Mitigating Terrorism

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

Police officers check a vehicle on Nov. 13 (13/11/2019) at the entrance to the Jakarta Police headquarters. All police stations across Jakarta have tightened security checks on vehicles, including police vehicles, following a suicide bombing at the Medan Police headquarters, North Sumatra, earlier that morning.

Terror attacks continue to happen around us. On Wednesday (13/11/2019), a suicide bombing by 24-year-old RMN occurred at the Medan Police headquarters. Only the perpetrator was killed, while six people in the vicinity were injured.

This terror attack provided several lessons in making terrorism mitigation more effective and efficient.

The first lesson that National Police personnel and counterterrorism community can take from this is that RMN was not alone in launching the bomb attack. He might have been called a lone wolf who rode a motorbike to the site of the attack, but he was obviously part of a pack of wolves with a wide-ranging network. After the Medan bombing, no fewer than 46 suspects have been arrested at several locations in Sumatra, Java and Kalimantan, including those who died in a police shoot-out in Deli Serdang.

It is clear that RMN’s network was bound not only by religious ideology and practices but also by marriage and blood. Kompas records (15/11/2019) show that between May 2018 and 13 November 2019, five terror attacks involving immediate family members and relatives have been carried out. Such bonds make the terror groups or networks more unified in carrying out their attacks.

Regarding marriage-based radicalism in terror attacks, the increased involvement of wives or females must be noted. The involvement of women in terror attacks first came to light after the arrest of Dian YulianNovita in a police operation in Bekasi in December 2016.

KOMPAS/AUFRIDA WISMI WARASTRI

Police officers seal on Nov. 13 a rented house in Tanah Enamratus village, Medan Marelan, North Sumatra, where the alleged perpetrator of a suicide bombing on the Medan Police headquarters had lived with his wife for the past month.

Since then women have been increasingly involved in terror attacks and networks. It seems that such women are equal to men in terms of toughness and militancy. However, it is not yet clear whether the women are exposed to terror ideology and practices because of pressure from men or of their own accord.

Two researchers and peace activists, Lies Marcoes (Kompas, 16/5/2018) and Musdah Mulia, in listing the women involved in radicalism and terrorism in the past few years, cited this phenomenon as the feminization of radicalism, radical movements or even terrorism. All of these terms are contradictio-in-terminis as the word feminism refers to the equality of women (and men) and is associated with gentleness instead of violence.

In this context, the police said it was believed that RMN had been pushed by his wife DA to be a suicide bomber. DA is believed to have been active on social media and visited Dw, a female terror convict in the Class-II Women\'s Penitentiary in Medan.

The increasing number of women actively involved in radicalism-terrorism ideology and practices is in line with the increase in the number of terror suspects arrested. This phenomenon shows that terror cells and networks are becoming increasingly large.

The wave of arrests continues after RMN’s suicide bombing at the Medan Police headquarters.

Between January and May 2019, around 68 terrorists were arrested. Such arrests continue in many places across Indonesia and peaked after the stabbing of then-Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto on 10 October. At the time, no fewer than 40 suspected terrorists were arrested. The wave of arrests continues after RMN’s suicide bombing at the Medan Police headquarters.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the defeat of the Islamic State (IS) or the DawlahIslamiyah (Da’ish) in Syria and Iraq has had no impact on the development and dynamics of terrorism in Indonesia.

Despite reports of IS leader Abu Bakar al-Baghdadi having been killed in late October, his replacement has been named: Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraisi. It seems that IS followers have accepted Abu Ibrahim, who leads a secretive life.

Consequently, the IS will continue to exist. Furthermore, pledging allegiance to the IS no longer requires a face-to-face meeting with the IS leadership but can be done online. The police said that around 90 percent of suspected terrorists and members of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) pledged their allegiance to IS online.

KOMPAS/AUFRIDA WISMI WARASTRI

Medan Police commissioner Sarponi, one of the victims of a suicide bombing at the Medan Police headquarters, is being treated at Bhayangkara Hospital in Medan, North Sumatra, on Friday (15/11/2019).

Therefore, efforts to mitigate terrorism in Indonesia is far from finished. On the contrary, acceleration is needed, especially internally through the strengthening of counterterrorism bodies and institutions such as the Densus 88 antiterror squad and the National Counterterrorism Agency.

These improvements are urgent to anticipate the return of “IS veterans”. Today, there are around 700 Indonesian IS veterans seeking to return. They are in prisons in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Jordan. These countries can deport these people at any time.

How should the Indonesian government anticipate this wave of returning IS veterans? It seems that no clear plan is in place on whether to accept them all or selectively through a clearance process.

When he was National Police chief, Tito Karnavian stated that around 500 IS veterans had returned to Indonesia. If this is true, the number is quite large and there is the question of the National Police’s ability to control all of them.

Considering the continued terror acts and arrests of terror suspects, it is possible that IS veterans have played a role in the increase in terrorists and the expansion of their networks.

Kompas

Azyumardi Azra

Everyone – the government, police personnel, the public and civilian groups as well as mass organizations – must work together in mitigating radicalism-terrorism ideology and practices. Defensive and apologetic behavior – claiming that there is no radicalism-terrorism in Indonesia – clearly does not help in mitigation efforts.

AZYUMARDI AZRA, Culture and Humanities professor, SyarifHidayatullah State Islamic University; member of AIPI