Mainly terrorism in Indonesia: catch all

[Jedburgh]

ICG, 19 Nov 07: Deradicalisation and Indonesian Prisons

Even as the police are focusing their deradicalisation program on prisoners and ex-prisoners, they are the first to acknowledge that the current state of Indonesian prisons undermines their efforts. It is a telling indictment of the system that they do their best to keep top terrorists at police headquarters, out of the normal prison system entirely, because the chances of backsliding are so high.

Choices about isolation or integration are important but they cannot be made outside a broader program of prison reform, particularly an attack on prison corruption, which is very much on the agenda of the new director general of corrections. More important than choosing between two policies, in any case, is training prison administrators to look at terrorist prisoners as individuals and tailor prison programs to their needs.

Deradicalisation programs are important but they will inevitably be trial-and-error in nature; there is no single intervention that can produce a rejection of violence among a disparate group of people who have joined radical movements for many different reasons. Within JI alone there are the ideologues, the thugs, the utopians, the followers and the inadvertent accomplices; local recruits from Poso are motivated by very different factors than those who graduate from JI-affiliated schools in central Java.

Much more thought needs to be given to how to evaluate the “success” of deradicalisation programs, because there is a danger that many people deemed to have been deradicalised are those who were never the real problem, or that the reasons individuals renounce violence have nothing to do with police programs. Even if we could measure the number of people deradicalised according to specific criteria, that figure would only have meaning if we had some sense of the number of new recruits and knew that the balance was going in the right direction.

Focusing on the criminals-turned-jihadis in prison is also important. In all the prisons where “ustadz” are held, there is likely to be a small group of such men but it is not clear that anyone is tracking them or turning deradicalisation efforts in their direction. If it is important to design programs to ensure newly released JI members have vocational opportunities, what about the criminal recruits who may, like Beni Irawan, the Kerobokan guard, turn out to be more militant than their mentors? These men also need to be the focus of special programs and thus far have been left out.

It is hard to set performance goals for deradicalisation because it means so many different things to different people. But setting such goals for improving prison management is possible, desirable and critically necessary.

Complete 35 page paper at the link.

[Jedburgh]

22 Jan 08: Indonesia: Tackling Radicalism in Poso

Serious violence in Poso has had a ten-year history. Between 1998 and 2001, it had been the scene of Christian-Muslim fighting. After 2001 and a government-brokered peace pact, the violence became one-sided, with local extremists, many of them linked to and directed by the extremist organisation Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), mounting attacks on Christians, local officials and suspected informants. The 11 and 22 January 2007 operations were the culmination of almost a year’s unsuccessful effort by the police to persuade those responsible for criminal acts to turn themselves in. Fourteen militants and one policeman died in the process, but Poso is quieter and safer, by all accounts, than it has been in years. As a result of the January operations:

�� almost all the JI religious teachers from Java have fled the area;

�� the perpetrators of all the jihadi crimes committed since the 2001 Malino peace accord have been identified, and most have been arrested, tried and convicted, without any backlash;

�� the JI administrative unit (wakalah) in Poso appears to have been destroyed, at least temporarily;

�� a major vocational training program is underway aimed at ensuring that would-be extremists have career opportunities that will keep them out of trouble;

�� the central government has made new funding available, including for improving education in the hope of diluting the influence of radical teaching; and

�� no serious violence has taken place in Poso in twelve months.

Complete 12 page paper at the link.

[Jedburgh]

ICG, 28 Feb 08: Indonesia: Jemaah Islamiyah’s Publishing Industry

A handful of members and persons close to Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), Indonesia’s most prominent extremist organisation, have developed a profitable publishing consortium in and around the pesantren (religious school) founded by Abu Bakar Ba’asyir and Abdullah Sungkar in Solo, Central Java. The consortium has become an important vehicle for the dissemination of jihadi thought, getting cheap and attractively printed books into mosques, bookstores and discussion groups. The publishing venture demonstrates JI’s resilience and the extent to which radical ideology has developed roots in Indonesia. The Indonesian government should monitor these enterprises more closely, but they may be playing a useful role by channelling JI energies into waging jihad through the printed page rather than acts of violence.....

Complete 25 page report at the link.

[Jedburgh]

IHT, 3 Jul 08: Islamic militants abort terror attack in western Indonesia at last minute

Militants linked to Southeast Asia's most wanted terror suspect placed three bombs inside a tiny cafe in western Indonesia, but aborted their attack at the last minute after realizing many of the victims would have been Muslims, police said Thursday.

The revelation came during the interrogation of 10 men who were arrested this week on Sumatra Island. Twenty-two explosives also were seized, many packed with bullets to maximize the impact of the blasts, said police spokesman Maj. Gen. Abubakar Nataprawira.

The busts highlighted the lingering threat in Indonesia, which has been hit by a string of suicide bombings in recent years, including the 2002 Bali nightclubs attacks that thrust the world's most populous Muslim nation onto the front lines in the war on terrorism.......

[JeffWolf]

http://www.usindo.org/publications/r...arOnTerror.pdf

Indonesia’s War on Terror, by William Wise describes the threat from international terrorism and Jakarta’s response. The desirability of law reform and
improving Indonesia’s intelligence capabilities are highlighted.

[Jedburgh]

ICG, 20 May 09: Indonesia: Radicalisation of the Palembang Group

Indonesia has earned well-deserved praise for its handling of home-grown extremism, but the problem has not gone away. In April 2009, ten men involved in a jihadi group in Palembang, South Sumatra, were sent to prison on terrorism charges for killing a Christian teacher and planning more ambitious attacks. Their history provides an unusually detailed case study of radicalisation – the process by which law-abiding individuals become willing to use violence to achieve their goals. The sobering revelation from Palembang is how easy that transformation can be if the right ingredients are present: a core group of individuals, a charismatic leader, motivation and opportunity. Another ingredient, access to weapons, is important but not essential: the Palembang group carried out its first attack with a hammer and only later moved to making bombs......

[Jedburgh]

ICG, 24 Jul 09: Indonesia: The Hotel Bombings

On 17 July 2009, suicide bombers attacked two hotels in the heart of a Jakarta business district, killing nine and injuring more than 50, the first successful terrorist attack in Indonesia in almost four years. While no one has claimed responsibility, police are virtually certain it was the work of Noordin Mohammed Top, who leads a breakaway group from Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the regional jihadi organisation responsible for the first Bali bombing in 2002. One of the hotels, the Marriott, was bombed by Noordin’s group in 2003; this time, a meeting of mostly foreign businessmen appears to have been the target. The restaurant of the nearby Ritz-Carlton was also bombed.

The attack sets back Indonesia’s counter-terrorism efforts, but its political and economic impact has been minor. On 23 July President Yudhoyono was declared the winner of the 8 July elections with more than 60 per cent of the vote; nothing about the bombing is likely to weaken his government or prompt a crisis. The impact on the business community, which lost four prominent members, has been devastating, but economic indicators are stable.....

[davidbfpo]

Due to a host of factors, Indonesia continues to witness an upsurge of religious radicalism. Some salient characteristics, the DNA of radicalism so to speak, stand out when one analyses the attitudes and behavior of jihadists.

The jihadist embodies the following characteristics:

Link:http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2...adicalize.html

[Jedburgh]

ICG, 19 Apr 11: Indonesian Jihadism: Small Groups, Big Plans

Violent extremism in Indonesia increasingly is taking the form of small groups acting independently of large jihadi organisations but sometimes encouraged by them. This is in part a response to effective law enforcement that has resulted in widespread arrests and structural weakening of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), Jama’ah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT) and other organisations accused of links to terrorism. But it is also the result of ideological shifts that favour “individual” over “organisational” jihad and low-cost, smallscale targeted killings over mass casualty attacks that inadvertently kill Muslims....

[Bill Moore]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapc...lan/index.html

Authorities found about 150 kilograms (330 pounds) of explosives near the church on Thursday, said Boy Rafli Amar, the national police spokesman.

There were two large bombs and five smaller ones, he said.

The actual CNN report (on T.V.) also mentioned the bombs were placed next to a gas pipeline and that the potential casualty figures could have been quite high if this attack wasn't disrupted.

The security forces in Indonesia have been highly successful in the past few years, but extremist groups are still operating. One of their goals is to re-create the ethnic strife responsible for hundreds of deaths a decade ago, which appears to be the logic behind this target.

Indonesia is the largest Muslim nation in the world, so what happens there matters.

[Backwards Observer]

Off topic, but another side of Indonesia:

Tens of thousands of fans will greet teen heartthrob Justin Bieber at his concert in Sentul Bogor Saturday, event organizer Berlian Entertainment said.

...

Around 1,000 security personnel will be deployed to secure the concert, Berlian Entertainment Project Director Marcel Permadhi said. Security will consist of the police, the military as well as private security personnel, Marcel said. Bieber will also bring his own bodyguards, Marcel said. About 100 medical staff and 10 ambulance units will be on stand by during the event.

Thousands of fans to greet teen heartthrob at concert - Prodita Sabarini - Jakarta Post - 23 April, 2011

and 'back in the day'...

In 1993, youths rioted outside a Jakarta stadium after being denied entrance to a "Metallica" concert. The Indonesian news agency reported 13 people were taken to hospital, and cars and houses were damaged. But independent reports said the rioting was much more serious. The Indonesian government said it would take more care in issuing rock concert permits.

global metal - metallica concert, jakarta 1993 - youtube

Metallica setlist, April 10, 1993, Jakarta - metallica.com

...

but also:

A suicide bomber attacked the Adz-Zikro mosque located within a police complex in Cirebon City in Indonesia last Friday, April 15, 2011. Dozens were injured when the bomb exploded during Friday prayers. Indonesia is the most populous Muslim dominated nation in the world and in recent years, it has been targeted by extremist terrorist groups.

Indonesia: Suicide Bomber Targets Police Mosque - Tikno - Global Voices - 21 April, 2011

[Bill Moore]

I don't what concerns me more, thousands of Justin Bieber fans in Indonesia, or Islamists in Indonesia?

Actually I think one feeds the other, and there are at least two movements that appear to be gaining traction in Indonesia. One is a movement towards the West. They want to incorporate some western business models and culture. Another movement is back towards fundamentalist Islam, and they'll employ extreme tactics in hopes of stopping the progression towards the West. I think the fact that there are thousands of Bieber fans simply makes the situation both more dangerous in the short run and perhaps more hopeful in the long run.