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Email this citationCIAO DATE: 06/04
Al-Qaeda in Southeast Asia: The case of the "Ngruki Network" in Indonesia (Corrected on 10 January 2003)
August 8, 2002
Abstract
One network of militant Muslims has produced all the Indonesian nationals so far suspected of links to al-Qaeda. This briefing paper explains how that network emerged, its historical antecedents, and the political dynamics over the last two decades that led some of its members from Indonesia to Malaysia to Afghanistan. It is part of an occasional series that ICG intends to issue on the nature of radical Islam in Southeast Asia.
The network has as its hub a religious boarding school (pesantren or pondok) near Solo, Central Java, known as Pondok Ngruki, after the village where the school is located. The "Ngruki network" began to coalesce in the late 1970s as Indonesian intelligence operatives embarked on an operation to expose potential political enemies of then President Soeharto from the Muslim right. It drew in additional members in the early 1980s, many of whom had served time in prison for antigovernment activities. An inner core of the network, led by the two founders of Pondok Ngruki -- Abdullah Sungkar (now dead) and Abu Bakar Ba'asy ir -- a nd radicalised b y r epression a t home, fled to Malaysia in 1985. Some associated with the Ngruki network returned to Indonesia after Soeharto's resignation in 1998; others stayed in Malaysia but continued to be in close contact with those who went back.
