[Ramai yang mungkin tercari-cari berita mengenai isu KMM. Kita siarkan sebahagian darinya di sini. Ada satu soalan yang patut dijawab oleh kerajaan. Bagaimana KMM mengancam keselamatan negara jika ahlinya seperti tidak sampai 100 orang dan ketuanya itu seorang yang amat bersifat penyayang? Ini berbeda dengan ketua pasukan polis negara yang bengis dan mudah berang... - Editor]

http://www.irna.com/newshtm/eng/18120631.htm

thr 023

Malaysia-PAS /WRD/

Malaysia's Islamic-based party disclaims militant tactics

Kuala Lumpur, Aug 9, IRNA -- Malaysia's main opposition, Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) Party, controlling the two Malaysian northeastern states of Kelantan and Terengganu on Thursday rejected any attempt to topple the government through armed struggle.

In a statement, its information chief, Azizan Abdul Razak, said: "We do not condone the involvement of our members or supporters in any such move."

He added that PAS, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, believes in the democratic process.

"We deny any links to militant activities," he added.

Azizan asked Malaysians to look at the party's history as well as its politics. They would see that it had never been involved in any militant or violent activities.

"We have been a tolerant and law-abiding party and have not shown any tendency towards violence," he said.

He said there were two occasions when its members were murdered but "PAS did not respond with violence."

The two murders involved party worker Osman Talib in Lubuk Merbau in Kedah state in the 1980s and former PAS MP Abdul Samad Gol in the 1960s.

Over the past month, police have arrested a few people and located a cache of weapons believed to be for use once the group, dubbed the Malaysian Mujahideen, feels that the time is right to activate its struggle here.

Those arrested so far are mostly ex-fighters involved in the Mujahideen struggle to free Afghanistan from the clutches of the former Soviet Union.

The extremist Mujahideen group, blamed for a series of bank robberies and violence in Malaysia, was led by the son of Kelantan Chief Minister Nik Aziz Nik Mat, Malaysia's Parliament was told on Wednesday.

With the disclosure, Deputy Home Minister Zainal Abidin Zin said Nik Adli Nik Aziz, 34, was appointed as leader of the Kumpulan Mujahideen Malaysia (KMM) at a meeting attended by 12 of its members in Kampung Seri Aman, Puchong near here in early 1999.

Zainal was winding up the debate on a motion tabled by opposition leader and PAS President Fadzil Nor to discuss the detention under Malaysia's tough Internal Security Act (ISA) of 10 people, including Nik Adli.

Nik Aziz has criticized Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's government for detaining his son under the ISA, claiming that Nik Adli's arrest was politically motivated because police could have used the normal procedure to deal with him if he indeed was a threat to the country's security.

He said he did not know about his son's suspected involvement with the extremist group as Nik Adli worked as a religious teacher besides indulging in his hobby of gardening after his return from studies.

Zainal also disclosed that while studying in Pakistan, Nik Adli made frequent visits to Afghanistan even after the Russian troops had already left that country.

He said the police were trying to get the dates, including that of Nik Adli's last visit to Afghanistan.

He said among the KMM members detained was an Indonesian national who once studied in Pakistan and joined the KMM while he was in Afghanistan.

The group's activities came to light when two of its members were shot dead in a southern bank robbery last May, he said.

He said further investigations by the police showed that the group was also involved in other violence, including the murder of the Kedah assemblyman for Lunas, Dr Joe Fernandez.

Zainal said the detention of the 10 members of the group was done for national security considerations and was not related to the political agenda of the Barisan Nasional as alleged by the opposition.

bn/LS End ::irna 12:06

The South China Morning Post, HK
9th August 2001

Crackdown on Kabul-linked mujahedeen group angers opposition

BARADAN KUPPUSAMY in Kuala Lumpur

The Defence Ministry yesterday vowed to investigate all Malaysians returning from militant training camps in Afghanistan as part of a crackdown on a shadowy mujahedeen group blamed for a political murder and bank robberies.

Officials denied charges from the main Islamic opposition, the Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS), that the crackdown, into its second week and which has snared the son of PAS spiritual leader Nik Abdul Mat, was part of a strategy by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to contain the influence of PAS among non-Muslims.

Police say the action is needed to safeguard the population from possible acts of terrorism. They have warned of more arrests after identifying about 50 members of the mujahedeen group, dubbed the KMM in Malaysia.

Police blame the group for the murder of a politician from the ruling National Front coalition, bank robberies, a weapons raid on a police station and bombings of a church and temple.

The Bernama news agency quoted Deputy Defence Minister Mohamed Shafie Apdal as saying an investigation of people returning from Afghanistan would help contain the mujahedeen influence.

"We are only after those involved in militant activities in Afghanistan," he said.

The existence of the KMM grabbed the attention of security forces after a botched bank robbery in April.

Police arrested six people, several of them graduates from Islamic universities in Malaysia and the Middle East, and recovered a cache of weapons.

Last week police arrested 10 others, saying they were members of the KMM. Among them was the son of Nik Aziz, head of the opposition-ruled Kelantan state Government. All 16 are being held under the Internal Security Act that allows for indefinite detention without trial.

Affiliation with the Afghanistan mujahedeen had been a plus factor for aspiring PAS leaders, however tenuous, but the links have soured with the crackdown. The party has admitted to members having links with Afghanistan, but says they are not sanctioned.

Mr Aziz has published a statement accusing Dr Mahathir of eliminating political opponents on the pretext of cracking down on non-existent militant groups.

The Government's charges of militancy also have caused ill feeling between PAS and the main Chinese opposition party, the Democratic Action Party, which threatens to split the opposition coalition.

Meanwhile, DAP leader Lim Kit Siang has called for hearings to be brought forward. "A public trial will help clear the baseless attacks against the legitimate political parties," he said.

http://www.scmp.com

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KLR122990

04 Aug 2001 05:21

Malaysian opposition questions new round of arrests

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Malaysian opposition on Saturday questioned the authorities' motives after the arrest of eight men police say belong to an Islamic militant group linked to unsolved bomb attacks, robberies and a politician's murder.

The government says all eight held under the dreaded Internal Security Act (ISA) in a country-wide swoop on Thursday, which also netted firearms and ammunition, trained in Afghanistan as Islamic fighters, or mujahideen.

"These people have gone abroad, getting involved with the Taliban and accumulating weapons overseas, and now they have returned. We found out that they were planning dangerous activities such as killing, exploding bombs and robbery," Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Saturday.

Mahathir also said extremists within the main opposition Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS) exerted an influence in the militant group uncovered.

"We believed there were PAS influence among the members. There are party members who are extreme and feel that the democracy process is slow or did not benefit them. They feel more comfortable indulging in such activities," he said after opening a coalition ally's general assembly.

Police say one of the arrested, Noorashid Sakip, is a PAS youth wing leader. A PAS member of parliament says another of the men, Tajuddin Abu Bakar, was also a party member.

PAS secretary-general Nasharuddin Mat Isa told Reuters on Saturday the police were trying to discredit his party by linking it to extremism, while cracking down on the party's political-religious meetings, or ceramahs, for violating a law banning public assemblies of more than five people.

"It is nothing to do with us, I think they are trying to relate us with all these kinds of activities," Nasharuddin said.

Inspector General of Police Norian Mai told a news conference in the southern city of Johor Baharu on Friday all eight men had fought in Afghanistan or trained there as Islamic fighters.

But opposition leaders asked for proof of links with international terrorism and "murder and mayhem" at home, and questioned why the ISA was used if criminal acts were involved.

"If the government has evidence... they should be charged in court and put through an open trial and not be detained under the ISA," Democratic Action Party Chairman Lim Kit Siang said in a statement on Saturday.

SHADOWY GROUP

Police suspect the men of being members of the Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia (KMM), whose activities became known after a botched bank robbery on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur in May, during which one gang member was shot dead and eight were caught.

Investigations are now tying the group, which police say has more than 50 members, to a series of unsolved crimes.

These include bombings in the port city Klang a year ago, the planting of explosive devices at a Hindu temple in Kuala Lumpur, and the killing of a provincial assembly legislator in the northern state of Kedah in November, a raid on a police station's arsenal in Kedah and robberies of banks and shops.

The authorities have more recently used the ISA to clamp down on political activists, notably those belonging to the Reformasi movement of jailed former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.

Six Anwar supporters have been held since April under the ISA, which allows detention without trial for up to two years.

They are accused of planning violent street protests and of seeking to acquire weapons and explosives.

DAP's Lim said "the police has not been able to produce one iota of evidence to justify the police crackdown against the Reformasi six."