Over 300 Indonesian terrorists still in Syria, Afghanistan, Philippines
Also, more terrorists may still be hiding in Indonesia's state enterprises.
JAKARTA: An Indonesian antiterror official reportedly said his agency is monitoring over 300 of its nationals still allegedly involved in terrorism in Syria, Afghanistan and the Philippines.
Head of the National Counterterrorism Agency or BNPT, Rycko Amelza Dahniel, said about 300 of these are in Syria, nine in Afghanistan and eight in the Philippines.
"The number varies, around 300 in Syria, that's what we have recorded, which we have monitored. Nine people in Afghanistan and eight people in the Philippines," Rycko said in a press conference in south Jakarta on Friday (Sept. 8).
He said the government was trying to repatriate Indonesian citizens with foreign terrorist fighters (FTF) status in the three countries.
"So we will start collecting data because this is also a mandate from the UN, from UNOCT (United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism), so that all countries can eliminate terrorist groups,” explained Rycko.
“Their language (UN's) is not terrorist groups, but citizens who are in conflict areas, conflict zones. They will collect data from Unicef and carry out data collection with the UNCRC (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child)."
Rycko said the government had considered the possibility of repatriating children aged 10 years and under, who would be separated from their mothers.
Repatriated Indonesian citizens will be placed in Indonesian embassies in each conflict country.
"These citizens will be placed in each embassy for repatriation. After these citizens return to their country, a deradicalisation treatment process will be carried out. We have reached there, but so far the current government, the government's policy to date has only been to repatriate children aged 10 years and under," explained Rycko.
From 2013 to 2017, more than 2,150 Indonesians travelled to Syria and Iraq to join IS, according to a report by the BNPT in January 2022.
Of those, more than 555 were deported before they entered Syria, 194 voluntarily returned home, and 127 were confirmed dead.
Rycko also said in the press conference there may still be a network of radical groups in state-owned enterprises.
This was apparently following up on an August arrest of a state railway employee in West Java province suspected to be an IS operative who had dozens of firearms seized from his house.
“Yes, not that there are still many, [but] it is still possible that there is still a network. A radical network, that's for sure," said Rycko.
Rycko said the BNPT’s task is to continue improving the assessment of state enterprise employees considered to be at high risk of exposure to radicalism and terrorism, admitting that his party has only carried out assessments of high-level employees so far.
"So far, the assessments carried out by BNPT have only been for echelons one and two, deputy candidates and director candidates. We haven't gone all the way down," he explained, citing limited manpower in his agency to carry out the more thorough assessments.