Indonesian police and military members
should guard against women taking a more active role in potential terrorist
attacks by Muslim extremists – as seen in Surabaya in 2018 and in Sri Lanka
earlier this month – a Jakarta-based think tank said in a report published
Monday.
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Suicide bombings carried out in Sri
Lanka on Easter Sunday underscore that Indonesia has not had to not face
coordinated attacks that kill hundreds of people, the Institute for Policy
Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) said in opening its report.
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“Indonesia has been lucky thus far that
its terrorists generally have had too little experience to think big. With a
little imagination and better leadership, these pro-ISIS cells could do far
greater damage,” IPAC said, using another acronym for the Islamic State (IS).
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The report, “The Ongoing Problem of
Pro-ISIS Cells in Indonesia,” described Indonesia as fortunate to have had
“such low-caliber terrorists and high-caliber counter-terrorism police.”
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Local militant groups, like the one
blamed for the April 21 attacks in Sri Lanka, have not been discouraged by IS
defeats in the Middle East, but have been emboldened to wage war at home, IPAC
reported.
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Indonesian officials, meanwhile, have
weakened efforts by militant groups through a wave of arrests since the May
2018 suicide bombings of churches and a police station in Surabaya, the report
said. Those attacks in the capital of East Java province involved whole
families – men, their wives and children in launching suicide bomb attacks.
Twelve civilians were killed.
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Many of the arrests since then targeted
the nation’s largest pro-IS coalition, Jamaah Ansharul Daulah (JAD), “damaging
the structure but leaving behind several territorial units that remain
determined to act on their own,” IPAC said.
“Many of these ad-hoc cells in Indonesia
have been hampered by geographic dispersal of members, if they were formed
online, and by a general absence of any vetting, training or indoctrination
procedures, let alone security precautions.”
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[‘A broader phenomenon’]
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The report also pointed to a potential
link between Surabaya and a more recent incident in Sibolga involving
Indonesian female suicide bombers, and a Sri Lankan woman who blew herself up
shortly after the Easter Sunday attacks.
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The Sri Lankan woman, who was the wife
of one of the suicide bombers, killed herself, her children and police officers
who entered her family’s home shortly after the April 21 attacks.
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Islamic State claimed responsibility for
the Sri Lankan attacks, which were carried out by members of a local pro-IS
Muslim extremist group, according to news reports. The bombings killed about
250 people at churches and hotels in three cities in the island-nation.
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“Surabaya now seems to have been an
inspiration for Sibolga, and the involvement of the Sri Lankan woman suggests
this could now be a broader phenomenon,” the report states.
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In March, the wife of a suspected
Indonesian militant detonated a bomb, killing herself and her child in Sibolga
city in North Sumatra province after police surrounded her house a day after
arresting her husband.
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Following the attacks in Sri Lanka, a
spokesman said Indonesian police were on alert and tracking potential
terrorists throughout the country.
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“We have been mapping and profiling
sleeper cells in all parts of Indonesia by continuously monitoring the
movements of these groups,” spokesman Dedi Prasetyo told BenarNews.
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[Recommendations]
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The IPAC report offered a series of
recommendations, with two focusing specifically on women.
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The first calls for better programs for
pro-IS women detainees. It said 15 women, including some involved in violent
acts, were in custody.
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“Understanding the backgrounds and
motivations of these women is essential for preparing a more targeted rehabilitation
program, and they themselves may have ideas about prevention strategies,” the
report stated.
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The report also called for more women to
be recruited and trained as members of the counter-terrorist unit Densus 88,
including in its intelligence unit.
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“The percentage of women in the police
more generally remains woefully low, just over 8 percent.”
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IPAC pointed out that the Sri Lankan
attacks showed that IS had identified Christians and Jews as enemies and had
encouraged attacks against them.
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What happened in Sri Lanka could
increase the lure of such attacks by IS supporters in Indonesia, the world’s
largest Muslim-majority nation.
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“The existence of small cells also means
that sooner or later, one of them is likely to think of copying the kind of attack
that has taken place elsewhere but that to date has not been tried in
Indonesia: a truck attack; a random stabbing of a foreigner; a mall shooting.
It is easy to dismiss the competence of Indonesian terrorists, but as long as
they continue to subscribe to ISIS ideology, they remain a serious threat,” the
report concluded.
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Credit: Benar News - 29 April 2019
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