No subject

threat to murder the public figures is being taken very seriously. They are, 
after all, no small fries. Take Mustofa, for instance. The 42-year-old is the 
former Head of Mantiki III who coordinated the Southern Philippines, South 
Sulawesi, Sabah (Malaysia) area. He has now been replaced by Chaeruddin, 
another JI leader who was arrested by police in April 2003. Chaeruddin is the 
older brother-in-law of Muchlas, a Bali bombing suspect. As a former Mantiki 
head, Mustofa’s position is on a par with that of Muchlas. 

His position is clearly important. He is a commander of the detachment 
headquartered in Semarang. Under him, are several JI members who once fought in 
Afghanistan. This detachment is part of the armed fighters who come under 
Battle Commander Zulkarnaen Daud, headquartered in Riau. Zulkarnaen is a 
graduate of the first group to be sent to Afghanistan for training, and who is 
still being sought by police. Mustofa is from the fourth group of the mujahidin 
from Afghanistan, who usually operate in groups of around 15. “The perpetrators 
of the Bali bombing, Mustofa told us, were members of a different armed 
fighters unit,” said our police source earlier. 

Are the five national figures in the eyes of JI members so influential that 
they must be murdered? In line with PDI-P policy, they certainly oppose the 
imposition of Islamic syariah in Indonesia. “If the Jakarta Charter was 
included in the constitution, that would mean they do not respect the efforts 
and good intentions of the founders of this nation, who had pulled out those 
seven sentences. That is the historical agreement,” said Roy B.B. Janis in one 
interview. 

The attitude of Janis and his friends is certainly not unique. Apart from 
politicians in Islamic parties—such as the Crescent-Star Party, the United 
Development Party, the Justice Party, and the People’s Sovereignty Party—
generally those from the major parties in the DPR oppose the Jakarta Charter. 
History records that the attempt to include Islamic Syariah in the consitution 
foundered during a session to amend it. That is why Chaidar doubts that the 
five national figures really are the targets for assassination. “I am 
unconvinced those names are on a list. They are too unimportant, but then they 
could also be new targets,” he qualified. 

National Police chief, General Da’i Bachtiar, is not rushing to make any 
judgment. “We are looking into the truth of all this. Because, there is also 
the possibility that the names put there are some form of code,” said Da’i. If 
the police’s explanation is correct, the names of these leading figures are 
only being used to divert attention, or are just JI’s internal discussion 
material. Responsibility now lies with the police. Although none of this has 
been proven, however else one looks at it, this threat must be addressed, 
before a tragedy really occurs. 
-- Arif Zulkifli, Edy Budiyarso, Tomi Lebang (Jakarta), Sohirin (Semarang), 
Suseno (TEMPO News Room
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Advertiser
Third suicide bomber planned
By Cindy Wockner in Denpasar, Bali
23jul03

THE Bali terrorists originally planned for a third suicide bomber to ride a 
motorcycle through the doors of the packed Sari Club and detonate himself.

The plan was abandoned when it was discovered the man chosen for the suicide 
task, known by many aliases including Rohmadi, could not ride a motorcycle 
properly.

Authorities had been unaware of the plan until it was revealed to them in 
police interrogations of the latest suspect to be arrested, Idris (also known 
as Jhoni) Hendrawan. He was captured on June 12.

A police source yesterday said Idris had confessed the plan was devised by the 
Bali bombing field commander Imam Samudra.

Revelations of the plan come as Bali bombing suspect Amrozi was photographed 
yesterday still smiling and in a new jail cell, moved away from his brothers 
and fellow bombing suspects.

A suicide bomber detonating explosives inside the Sari Club could have meant a 
far more devastating death toll than the 202 lives lost.

In addition to the problem with riding skills, the bombers discovered a 
balustrade at the Sari Club entrance would have made it difficult for a learner 
rider to get through.

The plan was ditched and Rohmadi sent away. He shortly will go on a wanted list 
of outstanding Bali bombing suspects.

Idris has made full confessions to police that he and all Bali bombing suspects 
were members of terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah.

He is expected to be called to testify today at the trial of the bombing's 
alleged controller, Mukhlas.

Idris has said he was in charge of logistics and accommodation for the bombing.

He also has told authorities he was charged with teaching one of the two 
eventual suicide bombers how to drive a car. He has said that Arnasan (alias 
Iqbal) was to drive the explosive-laden L300 mini-van to the Sari Club from 
Denpasar but the plan had to be changed when it was discovered he could only 
drive in a straight line and was unable to turn corners.

Another bomber, Ali Imron, was then ordered to drive to a T-junction near the 
Sari Club before getting out and leaving Arnasan to drive the final few metres.

The other suicide bomber, a man known only as Feri or Isa, wore an explosive 
vest into the Paddy's Bar venue and detonated himself.

Meanwhile yesterday, Amrozi was looking anything but a man waiting for almost 
certain death row.

His lawyer Wirawan Adnan, who visited him, said his client was calm, telling 
him: "God controls my fate".

He also requested that Mr Adnan tell Amrozi's family not to travel to Denpasar 
from their East Java home for his August 7 verdict. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New York Times
July 22, 2003 
Spirit of the Tiger (and Wild West)
By Jane Perlez

Warangan, Indonesia — On the earthen floor of a makeshift outdoor theater, high 
above the plains of Java, two male dancers sway in increasingly frenetic steps 
to the clamorous beat of gongs and drums. Their faces are covered by outsize 
masks, depicting tiger heads crowned with towering sprays of green and blue 
peacock feathers.

Suddenly, the masks are put aside, and the dancers fall to the ground. They 
move on all fours, crawling stealthily, like tigers on the prowl. The village 
spectators murmur with approval. The dancers, they believe, are possessed with 
the spirits of the tigers. 

This extraordinary spectacle was a rendition of the Reog Ponorogo, a Javanese 
dance drama performed at important village events — weddings, circumcisions and 
the like. The tiger head and peacock feathers are combined in a mega-mask to 
symbolize the belief that in ancient times the two animals lived in harmony, 
working together to defend their territory. 

The Reog was one of the best-received pieces at the recent Five Mountains Dance 
Festival, now in its second year. Dance groups from five villages that perch on 
the mountains around the eighth-century Buddhist monument, Borobudur, 
participated in a program that stretched from the heat of the afternoon into 
the cool evening. 

The festival was organized in the Warangan village as a way of showing that 
Javanese dance forms have survived in situ, and are not just relics hauled out 
for big city shows or tourists. 

While the Reog was choreographed in a way that seemed centuries old, other 
dances were obviously influenced by television and American culture.

A presentation of the traditional Topeng Ireng dance (literally, black mask) 
was updated with costumes designed to resemble the gear of American Indians. 

A troupe of male dancers from the village of Mendut entered the makeshift stage 
with headdresses of long white feathers. Instead of the normally bare feet of 
Indonesian dancers, they wore knee-length soft boots adorned with feathers. 

Their faces were smothered in makeup — gashes of red around the cheeks, plenty 
of black above the brows. Drums and flutes kept up a fierce, relentless beat 
for repetitive steps that were only a little more complicated than stomping on 
the earth. 

"People here like to imitate," said Sutanto, a jazz musician from Mendut who 
helped organize the festival, and who, like many Indonesians, uses only one 
name. "This is the pure influence of American cowboy films of the 1950's," he 
added. "Some people say the way the dance is performed comes from the Dayaks," 
he said, referring to an Indonesian tribe in Kalimantan. "It's not. It comes 
directly from television."

One of the dancers dressed as in American Indian gear said after the show that 
before the addition of the feathered costumes a few years ago, the troupe had 
worn outfits fashioned from coconut leaves. 

The grafting of Americana onto one of Java's most traditional and generic 
dances is particularly unexpected in this part of Indonesia. After independence 
from the Dutch, the Communist Party held sway in these mountain villages, and 
Indonesia's first president, Sukarno, was hugely popular here. 

Sukarno's affection for the nonaligned movement, an effort to find a middle 
ground between the Soviet Union and the United States, was accompanied by a 
commensurate disdain for all things American; he disparaged the United States 
as a covetous imperial power. Warm feelings for Sukarno are still evident in 
the area: the main room in the house of one of the village chiefs here is 
decorated with a now rare poster showing Sukarno's distinctive silhouette.

But since Sukarno's demise in the mid-1960's, these villages have become more 
prosperous. Tobacco and flower farms bring in the relative wealth that in turn 
has brought in television and lately, the occasional Western tourist from the 
nearby upscale Amanjiwo Hotel. 

Male dancers were dominant in all the pieces at the festival, with women 
performing in cameo roles or in the equivalent of a corps de ballet. By 
contrast with the male world up here, female dancers dominate in the court 
dances performed in the palaces of the sultan in Yogyakarta, the cultural 
capital of Java down on the plain. 

The prominence of male dancers in the village derives from the historical 
importance of warriors in Java, said Sardono Kusumo, Indonesia's best-known 
choreographer. "Many of these dances are influenced by the wars in the colonial 
period," he said. "Some of them relate to the story of Diponegoro, who camped 
out in the mountains." Diponegoro, a 19th-century hero, was the first member of 
the Javanese royal court to take up arms against the Dutch. He organized a 
guerrilla force among peasants and was eventually captured in nearby Magelang. 

One of the most appreciative members of the festival audience was Eko 
Supriyanto, 31, a dancer who trained with Sardono and in 2001 toured the world 
with Madonna, an American who uses only one name. Mr. Supriyanto, who comes 
from Magelang, said that many of the dances, and much of the movement, remained 
true to the way he danced as a child. As a young boy, he said, he rode legless 
horses fashioned from bamboo and painted wild colors, the most common prop in 
Javanese dances about battle.

The dancers, playing riders, wore knee-length britches in screaming oranges and 
reds. In one piece called Kuda Lumping Putra, a generic name for a dance with 
bamboo horses, the dancers heads were covered with black curly wigs. Their feet 
were bare, though some dancers had ankle bracelets. To the beat of a gamelan 
orchestra — gongs and drums — the dancers imitated going to war: the steps were 
high and staccato, gestures were sharp, and in their left hands, dancers 
carried whips with which they snapped the ground. 

None of the dancers are professional, but earn their livings as drivers and 
laborers, Sutanto said.

The Javanese still keep their own distinct calendar; when it is time to plant 
rice, harvest the crop or show fealty to ancestors, Sutanto said, the men come 
together to perform some of these ritual dances.