Dual antiterror units cause overlap

Dual antiterror units cause overlap

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After reading a media report on police arrests of Muslim
activists by the National Police's counterterrorism unit
Detachment 88, member Agus (not his real name) denied the unit
made such arrests, let alone tortured the suspects.

Upon reading another daily which reported that the unit was to
be dissolved, he shook his head in disbelief and said Indonesia
badly needed a special counterterrorism team.

"Our duties are to interrogate and prepare dossiers of terror
suspects. But there is a separate unit within the National Police
tasked with investigating and arresting suspects," said Agus.

The National Police has two units tasked with fighting
terrorism: One is the 400-strong Detachment 88, or Den 88, led by
Brig. Gen. Pranowo Dahlan, another is an ad hoc antiterror squad
led by Brig. Gen. Gorries Mere, who appears to have dominated the
police's antiterrorism efforts.

Gorries, who sparked outrage last week for having coffee with
convicted Bali bomber Ali Imron at a Starbuck's in the capital,
has an official post as the anti-narcotics division chief, while
Pranowo is the antiterror director under the National Police
chief of detectives, Comr. Gen. Suyitno Landung Sudjono.

"Based on a police chief decree, the official counterterrorism
unit is Detachment 88, while the bomb squad is a temporary unit.
The bomb squad continues to operate, probably because terrorist
threats remain high," said a senior police officer.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Paiman said as the bomb
squad chief, Gorries was under the direct command of National
Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar.

A police source said the Gorries-led squad had more influence
than Detachment 88, and also had more members.

The two units apparently lack coordination, with officers from
one often unable to confirm arrests of terror suspects made by
another.

"The two squads have caused difficulties in command. If
Gorries is thought to have expertise in terrorism, he should have
been appointed as the counterterrorism chief, instead of Pranowo.
It isn't right to have an overlap like this," said Bambang
Widodo, a former police officer, now a lecturer at the University
of Indonesia.

He said the success in the Bali blast investigation showed
Gorries' capabilities in handling terrorism cases, which prompted
Da'i to continue to rely upon Gorries unofficially.

Detachment 88 was formed after the 2002 Bali bombings, and was
planned to become an elite police unit equal to the Army's
Kopassus.

The Pranowo-led squad was trained last year in the Mega
Mendung police training Center, West Java, by experts from the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) and other intelligence agencies.

In addition, the U.S. government provided US$16 billion to
equip and train the squad.

For the Bali bombing investigation, the police consulted
Gorries' expertise and pulled together an ad hoc team led by
Insp. Gen. Made Mangku Pastika, who was then the Papua Police
chief.

Personnel from various units in the detectives department were
hand-picked for the team, but its backbone was the Jakarta Police
antiterror unit. All of the antiterror officers included on the
team were former members of Gorries' Cobra Team, which had
arrested former president Soeharto's youngest son, Hutomo "Tommy"
Mandala Putra.

After the 2003 JW Marriott Hotel blast, arrests of Muslim
activists were always attributed to both units.

According to Fauzan Al Anzhary, who chairs the Indonesian
Mujahidin Council, about 140 Muslim activists had been arrested
or "kidnapped" by the units, and the council demanded their
dissolution recently.

Amid the controversy, the National Police is to expand Den 88
to the provincial level, beginning with Jakarta, where the unit
was inaugurated on Aug. 26.