JI dented by top militant's capture, threat remains

JAKARTA, June 14 (Reuters) Islamic militants in Indonesia have suffered a serious blow with the capture of the country's most-wanted man, Abu Dujana, but experts believe they are still capable of mounting attacks.

DNA tests and fingerprints showed that Dujana -- thought to head a military wing of the Southeast Asian group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) and linked to a string of deadly bombings -- was in custody after weekend raids in Java, police said yesterday.

Ken Conboy, a Jakarta-based security analyst, said JI had been damaged but urged authorities to remain vigilant.

''I think certainly they are capable of doing an attack like the Bali II backpack bombing,'' he said, referring to a series of bombs in packed restaurants in 2005 that killed more than 20 people.

''As far as larger bomb attacks it's probably a little bit too difficult at this time for them.'' Asian and Western authorities blame JI for a series of attacks in Southeast Asia, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people on the resort island.

Although there has been no major bomb attack since 2005, in raids in March police said they had found a huge cache of weapons, explosives and chemicals that could be used to make a bomb even bigger than the main device used in Bali.

National Police spokesman Sisno Adiwinoto said yesterday the arrest of Dujana would foil planned attacks.

Police have said more than 300 militants have been arrested in recent years, aided by the US-trained counter-terrorism unit, Detachment 88.

Sri Yunanto of the Institute for Defence, Security and Peace Studies, warned against focusing just on law enforcement since poverty and unresolved political issues were also key factors.

''The roots of the movements are still intact. The government should not only focus on law enforcement but should pay more attention to the economic and ideological side of the problem.'' MILITANTS COMING OUT OF JAIL Sidney Jones of the International Crisis Group said it was likely JI would swiftly replace Dujana, an Arabic speaker who fought in Afghanistan and is said to have met Osama bin Laden.

''But I think that, overall, every time the police make arrests, especially one of this magnitude, the ability of organisations to carry out an operation goes down a notch.'' Jones said that while she believed JI was currently in a rebuilding phase, key risks remained.

''What worries me is not so much the immediate threat from this very large organisation called JI but more the people on the fringe of that fringe,'' she said, suggesting that young militants within JI might form splinter groups to carry out attacks.

Jones also said fugitive Noordin M Top, a Malaysian national considered a major figure behind a series of bomb attacks, would remain a threat.

Future attacks might not be the highly planned spectacular operations of recent years, but could still be launched if the determination was there, she said.

''This is a place where it's not all that difficult to get the wherewithal to undertake an operation, whether that's an assassination or a kidnapping or a bombing.'' Jones said the threat from other groups should not be discounted, including Darul Islam, which has been agitating to establish an Islamic state since the 1950s.

The fact that some top-ranked militant leaders were also starting to be released from jail was also a risk, Jones said.

''And one of the big questions is what will they do and will they also continue to lie low or will they take an active role in resuming leadership?'' REUTERS SG DS1406