools.

"After the review, if there are explanations and proof that JI as an organisation does exist in Indonesia, and if it is legally proven that its members are involved in terrorist activities, then it will be declared a banned organisation," Mr Yudhoyono said.

Trials against the country's terrorist suspects have so far failed to prove the existence of JI, which allegedly wants to set up an Islamic state in South-East Asia.

Western countries and the United Nations have listed Jemaah Islamiah as a terrorist organisation and banning the group would make it easier for Indonesia to make arrests and stem funding.

But the previous government, in which Mr Yudhoyono was chief security minister until early this year, treaded carefully around the issue for fear of offending mainstream Muslims, partly because the term Jemaah Islamiah in Indonesian means Islamic community.

The President also said the Government will act fairly and carefully due to the issue's sensitivity, particularly in connection with Islamic boarding schools where many of the convicted terrorists in the country have studied.

"This will require communication and the right approach so that law enforcement will not be misunderstood as the Government doing something that is unfair toward certain individuals or religious schools,'' he said.

"We will use the legal process in order for this to become a legal and law enforcement issue, not a political one," he said.

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