Groups of militant Indonesian Muslims on Sunday showed up at five international hotels in the central Java city of Solo, demanding to know if any American citizens were staying there.
The hotel sweep came despite a call by the central Java military commander, Major General Sumarsono, for Muslims to refrain from intimidation of Americans in the face of possible US reprisal strikes on Afghanistan.
Six groups of Muslims, each of about 25 to 30 men, separately checked the five hotels and the city's airport, Detikcom online said. No US citizens were found.
The men, claiming to belong to the Anti-American Terrorist Force, checked with reception staff at the Novotel Hotel, the Sahid Raya, the Agas, the Solo Quality Hotel and Lor Inn and with officials at the Adi Sumarmo airport.
Detikcom said that the force comprised members of several known militant and hard-line Islamic organizations in Solo, including the Muhajedin and Hizbullah forces, the Solo chapter of the Front for the Defenders of Islam, the Al Islah an Jundullah forces and the Hawariyun and Salamah groups.
They also left pamphlets warning: "If Afghanistan is attacked, people from America and its allies should leave Solo."
The spokesman of the operation, Abdul Khoir, told Detikcom that the sweep was just a taste of what was to come should the US attack Afghanistan, believed to be harboring Osama bin laden, who the US has fingered as the mastermind behind the attacks on New York and Washington.
Another leader of the operation, identified only as Kalono, said that the move was a sign that Americans should not take their threat lightly.
"This action shows that we are not playing around in retaliating, if the mother of all terrorists, which calls itself America, attacks Afghanistan. Even just the threat of the attack is already an act of terrorism," Kalono said.
Earlier on Sunday, Major General Sumarsono, speaking in the central Java capital of Semarang, called on Muslims not to engage in violence against US citizens, Detikcom said.
"That is a foreign policy of the United States. The reaction of our brothers to the policies of the United States, for example by attacking US citizens here, is inappropriate," Sumarsono said.
Indonesian police have deployed hundreds of snipers and crack personnel to guard 17 key United States facilities in the capital in view of rising anti-US sentiment -- JAKARTA (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
