October 10, 2002	Thursday	Sha’aban 3, 1423

JAKARTA, Oct 9: Indonesia’s Vice President Hamzah Haz said on Wednesday his Islamic credentials worried the United States which feared he would turn Indonesia into an extremist Muslim country.

“I guess they are worried that I will introduce Islam the way the Taliban did,” Haz told about 200 Muslim clerics in Indonesia’s second-largest city Surabaya.

“Recently I have been pestered by the United States,” Haz said, quoted by the Detikcom news portal, apparently referring to US pressure on Indonesia to do more in the fight against terrorism.

Haz is the leader of the United Development Party, Indonesia’s largest religious party and the country’s third largest.

He said he had assured the United States that Indonesia would not become like Afghanistan under the Taliban. “In Indonesia Islam is a blessing for the universe,” he said.

Neighboring Singapore and Malaysia have identified two Indonesians, Riduan Isamuddin, also known as Hambali, and cleric Abubakar Ba’asyir, as leaders of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a group which has allegedly planned to blow up US interests in Southeast Asia and is linked to the Al Qaeda.

Haz reiterated that Jakarta would not arrest Ba’asyir unless there was evidence against him.

The vice president has warned that allegations by foreign countries that international terrorists are thriving in Indonesia could incite violence here.

A recent Time magazine report, based on a CIA document, alleged that a Kuwaiti man had confessed to being the senior Southeast Asian representative for the Al Qaeda.

The report said Omar al-Faruq had lived near Jakarta until government agents arrested him in June and deported him to a US-held airbase in Afghanistan.

Time, citing foreign intelligence reports, said Al Faruq had admitted he planned to kill President Megawati Sukarnoputri in May 1999 when she was running for the presidency.

It also said he planned to bomb US embassies in Jakarta and elsewhere in the region.

Many in Indonesia have voiced their scepticism of the report and believe the United States has overstated the terror threat.—AFP