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Indonesia cracks down on terrorism with new laws and joint patrols
Sydney Morning Herald - June 20, 2017
The new laws will enable authorities to crack down on Indonesians who return after fighting with the Islamic State in Syria or the Philippines.
A review of the 2003 Anti-Terrorism Bill is currently before parliament, with amendments first tabled after eight people were killed in the 2016 terror attack at Starbucks in Central Jakarta.
Terrorism analysts have long called for a tightening of anti-terrorism legislation in Indonesia, which to date has not banned membership of IS or similar organisations or participation in terrorist training camps overseas.
However the outbreak of Islamist violence in the southern Philippines appears to have spooked Indonesia, which on Monday also deployed warships in North Kalimantan to mark the start of unprecedented joint patrols with Malaysia and the Philippines.
Indonesian police estimate 38 Indonesians, including one woman, have been involved in the Marawi conflict. Four have been killed and six deported back to Indonesia.
Indonesia's military chief Gatot Nurmantyo warned earlier this month of the existence of IS sleeper cells in every one of Indonesia's 34 provinces except Papua. The sleeper cells support the existence of a caliphate but do not have weapons.
General Gatot said IS militants could move from Marawi to the Indonesian islands of Bitung, Morotai, Tarakan, Marore and Sangihe.
"These are things we must be cautious about because they can wake up the sleeping cells and then there could be conflicts that relate to the Islamic State," he said. "In line with the government policy, we will build military command in the most outer islands."
General Gatot said if Indonesia could not handle the threat, foreign powers would come in on the pretext of providing humanitarian support.
Arsul Sani, a member of the House of Representatives committee debating the new anti-terror bill, said Indonesians who became foreign fighters with terrorist groups would face a maximum 15 years' jail.
"However if he is active and commits terrorism actions out there, he can be charged with other articles and may get life or even the death penalty," he told Fairfax Media.
However Mr Arsul stressed that the decision to classify an organisation as a terrorist group must be made by an Indonesian court and not the United Nations or Western powers. He said MPs were still debating other provisions in the anti-terrorism bill but it was expected to be finalised by September.
Jakarta-based terrorism analyst Sidney Jones said the new legislation would be a breakthrough.
"They have been creative in trying to find other avenues to prosecute, so at one point the police were trying to use this provision of the criminal code which basically makes it a crime to rebel against a friendly state or to take up arms against a friendly state," Ms Jones said.
"It's always been a dicey argument to use because you never know if the judges will accept it, so having it in the anti-terrorism legislation will be much stronger."
Ms Jones said one of the other questions was whether MPs would find a way to criminalise military training for terrorism that was taking place domestically.
"So holding military training in West Java or places like that... one of the difficulties was trying to define it in such a way that it didn't penalise traditional martial arts training," she said.
One of the provisions still being discussed in the anti-terrorism bill is the role of the military.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo last month called for the armed forces to play a greater role in the war against terrorism, but rights groups fear that could lead to the sorts of human rights violations experienced under the Suharto regime.
Counter-terrorism efforts are currently led by the police, with the highly effective specialist unit Detachment 88 foiling 15 terror plots last year.
However the military can assist when requested by the government, as was the case in the manhunt for Santoso, once Indonesia's most-wanted terrorist, who was killed in the jungle of Poso last year.
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