Arrests anger Cambodian Muslims

Antiterror drive seen as political game

By Rafael D. Frankel, Globe Correspondent, 7/13/2003

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- These are tense days for the Muslims of Cambodia, long a peaceful minority in this Buddhist country, but now roiled by the specter of international terrorism and the politics of fighting it.

The recent arrests of an Egyptian and two Thai teachers at an Islamic school 20 miles outside the capital sent shock waves through the country's estimated 700,000 Muslims, the vast majority of them ethnic Cambodian Chams. The teachers are accused of having links to the terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiyah, which intelligence specialists believe is the Southeast Asian arm of Al Qaeda that is responsible for the Oct. 12, 2002, bombings in Bali, Indonesia, that killed 202 people.

The initial shock from the allegation that Jemaah Islamiyah had infiltrated Cham schools and their society has turned to anger with the Cambodian government. Cham leaders accuse the government of drumming up charges against the three teachers to show it was tough on terrorism before a visit by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell last month.

The government has ''used us in their game as a political issue, to please America and Australia, so they can get aid,'' said Ahmad Yahya, a leader of the Cham community and a secretary of state and deputy minister in the government. ''If these people are terrorists, we are very pleased for the government to arrest and jail them. But they have no proof.''

Since the arrests, the government has declined to disclose evidence against the suspects, and phone calls to the government spokesman seeking comment were not returned. But government and police officials have said they have evidence that the three teachers were involved in Jemaah Islamiyah. The officials also said that authorities acted on intelligence tips from the United States. Security specialists believe that Cambodia could be an ideal place for terrorists, with its porous borders and lax immigration laws.

An official at the US Embassy in Phnom Penh, speaking on condition of anonymity, would not disclose the nature of any intelligence cooperation. But the official said the United States was ''very pleased with the [arrests] and very happy at the cooperation Cambodia has shown in the fight against terror.''

The United States is considering resuming limited military aid to Cambodia, which it suspended after a 1997 coup, if the July 27 general elections are deemed free and fair and if the planned Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal is conducted without corruption, the embassy official said.

But Chams say the United States is behaving hypocritically by demanding fairness in the elections and tribunal while turning a blind eye to the manner in which the antiterrorist action was conducted. In addition to the arrest of the three foreign teachers and the deportation of at least 20 others, the government closed the 700-pupil Um al-Qura school where they taught. Its funding from a Saudi group that finances similar schools around the region also was cut off.

At the an-Nur an-Na'im mosque, 6 miles north of Phnom Penh, 18-year-old Sakin Abdullah spoke of the fear many in his community share: that they are being made scapegoats.

''We are worried to make friends with foreigners now,'' said Abdullah, a Cambodian who teaches English and the Koran to preteens in a two-story wooden shack next to the mosque that serves as a madrassa, or Islamic school. ''And we are very worried the government will close our school.''

The mosque, one of about 200 in Cambodia, was built in 1901. It was destroyed by the Khmer Rouge -- which killed more than 100,000 Chams during its brutal late-'70s reign, according to Cham leaders -- but was later rebuilt.

For about 1,300 years, the Champa kingdom existed in what is today central Vietnam. Islam came to the Chams' empire around the eighth century, spreading from what is now Malaysia. After being conquered by the Vietnamese in the 15th century, surviving Chams migrated to Cambodia, where they have maintained their community since.

Chams make up about 5 percent of the population. They have lived a mostly harmonious life in Cambodia, largely maintaining their distinct culture. In recent years, Chams have risen to high levels in the government.

But with intelligence specialists pointing to Southeast Asia as a hotbed of terrorist activity, the United States has made fighting terrorism the predominant issue guiding its policy on the region. High-profile arrests of suspected terrorists in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia have won high praise from Washington.

©2003 Globe Newspaper Company