Government urged to reform BIN in wake of new terror attacks
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.