The Straits Times, Feb 23, 2005
JI militants recruiting from Jakarta jails
JAKARTA - INDONESIA'S prisons may be fertile recruiting and training grounds for
Jemaah Islamiah (JI) militants because jailers are too soft on them, an international
think-tank believes.
JI is finding it harder to recruit new bombers, but arresting top leaders may prove futile
in eradicating them, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said yesterday.
The practice of what ICG calls 'recycling' militants means the authorities need to
focus on what happens in prison, and what becomes of the families of militants, if
they want to tackle terrorism, it added.
'The government needs to ensure that prisons do not become a place where
radicalisation increases or is reinforced,' the Brussels-based group said in a 57-page
report.
Indonesia has jailed more than 30 militants convicted of the 2002 Bali bombings,
which have been blamed on JI.
More militants are behind bars for involvement in a string of other bombings attributed
to JI, including last year's Australian embassy blast in Jakarta that killed 10 people,
and the 2003 J.W. Marriott Hotel bombing in the city that claimed 12 lives.
The alleged spiritual leader of JI, cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, is also in jail - where he
holds occasional news conferences and regular prayer meetings with prisoners - while
he undergoes trial on terrorism charges.
'I think the authorities anywhere in the world have to strike a balance between giving
detained jihadists absolutely free rein of the prisons...and keeping them in such strict
conditions that they become further radicalised,' said Ms Sidney Jones, ICG
South-east Asia project director and author of the report.
'If anything, the Indonesian government may be erring on the side of no restrictions,'
she said.
She added that radicalisation due to ill treatment was not an issue in Indonesian jails.
'The extent of communication that Bashir and some of the others are able to have, not
only with their former colleagues but also with other inmates in prison, it's got to be a
matter of some concern.'
JI is one of a number of splinter groups that emerged from the Darul Islam movement
and its efforts to establish an Islamic state in Indonesia over the past 55 years.
Every time an older generation of militants seems on the verge of passing into
irrelevance, a new one emerges, inspired by the mystique of the parent movement,
the report said, in explaining the 'recycling' theory.
Within days of the Australian embassy blast, Indonesian police had determined that
two leading JI members - Malaysians Azahari Husin and Noordin Mohammed Top -
were involved.
They were working in partnership with an offshoot of Darul Islam called the Banten
Ring, the ICG said.
Three young suicide bombers recruited from the group, including one who died in the
embassy blast, had fathers who were in Darul Islam.
But the report offered a glimmer of hope.
'The recycling of old Darul Islam members into JI or into partnerships with JI suggests
that the recruiting base for jihadists may not be expanding significantly,' the ICG said.
-- REUTERS
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