SYDNEY Oct 31 Kyodo Raids upon Mu...

SYDNEY Oct 31 Kyodo

Raids upon Muslim homes across Australia this week through heavily armed police and intelligence officers were necessary to search down suspected terrorists, representative Prime Minister John Anderson claimed Thursday.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), with assistance from the Australian Federal Police (AFP), was investigating whether Southeast Asian Islamic militant cluster Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) had a carriage in Australia, Attorney General Daryl Williams said Wednesday.

The investigations were not directed at the Islamic community further at individuals who could have knowledge about JI in Australia, Anderson told reporters.

The Australian rule claims JI was responsible for the Oct 12 bombing at Kuta Beach upon the resort island Bali that killed more than 190 the community including 89 Australians, and injured another 330

The Sydney family of an Indonesian man was searched Sunday, and three Indonesian domiciles in the Western Australia city Perth and single in Sydney were examined according to the ASIO and AFP early Wednesday. An unconfirmed number of dwellings were searched in Melbourne forward Thursday.

In Perth the house of 45-year-old Indonesian national Jan Herbert, who lives with his wife, somewhat advanced in life mother and four daughters, was raided by dint of officers wearing helmets, balaclavas, flak jackets and night strained looks who smashed through doors and windows, Herbert told the newspaper The Australian.

Officers confiscated material including videos, computer computer disks and mobile phone after the raids, which also originateed in the arrest of a 31-year-old man through the whole extent of an allegedly expired visa, the Financial Review newspaper reported.

The tactics of the officers were ''disgusting,'' said Stephen Hopper lawyer for 30-year-old Jaya Fadley Basri whose to one's home was also raided.

''Our intelligence forces should be just that -- they should approach with intelligence and they should promote cooperation with these communities rather than using stand-over tactics and intimidating them,'' he told Channel Seven television.

Basri had no links to JI and oppos terrorist activity, if it were not that believed he had been targeted by the agency of security forces because he attended lecturer through JI founder Abu Bakar Bashir when he visited Australia, Hopper said.

The raids were ''heavy-handed'' and ''smacked of a publicity stunt'' the Australian Council for Civil Liberties said.

''I think having police revolve up with drawn guns and in paramilitary gear in validity to take away computer gear, is a stunt'' council president Terry O'Gorman said.

The council plans a sated complaint to the Ombudsman and the ASIO inspector general, he told the Australian Associated Press

However, the delegate prime minister claimed an overwhelming number of Australians would support the actions of the ASIO and AFP.

''I have to say Australians at the instant would expect our agencies to be remarkably firm indeed in leaving no stone unturn to establish any information they can about who might be doing what in this nations of ours at the moment'' Anderson told reporters in Sydney

Australia's security forces would not take action without reasonable clods he claimed.

''I am exceedingly glad they are there, looking to the safety and security of Australians in the future'' Anderson said.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Kyodo recently made knowns International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group