Saudi Arabia, Indonesia team up to fight radicalisation

JAKARTA — Saudi Arabia’s intelligence agency, the General Intelligence Directorate (GID), has been working with Indonesia’s National Counter-terrorism Agency, or BNPT, to help the latter prevent the radicalisation of Indonesian youths and rehabilitate former terrorists.

BNPT chief commander general Suhardi Alius visited Saudi Arabia earlier this month to strengthen relations between the two agencies and get tips on the GID’s deradicalisation programme.

“The visit should help up set up a counter-terrorism programme which includes deradicalisation, from top to bottom,” said Mr Suhardi in Jakarta on Saturday.

Mr Suhardi and other high-ranking BNPT officials also went to the Muhammad bin Naif Consultation and Guidance Centre in Saudi Arabia to study rehabilitation of former terrorists and to learn from their experience of preventing Muslim groups from being radicalised.

“We exchanged various information and knowledge. We also saw how deradicalisation is done by the Saudi government,” said Mr Suhardi.

Saudi Arabia’s successful deradicalisation programme typically begins with counselling inside prisons. Inmates explain their ideological motivations to the Islamic clerics before embarking on a religious course.

Upon release, the individuals spend a few months at the Muhammad bin Naif Centre — a luxurious rehabilitation facility — where they undergo further religious instruction and psychological counselling, and take part in team sports and art therapy.

Mr Suhardi added that the Indonesian government has been focusing on preventing the spread of radical ideologies in Indonesia as it poses great risks to the country’s security and may damage the peaceful image of Islam.

The head of the intelligence directorate at Saudi Arabia’s Home Affairs Ministry, Mr Abdul Aziz Alhwairny, said BNPT’s visit is proof of the good relations between the agencies.

Mr Alhwairny said Saudi Arabia has nothing but praise for BNPT’s effort to fight terrorism in Indonesia.

To honour members of Indonesia’s elite counter-terror unit Densus 88 who died in action, Saudi Arabia has offered free haj pilgrimages to their families. The Muhammad bin Naif Centre will also offer deradicalisation training for BNPT officers, added Mr Alhwairny.

Densus 88 has drawn praise for stemming a wave of bloody attacks in the sprawling Muslim-majority nation, especially over the festive season last month. The unit has put a premium on clandestine intelligence gathering, especially on social media platforms and messaging apps popular with militants.

In Indonesia,a deradicalisation programme typically involves rehabilitating former terrorists and radicalised youths before returning them to their communities.

More than 240 convicted terrorists in 72 prisons around Indonesia, as well as 478 former terror convicts in 17 provinces have undergone rehabilitation programmes in the country.

Meanwhile, Indonesian authorities have detained 17 nationals returning from Syria, including children, suspected of being involved in radical activity.

Immigration office spokesman Agung Sampurno said the people, including a two-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy, were arrested at Soekarno-Hatta airport upon disembarking an Istanbul-Jakarta Turkish Airline flight on Saturday.

They have been handed over to the police’s anti-terrorism unit for questioning, Mr Sampurno said.

“They are currently still under an interrogation process. If we find any relation to crime on terrorism, we will continue the investigation. If not, they will be handed over to their families,” the chief of Densus 88, Mr Eddy Hartono, told Reuters. AGENCIES