Immigration gets intel directorate

Immigration gets intel directorate

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In response to intelligence failures in the tracking of
transnational criminals, the government has set up a new
intelligence directorate in the immigration office to more
closely monitor people entering and leaving the country.

Justice minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said on Friday the
failure to track transnational criminals was partly caused by a
lack of coordination between intelligence units and the Attorney
General's Office, the immigration office, the Army, the Navy, the
Air Force, the National Intelligence Body and other bodies.

Intelligence failures were partly blamed for the Bali bombings
in 2002, which were followed by a series of other bombings.

Unofficial investigations have found that intelligence
officers within one country often fail to share information among
themselves. The situation is even worse when it involves more
than one country, even when there are strong indications of
regional and international networking among terror suspects.

"Previously, (the intelligence unit) was only a division
within the immigration office's supervision and penalty
directorate. The directorate's tasks were enormous, so the
intelligence unit was often quite neglected," Yusril said.

Haryo Sasongko, a former head of the West Java office of the
justice ministry, was inaugurated on Friday as the new director
of intelligence and immigrant investigation.

Intelligence officers will be posted at airports and seaports
across the country to monitor both Indonesians and foreigners
entering and leave the country.

The data they collect must be shared with other intelligence
bodies, all of which fall under the coordination of the National
Intelligence Body (BIN), Yusril said.

"The immigration office's intelligence plays an important part
in preventing possible transnational crimes, including drug
trafficking, terrorism and the trafficking in women and
children," Yusril said.

The establishment of the intelligence directorate within the
immigration office followed a meeting on political and security
affairs, during which it was decided to improve the performance
of state intelligence, Yusril said.

BIN is currently completing a bill on intelligence that will
give the body the legal power to arrest suspects, which it says
it needs to prevent terror attacks.

Activists have warned that the bill could endanger civil
liberties by putting too much power in the hands of BIN, which
would be allowed to set up offices at the provincial and district
levels. They have expressed concern that BIN's new powers could
be used to suppress political dissent.