1) Threat of backlash as Indonesia's terrorist busters get heavy-handed

1) Threat of backlash as Indonesia's terrorist busters get heavy-handed

2) Detachment 88 'encouraging terrorist revenge attacks

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/threat-of-backlash-as-indonesias-terrorist-busters-get-heavy-handed/story-e6frg6so-1226573864653

1) Threat of backlash as Indonesia's terrorist busters get heavy-handed

▪                            BY:
PETER ALFORD, JAKARTA CORRESPONDENT From:
The Australian 

February 09, 2013 12:00AM

Indonesian anti-terror police, Densus 88 secure a terror suspect's house during a raid in Mojosongo, Solo, in Central Java last year. Source: AFP

AUSTRALIA risks being drawn into a growing controversy in Indonesia over lethal methods used by Densus 88, the police counter-terrorism unit it played a key role in creating and training.

Densus (Special Detachment) 88 is under pressure from civil rights groups, Muslim social activists and the senior Indonesian military (TNI) officers who want to regain a hands-on role in internal security, including counter-terrorism actions.

Since January 2010, when Densus broke up a militant training camp in Aceh, police have killed 50 actual and suspected terrorists, compared with 40 who died in the preceding eight years.

In response, jihadists in the past three years have killed 21 of the 28 police officers lost in terrorist actions since the 2002 Bali bombings prompted Australia and the US to sponsor the unit's formation.

"What we call terrorism has become less the Indonesian arm of the global jihad than a sordid little war between extremists and police," International Crisis Group senior Asia adviser Sidney Jones said this week.

Senior TNI officers and civil society groups are critical of Densus 88's high kill rate and the backlash of assassination and ambush against ordinary police.

But one reason non-government organisations such as Kontras - Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence - want Densus under a tighter rein and better trained is fear the current situation will persuade the government to allow military and intelligence agencies back into the field.

Kontras is now preparing a report that co-ordinator Haris Azhar says will document widespread Densus 88 abuses, including torture, and an internal culture that encourages hair-trigger action against suspect groups. When the report is finished, possibly later this month, Kontras plans to present it at the Jakarta embassies of Australia, the US and other governments involved with Indonesian counter-terrorism training. Kontras also may take the report down to Australia to pressure Canberra to offer more Australian Federal Police training to address Densus 88's "unprofessional" practices.

"Morally and internationally politically, they are responsible for what Densus 88 has been doing," Mr Haris told The Weekend Australian. "Not legally, but morally." He said Australia should use "government-to-government and police-to-police diplomacy" to make the case for better training of Densus 88 officers.

ICG's Ms Jones, the leading authority on Southeast Asian terrorism, warned that antagonism towards Densus 88's lethal tactics and suspicion of its motives was now spreading beyond radical Islamist circles.

"We're seeing mainstream Muslim groups complaining about police tactics in a way that could resonate in the parliament, with political parties, in a way that could lead to declining political support for Densus 88."

That could also lose Densus general public support - it's the only Indonesian police unit that enjoys high approval - and widen the recruiting pool of potential jihadists.

But Ms Jones also warned overt foreign pressure to improve police counter-terrorism practices risked a defensive reaction from the Indonesian police.

In any case, she said, there had been a high turnover of senior Densus 88 personnel during its almost 10 years' existence, "and I'm not sure how much foreign-funded training the current crop has received".

Australian funding and AFP training is directed through the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Co-operation, a training facility supported by other governments and international organisations.

"I'm not sure there's a particular responsibility on the part of the US, Australia and the other people who were involved in training Densus 88," said Ms Jones.

"I think they in many ways should be proud of the professionalism they've produced."

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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-08/detachment-88-encouraging-terrorist-revenge-attacks/4508010

2) Detachment 88 'encouraging terrorist revenge attacks'

AM 

By Indonesia correspondent George Roberts

Updated Fri Feb 8, 2013 12:04pm AEDT

Indonesia's Australia-funded counter-terrorism squad, Detachment 88, has been warned its policy of shooting terrorist suspects is encouraging more revenge attacks.

Since 2002 police from the Detachment 88 and other officers have shot dead 90 terrorism suspects.

The crack squad was trained and funded by Australia and other allies, but the International Crisis Group's terrorism expert, Dr Sidney Jones, says its methods are prompting retaliatory attacks.

In a speech to journalists, she said Detachment 88 must "be careful about the way that operations are conducted so as not to give fuel to the jihadi movement that is still alive, even if not well."

AUDIO: Listen to the story (AM)

Dr Jones says police became the number one enemy of terrorist splinter cells when Detachment 88 broke up a training camp in Aceh in 2010.

"If you figure there were nine groups or so operating there ... everybody knew someone, directly or indirectly, that had been killed or arrested through that," she said.

"So that's when, more than any other time, the police became the number one enemy."

She says that moved the focus away from Western targets, and there has been a correlating increase in targeted police killings.

"The more deaths that you have at police hands, is just going to increase that. It's going to give more motivation to more people to get involved in the movement," she said.

"Indonesia's a place where we haven't had really strong local drivers.

"There hasn't been a rationale for why people would want to use violence.

"But once you get all of these people getting killed, it changes the equation, and it also brings more people into the possible recruiting pool."

Indonesia's National Police spokesman Boy Rafli told the ABC that Dr Jones's opinion was not worth commenting on.

But last month Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT), which was started by the convicted terrorist Abu Bakar Bashir, also warned of revenge.

Spokesman Son Hadi said shooting suspects was unlawful and would encourage more terrorism.