Militants use badly run jails for recruitment and raising funds
THE deadly Tanjung Gusta prison riot in Indonesia’s fourth largest city of Medan, resulting in the escape of 218 prisoners including convicted terrorists, was a disaster waiting to happen.
A combination of overcrowding and outnumbered prison guards, enabled dangerous militants to escape last week.
The four convicted militants are deemed “dangerous”.
They could help revitalise Indo nesia’s terror groups, which had been weakened by police raids and arrests in recent years.
The militants’ escape also comes shortly after 250 sticks of dynamite went missing in Bogor, West Java, on June 27, while being transported to a mining company, raising fears of the explosives falling into the wrong hands.
Till today, the dynamite has yet to be found.
“I am concerned about this escape and the missing dynamite,” a senior police source from Jakarta said in a phone interview.
“If it should fall into the hands of the fugitive terrorists, it would be very dangerous,” he added.
The overcrowding in Medan’s prison was a ticking bomb, which Indo nesian police had long raised concerns about to the government.
“Most of the prisons in Indonesia are built to only hold 1,000 people.
“At the eight prisons that I have been to, they actually hold an average of 2,500,” said the police source.
The number of prison guards are also grossly outnumbered, with only 100 wardens to secure 2,500 prisoners.
“Owing to that, the prison guards were unable to monitor the militants and their activities in prison,” said the source.
The militants were not separated from the rest of the prisoners and mixed freely, providing a large pool from which they could recruit new members.
“I estimate at least 1% of the 2,500 prisoners in every prison have been recruited by the militants,” said the police source.
Militants are also utilizing Facebook to recruit new members, according to the Institute for International Peace Building, the sole private de-radicalisaion organisation in Indonesia.
“Facebook is a very popular tool to carry out the militant’s propaganda, recruitment and communication between themselves is undetected,” said Noor Huda Ismail, founder of the institute and a counter-terrorism expert.
Huda said that the new members were recruited to be couriers and fund-raisers.
In prison, militants enjoy a fearsome reputation and are feared by both the guards and convicts.
Unlike other prisoners who are subject to violence in prison, militants are left alone.
“No prisoner would dare attack a militant as they see them as fighters and a man of faith,” said the police source.
“I know of at least one guard who was punched by a militant.
“That is why when you ask a prison guard about a militant, he will always reply ‘he is a good, there is no problem’,” added the source.
An estimated 60% of the prisoners are in for drugs offences and many of them have money to spend during their incarceration.
“Drug convicts are a source of income for the militants who would sell them cooked instant noodles, mobile phone top-up cards and other items,” said the police source.
“This is one of the avenues militants use to raise funds for their various activities.”
Indonesia has been the scene of several major terror attacks since 2002, with 202 people killed during the first Bali bombings.
Since then, the police special anti-terror taskforce, Den88, had arrested more than 600 militants and foiled several bomb and assassination plots.
Indonesia also successfully prosecuted and jailed dozens of militants.
The Bali bombing was blamed on Jemaah Islamiah (JI), the Al-Qaeda linked regional terror network.
“The runaway terrorists will try to revive their network but these days, they have to struggle to do so because most of the existing members of the violent faction of militant groups are fractured and bickering among each other,” said Huda.
“We will see (terror) attacks if these runaway terrorists manage to find safe houses, new recruits, logistical support and the right moment to carry out their attacks,” said Huda.
“The major jihadi groups like JI are focusing on dakwah through many different and completely new names.”
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