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Indonesia's tactical change pays off
By John Aglionby in London
Published: December 28 2009 01:06 | Last updated: December 28 2009 01:06
When Alexander Downer, then Australia's foreign minister, was asked in 2007
to name a country that had made good progress in tackling Islamist
terrorism, he said: "Exhibit A is Indonesia.
"They have not always done as westerners have suggested they do," he
continued, "but they have nevertheless done an extraordinary job in getting
results."
During the past decade, counter-terrorism officials in the world's largest
majority-Muslim country and its south-east Asian neighbours have had plenty
of "results" to get.
Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaeda affiliate, and its splinter groups have
perpetrated at least six big attacks in Indonesia, killing hundreds of
people, and many smaller ones in their campaign to transform the region into
an Islamist caliphate.
These included the Bali
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bombings in 2002 and 2005, near-simultaneous Christmas eve attacks on more
than a dozen Indonesian churches in 2000 and bombings
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five-star hotels in Jakarta in 2003 and again last July.
But helped by significant foreign training and funding, Jakarta has arrested
more than 450 radicals since the first Bali attacks. All have been
prosecuted transparently rather than being detained indefinitely without
charge. More than 250 have been released. Only a few militants are thought
to be at large.
Brigadier General Tito Karnavian, the head of Detachment 88, the Indonesian
police anti-terror unit, believes the secret of the nation's success is the
use of "law enforcement, prosecution and the judicial process". He added:
"We do not use the military approach."
Sidney Jones, a regional terrorism expert with the International Crisis
Group think-tank, said openness was crucial in winning over a public that
had become increasingly anti-western.
"It was from the public trials more than any other source that people
appreciated they had a home-grown problem rather than a conspiracy from
abroad," she said.
Brig Tito also credits the deradicalisation strategy, which seeks to win
over terrorists by paying for their children's education and helping them to
find work after leaving prison.
Some officials remain doubtful about this approach's long-term efficacy,
saying it is premature to judge something that is still being developed.
But Ms Jones credits Indonesia for tackling Islamist radicalism successfully
in its prisons, institutions that in many countries are considered breeding
grounds for militancy.
"The Indonesians were open to recommendations to reform and have made great
strides in the last couple of years in bringing the prisons under control."
Yet analysts stress the conditions in south-east Asia are very different
from those elsewhere. "It's a mistake to see everything as attributable to a
better counter-terrorism strategy," Ms Jones said. "It can't be [regarded
as] a silver bullet and copied elsewhere."
Robin Bush, an expert on Indonesian Islam at the Asia Foundation, a US-based
body, said: "A latent minority voice was given political momentum by the
general hostility towards the west. When things calmed down internationally,
they calmed down here."
The absence of war in the region has been critical. So has the growing
culture of democracy. "It has become possible to advocate legally for
Islamic law in a way that it wasn't when JI got its start, under the Suharto
dictatorship,
But no-one in south-east Asia expects to eradicate Islamist terrorism. "It's
an ideology," said Ms Jones. "There'll continue to be attacks but as more
progress is made they should become fewer and further between."
Additional reporting by Taufan Hidayat in Jakarta
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