Global Voices Online

Indonesia: Dr. Azhari Captured and more about conflict in Poso

While everybody enjoying their Eid ul-Fitr week-long holiday and just started coming back to work, apparently some of us keep their days busy.

This week, on Wednesday, Indonesian law enforcement assisted by Australian intelligence finally succeeded in making sure that Dr Azhari Husin, Malaysian bomb expert associated with Jemaah Islamiyah, that was behind two bombings in Bali, Australian Embassy bombing and Marriot hotel bombing in Jakarta and had killed in excess of 250 people in in the last three years will not be able to continue his career as demolition man, for any purpose.

Reported first to have been committed suicide act by blowing himself up, the Indonesian police now reported that he was shot dead and it was another militant, identified as Arman, who died alongside Azhari, who had pulled the cord on an explosive-lined vest.

Dr Azhari [semi-profile here “The Incomplete Terrorist”], a former lecturer at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia remembered by his friends from his time at Adelaide University, as nice and likable sort of bloke, with an irrepressible humor. However, his unfinished doctoral thesis at University of Reading, UK was about.. human suffering.

Pak Parman, a teacher lives in Bandung has pictures about the event and read also about the amazing report of eyewitness’ accounts on the police actions leading to the killing of Dr Azhari Husin.

Dr Azhari's family is scheduled to take his body back to Malaysia on Sunday, Faisal Mustaffa from Malaysia has posts on this.

Bloggers's footnote related with Dr Azhari's death:

Most mainstream media, even the Indonesian media get the name of the place wrong. Dudi Gurnadi noted on his post [in Bahasa Indonesia] that the capture take place in the City of Batu [Batu City Official Site], which is not a part of Malang as it was reported, a bigger city, even tough both place is near, located in East Java.

Another blogger in Surabaya, the capital of East Java provinces posted a chilling yet funny record “I am a programmer not a terrorist” [in Bahasa Indonesia] when his office was visited by 8 nonuniform local police officers the day after Dr. Azhari's capture in Kota Batu.

Suspected to have connection with Dr Azhari's network and have been watched for 2 months the office turn out to be an IT consultant's office.

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Related with the case of three teenage girls student of a Christian school, beheaded in Poso Central Sulawesi Province, Jafar G Bua at the city of Palu, Central Sulawesi [Map of Sulawesi Island] kept a separate blog dedicated for news and updates about the conflict in Poso [in Bahasa Indonesia]: Catatan Sepanjang Poso

The Central Sulawesi has an equal number of Christians and Muslims, and in 2001 to 2002 there was a sectarian battle between the two communities in the region, leading to the deaths of 1000 Christians and Muslims. The conflict had been mediated into a truce by the government, but there have since been bomb attacks against Christians, including one bomb attack in Poso market.

Paras Indonesia has a great analysis about the ongoing conflict in Poso titled “Money & Military: A Coalition In The Poso Conflict (Part I)” and (Part II)

Another comprehensive background about the conflict in Central Sulawesi from PreventConflict.org can be found here “The Conflict in Central Sulawesi”

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Steppin' into the Turkish Blogosphere

Deborah Ann Dilley · 05:16 · Middle East & North Africa

Reviewing this week in the Turkish Blogs, November 10th marked the anniversary of the death of Mustafa Ataturk. Erkan's Field Diary has a wonderful article posted about the death of Ataturk and how he is celebrated. Turkish Torque also has a post praising the accomplishments of Mustafa Ataturk. Besides being the father of the modern Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is also accredited with major western reforms of the old Ottoman system, including language reforms which changed the Turkish language from being written in the Arabic script to the Latin script.

Amerikan Turk posts this week about how disillusioning it can be to live in America:

Sick things are happening the world over, as they have ever been. You don't need to look hard to find them. The ignorance of the typical American is astounding. Finding one who can hold a conversation is rare, for me. We're living such cushy lives, so insulated from danger and terror and bombs and famine and starvation.

Amerikan Turk talks about leftist student protesters in Ankara, coupled with a photo of a bleeding student being arrested. He also comments on the anti-Zarqawi protesters in Jordan. On a lighter note, he also posted about a new Nokia 888 phone that was designed by a young Turkish student. Several of the Turkish design blogs have been buzzing about this as well.

Turkish Torque has been prolific week. From posting Turgut Uyar poems to discussing the new European Court ruling support the hijab-ban in Turkey, Torque covers it all, including a post about the difficulties of translating from Turkish to English.

Phanja from The Need to Know talks about the right to choose to smoke cigarettes. And in talking about a recent incident of Russian porn being broadcast on Indian television accidently, she shares a humorous story of a misplaced XXX CD that was aired in an Educational summitt attended by the Turkish Education Minister in the ultra conservative town of Diyarbakir.

Metecem from Metroblogging: Istanbul reminisces about the differences in this life in Berlin and his life in Istanbul.

And first reported here last week, the first full length podcast of Kevin and Fatma take on the world is up and working.

And to conclude- the top finds of the week:
1. Food, food, food–yet another great food site (in Turkish) Hanife Dentarifler.
2. Bozdolap (refridgerator) is an interesting project, where people have been sending in photos of their fridge. Purpose=not sure, but great fun.

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