Terrorist jihad plot in SE Asia
By Kimina Lyall, Southeast Asia correspondent
20sep02
REGIONAL terror cells linked to al-Qa'ida plotted to destabilise relations between Singapore and Malaysia with the aim of toppling Mahathir Mohamad's Government and replacing it with a radical Islamic regime, Singaporean authorities alleged last night.
Details of the plan were released following the announcement this week by the Singaporean Government that its security forces had in August arrested 21 members of the Jemaah Islamiah group, accused of planning to bomb the US embassy and the adjoining Australian and British high commissions.The information released last night included documents and photographs. It is also understood to have been gathered by interrogation of the JI operatives arrested in August and 28 others captured in Singapore and Malaysia in January.
The material suggests a startling and previously unsuspected scale of ambitions for the group, which has operatives in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, The Philippines and Singapore and is linked directly to Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida by its leader, Riduan Isamudin, known as Hambali,
The Singaporeans produced documents indicating JI's ultimate goal was "Daulah Islamiyah . . . an Islamic state comprising Malaysia, Indonesia and Mindanao (in the southern Philippines), following which Singapore and Brunei would eventually be absorbed".
Hambali, an Indonesian cleric and al-Qa'ida's main southeast Asian contact, was the alleged mastermind. Hambali played host to some of the September 11 hijackers at his home south of Kuala Lumpur in 2000 and has known links to 1993 World Trade Centre bomber Ramzi Yousef. His whereabouts is unknown.
"The aim was to create a situation in Malaysia and Singapore conducive to overthrowing the Malaysian Government and making Malaysia an Islamic state," the Singaporeans claimed last night.
Hambali allegedly planned to promote ethnic strife by inflaming chronically prickly relations between ethnic Chinese-dominated Singapore and Malaysia's Muslim Malays.
"He hoped this would create a situation which would make Muslims respond to calls for jihad and turn Malaysia and Singapore into another 'Ambon' (a reference to Christian-Muslim violence in eastern Indonesia)."
Specifically, Singaporean security officials allege, JI planned to attack the city-state's water installations, including the main pipeline from Malaysia.
Water is Singapore and Malaysia's touchiest bilateral issue, because Singapore relies exclusively on importing water from its neighbour.
The group also did surveillance on Changi airport, a US vessel at Changi Naval Base in late 2001, the Defence Ministry and a pub it believed to be popular with American service personnel.
The Singaporean authorities concluded that with the August and January arrests JI operations were "severely disrupted" although threats from regional elements remained.
Other information released last night alleged militant cells in 1999 formed in a regional network called Rabitatul Mujahideen to share resources, including training, financing and arms procurement, among Islamic radicals.
© The Australian
