H. CENTRAL SUMATRA
Pekanbaru is the base for the Central Sumatra wakalah, headed by Paiman Achmad as of 2003. Building on a long-established Darul Islam base, it almost certainly had cells in Dumai, Batam, Bukittinggi, Padang Panjang and Bengkulu, among other places, but we have no specifics on its qirdas or fiah. Several Riau-based JI members were drawn into the Marriott operation, in part because they had ties to JIs Pesantren Lukmanul Hakiem in Johor, Malaysia and knew Noordin Moh Top directly. Because Abu Dujana, the man near the top of Indonesias most wanted list today, also taught for years at Lukmanul Hakiem, the central Sumatra wakalah probably deserves more scrutiny than it may be receiving.
The wakalah has been in existence since the mid-1990s. Masrizal als Tohir notes that after he was inducted into JI at Pondok Ngruki around 1994, he was introduced to Paiman Achmad as the wakalah head for central Sumatra. After graduating, Masrizal was sent back to Riau to work with Paiman as a dai (preacher) for the wakalah.
I. WEST NUSA TENGGARA
JI has long had a presence in East Lombok, with a few Ngruki alumni in western Sumbawa and eastern Flores. In 2003, the head of the Nusrat (Nusa Tenggara Barat) wakalah was Abdullah alias Yazid, and there is no reason to believe this has changed. JI has periodically done military training in Korleko, east Lombok, the area where Abu Jibril, a close associate of Abu Bakar Baasyir, was born. JI-affiliated schools in the wakalah include Pondok Pesantren Hasan Al-Banna (now Pesantren Ibnu Masud) and one in Dompu, Sumbawa. It is known that some efforts to recruit students from universities in Mataram have been made through a campus-based dakwah program.
In April 2006, a Singapore JI member, Mohamed Abdul Rashid bin Zainul Abidin, was arrested in Tongo, Sekongkang, West Sumbawa, where he had been quietly teaching in a pesantren after fleeing Singapore in December 2001.
There is no information on the qirdas or fiah in eastern Indonesia but total membership may be less than 25.
J. CENTRAL SULAWESI
JI had one wakalah in Central Sulawesi before the first Bali bombs and added two in late 2002, one in Poso and one in Pendolo, near the border with south Sulawesi. As noted above, these fell under Mantiqi III, a structure which may no longer exist.
We know the most about Palu, from documents found in 2003. At the time, there were three qirdas, each with two fiah, for a total membership of 45, not counting the wakalah command structure overseeing it all (probably at least another five). In April 2003, a few top leaders were arrested for harbouring JI colleagues fleeing Java in the aftermath of the Bali bombs; two, Firmansyah and Nizam Khaleb, were released in early 2007. The arrests were a body blow but recruitment reportedly shifted to the prison where those leaders were detained. Further arrests took place in May 2006 and early 2007, netting a man named Abdul Muis, responsible for the assassination of a senior Protestant leader in Palu in October 2006 and information about others. These arrests may have shaken the organisation again but there is no reason to believe the Palu wakalah has dissolved.
The Poso wakalah is a different story. Under the leadership of Hasanuddin, sentenced in March 2007 to twenty years in prison for masterminding the beheadings of three Christian schoolgirls, it actually grew between late 2002, when he was appointed, and early 2006, when he was arrested. A steady stream of ustadz from Java, who held religious study sessions across Poso and neighbouring districts, brought in new recruits. Based at a pesantren in the Tanah Runtuh complex in the Gebangrejo neighborhood of Poso, the wakalah was almost certainly larger than Palus, particularly because JI saw Poso as having potential to become a secure base for establishment and expansion of an Islamic community. Those opposed to bombings of Western targets saw violence in Poso as serving the purpose of establishing that base, playing on the deep sense of injustice among Poso Muslims and other grievances left over from the conflict.
The January 2007 raids by the counter-terror police may well have smashed the Poso operation, especially because it relied so heavily on Javanese who have since fled the area and because the religious indoctrination by those ustadz does not seem to have sunk in very deeply among many of the young local recruits. But because the old grievances remain, the possibility of new recruitment or re-recruitment in the area will remain and Poso should not be written off as solved.
The much smaller wakalah in Pendolo included the town of Palopo in south Sulawesi within its ambit but was probably no more than ten people. A key member, Mujadid alias Brekele, was arrested in central Java in March 2007; his capture may lead to the arrest of others and perhaps the dismantling of the Pendolo structure.
If one estimates the three central Sulawesi wakalahs had a combined total of well over 100 people in 2003 and probably more by 2005, the combination of deaths, arrests, and flight in late 2006-early 2007 has probably only temporarily stilled activities. With tensions created by post-conflict problems, decentralisation and corruption, this area deserves ongoing attention.
Terrorism
