http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20023167-601,00.html
Jihadis to 'target Australia'
Natalie O'Brien and Stephen Fitzpatrick
August 05, 2006
Ready to damage Israel: Islamic jihadis Eka Jaya, in camouflage jacket,
and Rahmat Hidayat, holding gun, in Jakarta after enlisting yesterday to fight.
Picture: Edy Purnomo
RAHMAT Hidayat was one of dozens of young Indonesian men who pledged yesterday
to die fighting Israel and its supporters, including Australia.
The 21-year-old politics student registered in Jakarta with the Islamic
Defender Front (FPI) to join the jihad.
Mr Hidayat said he wanted to fight Australia because it always "supported
Israeli movements".
"Not only am I prepared to carry a gun, but if I have a bomb attached to my
body - so long as I can damage Israel - I am ready for that," he told The
Weekend Australian.
As the men enlisted to fight, the Howard Government said it would investigate
claims that another radical group was sending Southeast Asian suicide bombers
around the world to attack Jewish interests in countries that supported Israel,
such as Britain, the US and Australia.
The revelations about the plot by the Asian Muslim Youth Movement have been
raised with the Indonesian National Police by the Australian Federal Police.
An INP spokesman said it was investigating and may have enough reason to
question and detain AMYM leader Suaib Didu if he and the alleged would-be
suicide bombers were found to have violated the law by being in possession of
improper travel documents.
It is understood INP officers will attend today's "passing out" ceremony for
thousands of AMYM jihadi recruits on the northern Indonesian island of
Kalimantan.
Mr Didu was travelling to Kalimantan last night to attend the ceremony.
He has claimed the plot to attack Jewish interests is being funded in part by
Australian-Indonesian businessmen.
He said earlier this week that 217 jihadis had already been sent to third
countries to fight Israel from "behind".
The claims come as dozens of people chanting "set free Lebanon and Palestine
from Israel" demonstrated outside the UN headquarters and the US embassy in
Jakarta.
Child protesters carried plastic guns and there were large posters of Hezbollah
leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Federal Human Services Minister Joe Hockey said yesterday the Government was
taking seriously the reports that bombers had been dispatched with orders to
attack Jewish interests.
"I can tell you that the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the department are
investigating ... and we are treating it very, very seriously," Mr Hockey said.
He said Australia had been a terror target for some time.
"You only need to look at Bali, and that was before any major escalation of the
conflict in Lebanon and Israel," Mr Hockey said.
"We are a target, we always have been a target and we will be for a very long
period of time."
Kim Beazley said Australia had major security issues.
"The Government has dropped the ball on practical measures and protecting
ourselves from terrorist assaults," the Opposition Leader said.
Terrorism experts have warned that FPI and AMYM are openly hostile towards the
US and its policies on the Middle East.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said terrorism expert Zachary
Abuza regarded the threats as a "serious development" and the respected
scholar's concerns were enough for Labor to also regard the threats as serious.
"I am concerned that this has sprung up without earlier evidence of action
between the (Australian and Indonesian) governments," he said.
Another man who registered yesterday to fight Israel, 31-year-old Eka Jaya,
said he wanted to help his "brothers and sisters".
"Mujaheddins seek a martyr's death. It is the risk we face and it is what we
yearn for," the former junior league soccer player told The Weekend Australian.
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