Indonesia is in the midst of a national debate on whether or not the repatriation of 660 former members of terrorist group ISIS is the right thing to do from a national security and humanitarian standpoint.
The former ISIS members, who consist of both those who willingly went to join the group and those, such as women and children, who were forced to come along, had previously burned their Indonesian passports as a symbolic gesture to renounce their Indonesian citizenship.
With the terrorist group all but pushed out of its strongholds in Syria and Iraq last year, there have been calls to repatriate the Indonesians who are now practically stranded in the region. Those calls grew louder this week as the Indonesian government essentially expressed that they are not welcome back in the country — a message that came from the very top.
“If you ask me — but we haven’t held an executive meeting over this — I’d say no [to their repatriation],” President Joko Widodo told reporters at the State Palace in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Despite Jokowi’s personal stance on the matter, top-level government officials are going to convene to discuss the repatriation, with national security and threat of terrorism being at the forefront of the discussions, and deliver a decision in May or June.
The Islamic-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), an opposition party to the government, is among the most prominent of those calling for the former ISIS members’ repatriation on humanitarian grounds.
“I feel sorry for them stranded there. Their children, their parents are there. Many of them are innocent little children,” PKS Central Advisory Board Chairman Mardani Ali Sera told reporters yesterday, as quoted by Detik.
That said, public reaction on the issue has been overwhelmingly against the repatriation of the former ISIS members.
https://twitter.com/permadiaktivis/status/1225002746291486720?s=20
Thank you, Pak Jokowi
https://twitter.com/yusuf_dumdum/status/1225271205638262785?s=20
They went so far away to be trained for war, and now they want to have their homecoming facilitated [by the government]? No way!
#INDONESIA A member of Parliament's security commission doubts the National CounterTerrorism Agency #BNPT is able to de-radicalise 660 ex #ISIS members who want to come home as terror acts are still occurring, they could be a "threat" when they return homehttps://t.co/PAL6nzYxrK
— Amy Chew (@1AmyChew) February 6, 2020
Indonesia passed a bill in 2018 to give authorities more power to take pre-emptive action against terror suspects following the deadly suicide bombings in East Java, which were claimed by ISIS. However, since then, Indonesia was hit with several more ISIS-claimed terror attacks, including the failed assassination attempt on former top security minister Wiranto in October 2019.
The BBC recently published a video report on an Indonesian family stranded in Syria, highlighting that not all who left everything behind to join ISIS did so willingly.
Related — ‘They’re worse than animals’: Indonesians return from ISIS with tales of horror and disappointment
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