TerrorismTerrorism in Indonesia is on the rise, with different targets
The terrorist attacks at two Bali nightclubs in 2002 killed 202 people and wounded another 240; in the ten years since, Indonesia has gained international praise for its counterterrorism efforts; data reveal, however, that more than 700 militants have been arrested over the past ten years, including eighty-four last year; dozens more have been killed since the Bali bombings; rather than attack Western tourists, Islamic militants now attack the Indonesian government and its agencies
Aftermath of an attack in Jakarta // Source: people.com.cn
The terrorist attacks at two Bali nightclubs in 2002 killed 202 people and wounded another 240. In the ten years since, Indonesia has gained international praise for its counterterrorism efforts.
Data from the National Police reveal, however, that more than 700 militants have been arrested over the past ten years, including eighty-four last year. Dozens more have been killed since the Bali bombings.
The Seattle Times reports that the number of terrorist strikes in the country has risen, especially since 2010, as radical imams have increased their calls for their followers to focus more on domestic attacks.
“It turns out that the terrorism problem in Indonesia is not finished yet,” Major General Tito Karnavian, a former counterterrorism official recently appointed police chief of Papua province, is quoted by the Seattle Times as saying. “The quality of their attacks has decreased, but the quantity has increased.”
The last attack in Bali that targeted Westerners was in 2009, when attacks on the J.W. Marriot and Ritz-Carlton hotels killed seven people in Jakarta.
Since then police and security forces have been the target of most of the attacks. The targets may have shifted, but the recruitment methods of terrorist have not. Pre-teen men are indoctrinated to believe that as jihadist “grooms” they will reap God’s rewards for martyrdom — paradise for the bomber and seventy family members and the gift of seventy-two virgin angels. This belief is not shared by most Muslims.
Fadlan, a convicted terrorist that was trained to be a suicide bomber in 2001, believes that he would be in paradise today if he was picked for a mission. “I still believe it … because it’s not promised by my recruiter, but God,” Fadlan, speaking in a mosque near his house in central Jakarta, is quoted by the Times as saying..
Fadlan was held back from a suicide bombing because his mentor, Imam Samudra, one of the plot masterminds, deemed it too risky to use him in the attacks because he was already wanted for an earlier botched bombing.
Fadlan was sentenced in 2006 to four years in prison after he was found guilty of harboring terrorists, but was released on good behavior the same year and now works for the government’s deradicalization program designed to reform convicted terrorists.
Fadlan, now 36, says he is not involved with any militant groups in Indonesia because the country is not seen as a battle ground for holy war, but could still be willing to join in if another front is called. “Nobody refuses a reward in heaven, right?” Fadlan said. “But I live like I’m in a large aquarium now … authorities are watching me everywhere I go, and I could not go abroad.”
In 2010 police raided a jihadi paramilitary camp and an anti-terrorism crackdown followed that left 100 suspected militants either dead or in jail. After that, Indonesian extremist religious leaders told militants to start attacking police, anti-terrorism squads, lawmakers, and other people who were considered obstacles at home.
Even as the number of attacks has risen, the attacks have been reduced to one person acting alone or a few people acting together.
“I don’t think there is any one person who is the current face of terrorism in Indonesia,” Ken Conboy, a Jakarta-based expert on Southeast Asian terrorism told the Times. “Rather, the terrorists have splintered into small cells that have only fleeting contact, if that, with one another.”
