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Indonesia is bringing the army into the fight against terrorism, authorizing military officers to do everything from investigating suspected terrorists to telling radical preachers to tone down sermons.

Taking advantage of the existing military structure found even in remote villages, the army will also help in a 'preventive' role in the fight against terror, national Anti-Terror Agency (BNPT) chief Ansyaad Mbai said yesterday.

Among other things, the army will monitor overseas-trained clerics who return to their villages immediately, he said.

The fight against terrorism in Indonesia has so far been led by the police and a crack counter-terrorism squad. But they have increasingly been the victims of shootings and bombings themselves.

In the past two years, around 700 terrorist suspects have been arrested, with some shot dead in police raids, while the counter-terrorism squad Detachment 88 destroyed a militant training camp in Aceh province in February last year.

Brigadier-General Tito Karnavian, deputy chief of the BNPT, said 'the third generation of terrorists is emerging' in 14 of Indonesia's 33 provinces.

'These are not Afghanistan war veterans or those trained by the war veterans. These are people who have self-radicalized,' he said.

The army's wide-reaching structure stems from the days of former president Suharto, who used the military not just for defense and security, but to promote national development and political stability.

This structure 'paralleled the civilian bureaucracy down to village level', said a research paper on Indonesian military reform published in April by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

It 'facilitated political surveillance and police functions by monitoring and controlling the activities of political parties, religious groups, social organizations and trade unions', said the paper's authors.

In 1999, as the process of democratic reform in Indonesia began, the police were separated from the military.

Since then, civil society activists have rejected any sign of the army - thought to be around 430,000-strong - getting involved in public security. That job has been left to the police, thought to number around 350,000.

But Ansyaad said: 'We know that carrying out this territorial role is legal.. and it can help prevent terrorism once there are early signs of it.'

He was speaking at a day-long forum attended by around 500 top government, police and military officials, as well as state prosecutors. The forum was to mark the first anniversary of the BNPT and to update state organizations on trends in terrorism.

Army chief Pramono Edhie Wibowo agreed, saying: 'Terrorism is everyone's problem.'

Army Commissioner General Agus Suryabakti called on the officers stationed in the regencies and villages to get to know residents, mingle and socialize, and find out more about those who tend to isolate themselves or who try to tell fellow villagers who should pray in which mosque.

'Do your analysis, map out the situation and then report it to the police. And no, we do not use force. Previously, our weapons were firearms, now our weapon is our smile,' he told the participants.

But much-publicized military brutality in Indonesia - which human rights groups say continues in the restive province of Papua - is likely to make activists chafe at the army's involvement in anti-terrorism efforts.

'That would interfere with the freedom of expression,' Poengky Indarti, executive director of human rights watchdog Imparsial, told The Straits Times.

She added: 'It is not the duty of military officers to spy on civilians, or on people giving sermons. This would be intervention.'



Reprinted courtesy of Straits Times Indonesia. To subscribe to Straits Times Indonesia and/or the Jakarta Globe call 021 2553 5055.