Indonesia: Weakening Mujahidin Networks

Jakarta/Brussels  |   13 Nov 2005

In the wake of the latest terrorist attack on Bali, the need to understand Indonesia's violent jihadist networks is greater than ever.

A new policy briefing by the International Crisis Group, Weakening Indonesia's Mujahidin Networks: Lessons from Maluku and Poso, examines the role that Maluku and Poso, sites of the worst communal conflicts in Indonesia in the immediate post-Soeharto period, have played in bringing mujahidin from different parts of the country together. It suggests that one key to preventing further violence is to weaken the local component of these networks through programs aimed at ex-combatants and imprisoned mujahidin in the conflict areas.

"Personal networks are at least as relevant as organisational affiliation in determining how teams of operatives get put together for acts of violence", says Sidney Jones, Crisis Group's Southeast Asia Project Director. "It's increasingly important to know who knew whom in Maluku or Poso".

The report examines two violent incidents in May 2005 -- the execution of paramilitary police in Ceram, Maluku, and the bombing of a market in Tentena, Poso -- as case studies of how those networks are formed and operate. It notes that the conflict areas continue to be home to "leftover mujahidin" who went there to fight from other parts of the country and stayed on; who returned home but maintained regular contact with people they had trained or fought with there; or who were locally recruited and continued to be active in jihadist circles long after the conflicts waned.

"Encouraging local mujahidin to find other pursuits will not be a silver bullet to end terrorism, but it could be a first step", says Dave McRae, Crisis Group Analyst and a specialist on Poso. "If they can be reintegrated into civilian life, their willingness to support mujahidin from elsewhere in Indonesia and engage in violence themselves might be lessened".

Broader issues of justice and security would also help, including better treatment of detainees, control over access to weapons and explosives, and more serious punishments for serious crimes.