GOVT TOLD TO PROVIDE PLACE FOR URWAH'S BURIAL

Kudus, C Java, Sept 24 (ANTARA) - The government should provide a place to bury slain terror suspect Bagus Budi Pranoto alias Urwah after residents of Mijen village in Kudus district disapproved of his planned burial in the area, a spokesman said.
"The government had better step in to settle the conflict by providing a special place to bury him on a plot of state land or in another area free from a conflict," chief of the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI)'s chapter in Kudus district M Syafiq said on Thursday.

The special plot of land was neeeded to stem pros and cons over the planned burial of Urwah at the Bulu cemetery in the village, Syafiq said.

Urwah was killed along with long-sought terror mastermind Noordin M Top in a police raid in Solo last week. His body is currently still in the morgue of the Police Hospital in Kramatjati, Jakarta.

Scores of residents of the village rallied outside the office of their village chief on Wednesday to express their disapproval of the planned burial of Urwah in the area.

Calling themselves "Peace-loving Community Forum", the villagers carried a banner reading: "We, residents of Mijen village, oppose terrorist actions, don't want Kudus to become a terrorist haven, and oppose the burial of terrorists in Kudus."
Responding to resistance from part of the villagers to the planned burial of Urwah in the area, Syafiq said they had the right to reject it for fear that their region will be branded as a terrorist den.

The resistence was also a manifestation of the villagers' annoyance because Urwah's involvement in a terrorist network had marred the village they had struggled to become free from terrorist act, he said.
Sukis Jiwantoro, the rally's coordinator who is also chairman of Mijen village's Community Consultative Body (BPD), said although Urwah was born in the village, the local community did not want to see him buried in their region.

"Indonesian people, including residents of Mijen village, cannot accept the terrorist acts Urwah and his friends have committed under the label of jihad," he said.