'Ninja Killers' Resurface in East Java
Source: Laksamana.Net, November 30, 2003

Two kyai religious leaders affiliated to the party of former president Abdurrahman Wahid were murdered last week in East Java. Wahid maintains the killings are politically motivated and mark a resurgence in the so-called 'ninja killings' that swept across the province in 1998.

Wahid held a press conference on Saturday (29/11/2003) with the aim of clarifying rumors about the mysterious murders - and to vent some steam over what he alleges is a conspiracy to sabotage his party's chances at the 2004 elections.

The near blind but voluble former president confirmed rumors that the two kyai murdered in Jember and Lumajang, East Java province, were local leaders of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) organization and its political wing, the National Awakening Party (PKB).

Wahid currently serves as the party's nominal leader in his role as head of its advisory board.

"The killings are reminiscent of the mass killings by masked assailants in Banyuwangi several years ago, known as the ninja killings. And now it's back again," he told reporters gravely.

A wave of violent killings by individuals or mobs - many wearing ninja-style masks - sent East Java reeling in the months following the fall of former president Suharto's authoritarian regime in 1998.

The initial victims were generally black magic practitioners (dukun santet) but the terror campaign spread to clerics of the NU -Indonesia's largest Muslim organization then headed by Wahid.

According to figures compiled by the NU, 143 suspected dukun santet were murdered in Banyuwangi along with another 105 murders in neighbouring regions of East Java such as Jember, Sumenep and Pasuruan.

The press latched onto the sensationalism of the incidents at the time, with ninja's said to be able to jump over houses and display other supernatural powers, and Wahid and others saw the hand of Suharto and the military behind the terror campaign.

Wahid reasserted that the recent slayings were once again backed by the political enemies of the NU and PKB.

He appeared to back recent statements by the armed forces commander that certain elements intended to cause chaos ahead of the national elections slated for April next year and were targeting the PKB to achieve their ends.

When pressed on the identity of those responsible, Wahid said they were the same as those behind the 1998 killings and were clearly trained by the intelligence forces, reported detikcom.

Wahid went even further and told reporters that the principle figure behind the terror campaign had once served at the State Intelligence Agency (BIN).

"But he's not at BIN anymore. We have proof: statements, video recordings and others. He is a local and a national state official. This must be stopped because this country is already full of chaos," Wahid extolled.

Wahid had named the mastermind as 'General K' back in 1998 but he refused to elaborate further. He also admitted that he had forgotten the names of the murdered NU clerics.

Police Pragmatic

The National Police have formed a special unit to investigate the killings but have declined to comment on the allegations launched by Wahid as well as the motive behind the killings.

National Police deputy spokesman Brig.Gen. Soenarko told reporters on Sunday that kyai Asmuni Ishak (61), head of the NU branch in Jatiroto district, was murdered in his home in Kalibotolor village at 02.15 local time on Thursday (27/11/03).

Soenarko admitted that information was scarce on the second murder of a member of a PKB advisory council in Jatiroto, Lumajang, reported detikcom.

He said an investigation unit comprising East Java police, intelligence officers and detectives had been formed to investigate the murders.

When questioned on the allegations launched by the former president, Soenarko merely retorted: "We don't talk politics, just the facts in the field."

Eight people were questioned in relation to the murder of Asmuni Ishak on Sunday, including his three children who were in the house at the time of the attack.

Asmuni's oldest son, Muhammad Ivan Sauki (27), told police a group of six men burst into the family home brandishing reapers and explosives and cornered Asmuni and his wife Hj Mudmaidah in their bedroom.

Ivan and his younger siblings, Amil Mujamilah (23) and Indah Ulinnuha (16), were threatened as several of the assailants attacked their parents, Soenarko said.

Asmuni died at the house and Hj Mudmaidah was seriously injured, he added.

In addition to the three siblings, five other eyewitnesses aged between 25 and 53 years of age were questioned. All are Jember locals.

One of the eyewitnesses, Sugito (47), told police the assailants masked their faces but were not well dressed - with at least one going barefoot to the house.

History Never Repeats?

The 1998 killings sparked mass hysteria in East Java and the paranoia spread nation-wide as the country struggled to come to terms with the economic crisis and the fall of Suharto.

Most analysts now tend to see the spate of horrific killings as a sign of those chaotic times.

The fall of Suharto and politcial pressure on the police and military that maintained his repressive regime emboldened locals who felt themselves above the law and many blamed the killings on localized 'revenge attacks' in East Java, where belief in the paranormal is a way of life.

Banyuwangi in particular has long been known as one of the most powerful centers of black magic in Indonesia. The area is also a stronghold of the notoriously syncretic NU.

The onset of the 'reformasi' era also ushered in the rise of new political forces across the country.

The NU kyai, as respected religious and social leaders, clearly represented a major threat to local politicians entrenched under Suharto's New Order regime.

Following extensive research into the issue, Jason Brown summed up the view of most nonpartisan observers as follows:

The dukun santet murders were merely a lever designed to create chaotic conditions in East Java, unsettling the staunch NU region and disrupting the formation of Abdurrahman Wahid's PKB… Local political figures, fearful of the threat posed by Muslim clerics and the new strong political arm of NU, may have used the dukun santet slayings for their own political interests by latching onto the 'ninja issue' in order to launch a terror campaign against the NU community. ( Inside Indonesia, No. 62 April -June 2000)

Wahid clearly believes that the same forces are targeting the NU and PKB yet again but times have changed somewhat.

While there is no doubt that the political parties have began their official - and not so official - electioneering efforts and rivalry is intensifying between major players, the greatest challenge facing the NU and PKB at present comes from within.

Indeed, many points of contention in the struggle over the political future of the NU and PKB center on the future role of Wahid himself.

Wahid, whose forefathers established the NU, is a patriarch in the grand sense but he faces mounting opposition from influential but lower-profile kyai, particularly in East Java.

These kyai blocked Wahid's attempts to sack PKB secretary general Syaifullah Jusuf recently and many have spoken out against his intention to run for president on the PKB ticket at next October's presidential elections.

Such dissension is not new, as a significant proportion of senior NU and PKB leaders supported Wahid's dismissal from office in July 2001.

After earning himself numerous enemies - for attempts at military reform as well as alleged misuse of state funds among other reasons - Wahid was dismissed at a special session of the legislature in favor of his deputy, current President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Perceived disloyalty within the ranks was one of the major contributing factors to the later split of the PKB and the formation - apparently with significant military backing - of a rival PKB party headed by current Defense Minister Matori Abdul Jalil.

While Jalil is currently gravely ill in Singapore and his party activities on hold, up-and-coming NU kyai have their sights set on the organization's political future.

In the realm of the supernatural, worldly disaster is seen as a manifestation of inner disharmony. In the real world, not only do forces seek to undermine their political enemies but killers - whether civilian or military - go unpunished for their crimes.

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