Security situation here much improved: Jones

Security situation here much improved: Jones

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Future terror attacks in Indonesia may be less professional and
even less well-executed than in the past, with Jamaah Islamiyah
(JI) facing dissension over how to achieve its objectives, says
Sidney Jones, a leading authority on the terror group.

She said that most followers of JI, blamed for a series of
devastating blasts in Indonesia over the past years, had
abandoned the strategy of launching bomb attacks, particularly on
Western targets, as it was diverting the regional terror network
away from its major objective of setting up an Islamic state in
Southeast Asia.

Jones, the Southeast Asia project director of the
International Crisis Group (ICG), said JI's leadership realized
that the strategy had cost the network too much, with the arrest
of over 200 of its members and outrage among the public.

"There won't be another attack that's as big as the Bali
bombings. JI's alive, consolidating, actively recruiting, but
most of its leadership is no longer interested in bombing Western
targets as it's wasting time, funds and human resources," she
told the sixth Asian-European Editors Forum in Jakarta on
Tuesday.

However, she stressed that JI still posed a significant threat
as it was building up a secure base in which an Islamic
fundamentalist community could flourish, while simultaneously
upgrading its military capacity to fight for the creation of a
regional Islamic state in the future.

"And there's still a small faction within JI that endorses
bombing, including (fugitive Malaysian bomb-makers) Azahari and
Noordin Moh. Top," said Jones, who in June last year was forced
by the Megawati Soekarnoputri government to leave Indonesia due
to her "disruptive" work and reports.

The Brussels-based ICG is known for its authoritative, and
frequently critical, reports on various security issues here,
ranging from Aceh to JI.

"This marginalized faction is still seriously dangerous as
they can still recruit through family and school ties, joint
military training and shared combat experience," explained Jones,
who said her review was based on a combination of interviews,
interrogation depositions and sources close to radical networks.

She said such networks would likely form a new organization to
continue their global war on the West, although they would face
greater difficulties in recruiting people, including suicide
bombers, from outside the JI due to a reduction in funding
availability.

"There are smaller groups in Poso (Central Sulawesi) and Ambon
(Maluku) who terrorize through bombs. There are still 18 known JI
schools in Indonesia, which the government can't just close,
although we know the addresses and the curriculum, because
there's no criminal activity going on in there and it's
politically impossible," said Jones.

Putting hurdles in the way of the recruitment process,
according to Sidney, was one of the keys to the success of
counterterrorism efforts, and this involved identifying persons
vulnerable to being recruited.

"Looking at previous experiences, those who are recruited, for
example, have family connections with former Darul Islam rebels.
Or in Poso, they are former thugs or people whose families lost
fortunes and relatives during the conflict there," she said.

While commending efforts to stamp out terrorism, Sidney said
the government still needed to improve its intelligence while at
the same time avoiding arbitrary legislation and abuses of power.

"I don't think that the danger is over nor that terrorism can
ever be fully eradicated, but I think in this region we are in
much better shape than three years ago," she said.