PDF Link
After a long – flood related – break, HDFF’s Chairman’s Circle started the year 2012/2555 with a presentation by Police Lt Gen Tritot Ronnaritivichai, currently Commissioner to the Office of National Security Council (NSC), on “Movements of Terrorists inSoutheast Asia– Jemaah Islamiah and Al Qaeda”. HDFF’s choice of topic for the month of January could have not have had better timing as a terror warning and the capture of a suspected Swedish-Lebanese Hezbollah member has been the talk of the town only a week before.
Due to Gen (ret) Bunchon Chawansin’s absence, HDFF Executive Director Dr. Wilfried A. Herrmann delivered the opening remarks welcoming all participants to the half-day event and subsequently introduced Police Lt Gen Tritot Ronnaritivichai, internationally known for his capture of Al Qaeda (AQ) and Jemaah Islamiah (JI) member Hambali. Gen Tritot used his presentation to give insight into the long line of incidents eventually leading to the capturing of Hambali, real name Riduan Isamuddin, in his apartment inAyutthaya,Thailand.
Before going into specifics, Gen Tritot gave a brief introduction on JI to ease the participants into the topic, followed by a detailed description of previous key JI members inSouth East Asia. Jemaah Islamiah gained international attention after the 2002 Bali bombing but the group was building itself through the 1990s by its leaders Abdullah Sungkar and Abu Bakar Bashir in Indonesia and, for the most part, in Malaysia. Hambali, as well as the two aforementioned members served as Mujahideen in the Taliban war against theSoviet Union, which in turn turned out to be a great networking event for aspiring international terrorists. While Sungkar and Bashir concentrated on building up JI, Hambali later on served as a linkage between AQ and JI as well as a representative for AQ inSoutheast Asia.
The successful arrest of Hambali was a cooperative effort between several agencies from various countries. On the other hand, the Hambali network included support from Iraqis, Pakistanis, Malaysians and Indonesians nationals. As Hambalis goal was to rule as a Caliph over territories covering almost all of Southeast Asia (including parts ofThailand), nationalities played no role in the ideologically shaped world of an Islamic extremist.
Gen Tritot finally captured Hambali on 11 August 2003 inAyutthaya. Of utmost importance to Gen Tritot was to catch Hambali alive to be able to prove that the Bali bomb had not been planned inBangkok, which could be proven. The Q&A session after the presentation was lively and interesting.
HDFF’s next Chairman’s Circle will most likely take place in the first week of March with the developments in Myanmarenvisioned as topic. We hope to see you there! For any further questions please contact herrmann@hdff.org or gassner@hdff.org
Comments are closed