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Friday, March 14, 2008

[mukto-mona] The Bali jihadist now on a peace mission [BBC article]

The Bali jihadist now on a peace mission
By Andrew Harding
BBC News, Jakarta

Nasir Abbas walked quickly through the tall, grey gates of Cipinang prison in eastern Jakarta, chased inside by an afternoon rain storm.
Bespectacled and neatly dressed, the 38-year-old could have been mistaken for a busy lawyer late for a meeting with a jailed client.
In fact Abbas, a weapons expert with close links to the regional Islamic militant organisation Jemaah Islamiah, was on his way to visit a group of old colleagues - militants serving time for a range of terrorism offences.
I never agree with killing civilians. I trained them to be soldiers
Nasir Abbas
"These are my friends, my students," he said. "I trained some of them... I've visited almost all jails where there are detainees in terrorist cases."
But Abbas was not here to plot new attacks. Instead he had come to try to persuade his friends to follow his example and renounce violence.
"We should not kill civilians," he said. "Today I realise some of my friends are misguided. My mission is to open their minds."
For five years now, Abbas has been quietly co-operating with the Indonesian police as part of a remarkable "deradicalisation" campaign focused on the country's jails.
It is quite a transformation for a man who trained for jihad in Afghanistan, fought in the jungles of southern Philippines, and admits he taught the men who bombed a nightclub on the Indonesian island of Bali in 2002, killing 202 people.
His sister is married to Mukhlas, one of three men due to be executed for their roles in that horrific attack.
"I never agree with killing civilians. I trained them to be soldiers," said Abbas.
"But I also feel guilty because they misuse the knowledge I teach them. So this is my responsibility."
Inside the jail, Abbas was reluctant to be seen with a journalist.
His work, he explained, is slow, difficult, and dangerous enough as it is.
"Some of them call me traitor, infidel," he said, adding that he often received threatening text messages. "I'm taking a risk, but I'm not afraid."
Abbas insists his regular visits are making a difference in jails which are widely considered to be recruiting grounds for extremism.
"The first time they are suspicious," he said. "The second time they are very welcoming. Every day another new guy wants to talk to me."
One former prisoner, Slamat, who served three years for plotting a bomb attack, vouched for his old friend:
"He's not a traitor. He's helping his friends. How can we convert people to Islam through violence?"
Scathing attack
In Cipinang prison, a small crowd emerged from the mosque and scattered around the central courtyard.
A steel gate swung open and one older man, wiry and white-bearded, strolled past the guards towards a special visitors' area reserved for the jail's 25 convicted terrorists.
Pa Adung is serving seven years for hiding a notorious bomb-maker from the police.
These people are angry. Try to understand them. They're deviant, misguided people"
Nasir Abbas
He sat down next to his wife, who had come to visit him, pushed his two mobile phones deep into his pockets, then launched a scathing attack on Nasir Abbas.
"These people are traitors to themselves," he said, but implied that Abbas was making some headway.
"They are tempting people away from their faith with dollars, and trying to lead other weaker people astray. They will be judged by god."
Pa Adung condemned the Bali bombing as a "horrid act," but also described it as a "short-cut" to the violent jihad which he hoped would, with proper preparation, be unleashed against the United States.
"He doesn't like me," Mr Abbas conceded later.
He was concerned that as a senior figure, Pa Adung was intimidating other less hardline prisoners.
"But this is a process. Some of them are quick to respond. Some of them need time," he said.
Time perhaps, but also money.
Rice and school fees
A police spokesman, Bambang Kuncoko, confirmed that as part of the deradicalisation campaign the Indonesian authorities often helped the jailed militants' families by finding jobs for them.
Sidney Jones, a leading expert on Jemaah Islamiah, said the programme went further than that, including supplying rice and school fees.
"More important than the religious arguments in terms of changing people's minds is police economic assistance that Nasir delivers," she said.
"The principle is that if some of these people who... see the police as their enemy, take aid from the police then they'll have to change their thinking.
"Many of the people who've accepted aid from the police have gone on to co-operate in other ways."
Abbas puts it like this: "These people are angry. Don't make them more angry. Try to understand them. They're deviant, misguided people."
The authorities seem happy with the results of their co-operation with Abbas.
"This year we hope to have no terrorist acts at all in Indonesia," said Mr Kuncoko.
But Ms Jones cautioned that it was hard to quantify the success of such a programme - how can you tell when someone has been truly "deradicalised"?
Abbas calls his work "my new jihad".
I won't stop my mission until they stop the violence," he said.
 
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/7296934.stm

Published: 2008/03/14 16:31:33 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

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