Government urged to reform BIN in wake of new terror attacks

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A human rights watchdog has called on the government to reform the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) following the failure to prevent a series of bombings over the past several years.

Rachland Nashidik, the executive director of Imparsial, said the agency was the only state institution that had not been reformed following the end of the New Order in 1998.

"It is difficult to understand that the only change within the agency during the reform era has been to its official name, and that was based on a presidential decree rather than a law," he said at his office on Thursday.

BIN was known as the State Intelligence Coordinating Board (Bakin) under former president Soeharto, who used the agency to help prop up his administration during his 32-year rule.

According to data from Imparsial, there have been 149 bombings and other terrorist attacks that have claimed 298 lives and injured 572 others between 1998 and 2005, as the country made the transition from authoritarian rule to democracy.

Rachland said the recent bombings in Bali should serve as a warning to the government to began a comprehensive reform of the intelligence agency, rather than simply giving it more power to arrest and hold people, as suggested by a new bill on intelligence.

One of the articles in the bill gives BIN the power to detain people without trial for at least seven days.

"BIN cannot be given this kind of power or be involved in law enforcement because it is not part of the state's criminal justice system. BIN is a nonjudicial intelligence agency whose main function is to detect threats against national security," Rachland said.

He added that the government must support reforms within the National Police as a judicial institution that is authorized to make arrests.

People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Hidayat Nurwahid previously suggested the government reform the intelligence agency, saying that BIN's intelligence failures had allowed terrorists to attack inside the country, as happened with Saturday's Bali bombings, which killed 22 people including the three suicide bombers.

Rachland said the government should audit BIN before instituting any reforms.

"An audit must be done so the government can get an idea of what needs to be done based on BIN's weaknesses," he said.

Imparsial supports the passage of a law on intelligence, but wants any such law to balance between national security and civil liberties, Rachland said.

BIN, the main intelligence body in the country, has been plagued by controversy in recent years. This includes the arrest of a top BIN official as part of a counterfeiting ring, and the murder of rights activist Munir last year, with allegations that BIN may have played a role in the murder.