Basri
Feb 4th, 2007, in News, by PatungThe story of the most wanted man in Poso, Basri, who was caught by police recently.
On the 1st of February Mobile Brigade police in Poso, Central Sulawesi, raided a house in the Kayamanya area of Poso town and captured Basri alias Bagong, 30 years old, and another man, Ardin Lawanga/Djanatu alias Rojak), 35 years old. Basri did not resist arrest but Ardin did and was shot in the stomach by police. He is being treated at Bhayangkara hospital in Poso. Both men were on the “DPO”, the list of the most wanted terrorists in the conflict ridden area of Poso.
As is typical in these cases the wanted man, once caught, was quick to open his mouth wide under police questioning. The Jakarta Post says Basri confessed to seventeen attacks on mostly non-Muslims in the Poso (twelve incidents) and Palu (five incidents) areas.
Some of the crimes Basri admits to involvement in include the shooting of Reverend Susianti Tinulele in Palu in 2004, a number of robberies, the beheading of three Christian schoolgirls in 2005, the bombing of the Eklesia church three times in 2006, the murder of Rev. Irianto Kongkoli in 2006, as well as the shooting of Poso police chief Rudy Sufahriadi in 2006. Sufahriadi, a Muslim, was regarded as being insufficiently ardent in his application of the strictures of Islam in his life:
I was instructed to shoot him as he was a thagut (a person who does not implement God’s law).
Basri, who was once a drummer in a rock music band after having dropped out of the third year of junior high school, said he acted out of a desire for revenge after twenty-six of his relatives were killed by Christian militiamen in 2000 and 2001. He said their bodies were thrown into a river. (see for example Mass Graves in Poso)
All that was found of one of my relatives was his head. Another had his hands cut off. My auntie’s stomach was torn open, and she was pregnant. I rescued their remains. I wanted to avenge their deaths. I wanted revenge against those Christians. They killed my family.
Basri’s 55 year old mother, Satinem, claims that the number of murdered family members was over 26, all of them being killed in 2000 in the Kilo Sembilan and Buyung Katedo areas of Poso. She said Basri was a good boy and had never attended a religious school as a child. She complained that police were biased and only sought to punish Muslims. jawapos
Soon after the deaths of his family members, Basri said he joined Poso’s Mujahidin group and attended religious services. Many of the preachers came from Java, he said (see Poso Jihad), and he mentioned the names of Mahmud, Rifki, Yahya, Iban, Afid, Said and Sahal.
He was instructed to fight against kafir (non-Muslims) and thagut, the latter of which often included policemen and soldiers.
Security personnel are thagut because they don’t punish Muslims under Islamic law. That’s why we fight them.
Basri said he was given weapons by Rifki. He said he was unsure as to whether Rifki was a member of Jamaah Islamiyah or Al Qaeda, or otherwise.
Basri said he was often afraid of carrying out attacks and had considered surrendering to police. He refrained, however, upon being told by his Javanese preachers that to surrender was haram (forbidden under Islamic law).
Adjutant Chief Commander Rudy Sufahriadi, the one who was shot by Basri, but survived, said that police had received an anonymous SMS message directing them to the house that was raided this week. Rudy said the SMS sender was entitled to collect a 100 million rupiah reward. tempo
Central Sulawesi police chief Brigadier General Anton Bahrul Alam however denied that any tip-off had been received, and that the discovery of Basri and co’s hideout had been the result of good police work. gatra
Police were initially unaware they had captured Basri but later identified him by all the tattoos on one of his arms.
Basri said that he had not fled from Poso after bloody police raids in nearby Tanah Runtuh district on January 22nd because of a gunshot wound to his stomach.
Besides, I’m responsible for anak bebek (younger, junior militants under his command) and the city was tightly surrounded by the police. So I was hiding out in Kayamanya district.
As is also typical in these cases Basri hastily added that he hoped for peace in Poso and that he was sorry for all that he had done. He blamed his Javanese religious teachers for leading him along the wrong path: gatra
I felt vengeful, especially because there were a number of people who taught me incorrect religious doctrines.
(Saya merasa dendam, apalagi ada beberapa orang yang mengajari saya dengan doktrin-doktrin agama yang salah.)
He even claimed to want to go back to playing the drums in his rock band.
He also urged those remaining on the police wanted list to surrender. He said he had not been harmed or tortured by police in the days after his capture.
Now there remains 15 men out of the original 29 on the wanted list who are still at large.
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February 16th 2007.
In a police press conference in Jakarta Basri claimed that clerics from Jamaah Islamiyah, Ustad Ryan/Rian, Mahmud, Hiban, Yahya, Sahal, and Rifki, ordered him to kill enemies of Islam because such people deserved to be killed. These teachings were drummed into him, he said, as he no doubt attempts to paint a portrait of himself as a victim of indoctrination.
Originally, he said, he went to the clerics in order to learn Islam better, but they trained him in war, weapons handling, and bomb making. He apologised for his past acts: mediaindo
I’m sorry to both Christians and Muslims who were hurt by what I did in Poso.
(Saya minta maaf ke warga Nasrani maupun Islam yang terganggu atas perbuatan saya di Poso.)
In other confessions of Basri he said that he once sold some land in order to get money to buy Uzi submachine guns, which cost 12 million rupiah. Some other weapons which he learned to use were M16 machine guns, SKS, and MK3. mediaindo
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Feb 17th.
Article on Basri and others at IHT.
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Feb 23rd.
Basri’s parents have made a plea that their son be treated fairly. His mother, Sutinem, said if her son had done anything wrong it was purely out of a desire to defend the Muslim community of Poso. She said that many murders of Muslims in the past, where bodies had been thrown into the river, had gone unpunished.
However she denied that Basri had in fact committed crimes, saying he was a simple seller of chickens in the market. mediaindo
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August 13th 2007.
Basri has gone on trial in Jakarta for involvement in the beheadings, the murder of Susianti Tinulele, the attempted murders of Ivon Natalia and Siti, and various bombings. detik
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December 13th 2007.
Basri was sentenced to 19 years prison. indosiar
19 Comments on “Basri”
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Dimp says:
I felt vengeful, especially because there were a number of people who taught me incorrect religious doctrines.
If he knows that it is incorrect, then why is he still following it?
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Cukurungan says:
Tom,
Why you did pray like that? If I was not mis-interpreted Ismail bin Jakongsu informed me that all Jesus followers love their enemies ten times than their self ? Has Jesus teaching been revised due to “Globalization”.
regards,
Myths Buster -
1ndra says:
I felt vengeful, especially because there were a number of people who taught me incorrect religious doctrines.
If he knows that it is incorrect, then why is he still following it?
Anybody had their family be killed in tortured ways will be vengeful as Basri.
Angry man won’t follow the his logic and an easy false doctrined target, to take revenge. -
Hi 1ndra,
Anybody had their family be killed in tortured ways will be vengeful as Basri.
Angry man won’t follow the his logic and an easy false doctrined target, to take revenge.Yes, one can be vengeful because of this situation, but he is supposed to be vengeful against the killers, not to innocent people. He is probably targeted by people who incite hatred against non-Moslems, these people are the ones who need to be targeted by the police. They need to be eliminated, the same as their counterpart who incite hatred against Moslems as well.
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Tomaculum says:
Cukurungan,
I’m not a follower of Jesus or “his Dad” neither of Allah. And I’m not Ismail, OK? Do you want to insult me? 🙂 -
Yes, one can be vengeful because of this situation, but he is supposed to be vengeful against the killers, not to innocent people.
True. That’s why the conflict didn’t end.
See, if only militant vs militant, then there’s no militant anymore, and civilian could live in peace. 🙂Do you want to insult me?
I want to see one. 😀
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True. That’s why the conflict didnt end.
The conflict will never end, not until someone actually will stand up and make a difference. The problem is that there is someone who is making a profit out of this instability in Poso. Once this person(s) is eliminated then there would not be violence in Poso. As always the issues are about money and power.
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Dimp,
Conflict is a function of triangular conflict. If the triangle doest exist the conflict just wait not if but when to occur. In the Poso case, the Moslem and Christian community is the fuel or flammable whereas oxygen is the Moslem and Christian anger who lossed their love one during the conflict. So whatever the government or Densus 88 do it will only make a temporary halt while a provocator is waiting a good time to spark ignitor in order to begin their orchestra of conflict.
Btw, Poso and Ambon conflict was God’s punishment to them because even Moslem is majority in this country but on the eye of predator the Moslem KTP existence just like food on the table.
Myths Buster.
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Hi Cukurungan,
Nope, this is not God’s punishment. I don’t quite understand why Indonesians always think that God is full of anger and need to punish the people.
As you said there are provocators in this case, so again if these provocators can be eliminated then the conflict can be stopped.
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Dimp,
In my belief that’s God punishment because the Indo Moslems always betray God’s order, what they learned from Quran and Hadist only be implemented ceremonially in the daily life while the essentials of islamic teaching such as fairness and justice were left on the paper. Otherwise, Indo will not be ranked among the highest corrupt country.
Elimination of provocators is a monumental job for the government because their existence is like a fart, it can be smell but very hard to locate it.
Myth Buster.
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Hi Cukurungan,
Unfortunately that is how Indonesians like to perceive things, they prefer “kulit” than “isi”.
But I still prefer to thing that the disasters happening in Indonesia were just events that should make people unite as one, to remind them that no matter how rich you are, how smart you are, we are still one vulnerable human being. Through these disasters we can see that regardless of race, religion, people are willing to help one another.
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Ihaknt says:
But Dimp, the reality is people blame each other. Even when one farts.
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Hi Ihaknt,
But Dimp, the reality is poeple blame each other. Even when one farts”¦
Indeed they do, but these are uneducated people or whose morality is in question. Good people are the one who help others regardless of faith, religion or race, they are the one who put their hands up, when they farted.
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Dimp, you’re delusional. A good person won’t necessarily put their hand up when they fart. It’s too embarassing. But that doesn’t make them a bad person.
Anyway, Indos are opportunists you know. If there’s a disaster that’s the opportunity to become or to look righteous, as you always say, skin is more important than inside. And that’s when the blaming game begins.
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IHAKNT,
Anyway, Indos are opportunists you know. If there’s a disaster that’s the opportunity to become or to look righteous, as you always say, kulit is more important than isi. And that’s when the blaming game begins.
Not actually talking about Indos here.
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Really? I thought it was Indonesia matters.
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What I meant was when disasters struck in Indo, there are people (not necessarily Indos) who are willing to help regardless of race, religion, faith etc.
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My bad Dimp, you have to bear with me a bit. Too much alcohol plus that I am sick, so I am a bit slow.
But I think I need to revise my earlier comment. I just remember that even in New Orleans cyclone disaster, people were still taking advantage from the disaster. Looting the shops, rapes, stealing, kidnapping, etc. So I think it’s more of a human nature to be opportunist. I guess desperate situation calls for desperate measures sometimes.
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My, God!!
Who ever the culprits and the followers were and are, I pray that God (Where is He? What is he doing?) will send them the worst pest the human being ever seen.