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Indonesia
This Week in AsiaPolitics

Can Indonesia’s reform of Isis militants overturn their desire to die as martyrs?

  • The arrest of a former militant for facilitating paramilitary training for an extremist group highlights the country’s struggle with recidivism
  • A significant number of Isis members are scheduled to be released from prison this month, underlining the situation’s critical nature

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Islamic State fighters in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armoured vehicle in 2014. Photo: AP
Amy Chew
For more than five years, former militant Ismarwan, 34, quietly worked on his farm at picturesque Mount Salak in Indonesia’s Aceh province, planting herbs that he used in the traditional treatment of breast cancer with seed money from the National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT).
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He was able to make a decent living and appeared to have put his past life behind him, after his January 2015 release from imprisonment for his involvement in a paramilitary training camp for militants in Aceh.

But on November 20 this year, the lull ended. Indonesian police counterterrorism squad Densus 88 swooped down on Ismarwan’s home and arrested him for allegedly using his farmland as a space for idad, or paramilitary training, for Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) – Indonesia’s foremost Islamic State (Isis) affiliate.

“Ismarwan facilitated and provided land at Mount Salak for JAD’s Abu Hamzah cell to carry out idad. It is believed he stored 100-250 rounds of ammunition and one long rifle,” said a senior counterterrorism official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak with the press.

JAD is the network behind all the major terror attacks in Indonesia since 2016, including last year’s Surabaya church bombings.

“Ismarwan found it difficult to refuse his former comrades when he was asked to loan them his land. The paramilitary training is believed to have taken place for only a short period of time,” said his friend Yudi Zulfahri, who trained with him at the Aceh camp in 2010.

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Yudi Zulfahri is now director of a deradicalisation organisation called Establish Peace. Photo: Handout
Yudi Zulfahri is now director of a deradicalisation organisation called Establish Peace. Photo: Handout

CRITICAL TASK

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