VZCZCXRO6700
OO RUEHCHI RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHJA #0545/01 0771001
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 171001Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY JAKARTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 8366
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS PRIORITY
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA PRIORITY 2185
RUEAWJB/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 1678
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 2430
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 2503
RUEHPT/AMCONSUL PERTH 0640
RHHJJPI/USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RHMCSUU/FBI WASHINGTON DC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 JAKARTA 000545 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS, EAP/RSP FOR ALLEN, S/CT, 
INL FOR BOULDIN/BUHLER 
DOJ FOR CRIM AAG SWARTZ, DOJ/OPDAT FOR 
LEHMANN/ALEXANDRE/BERMAN 
DOJ/CTS FOR MULLANEY, ST HILAIRE 
FBI FOR ETTUI/SSA ROTH 
NCTC WASHDC 
NSC FOR E.PHU 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PTER ID
SUBJECT: COUNTERTERRORISM -- EXPLORING DERADICALIZATION 
STRATEGIES 
 
REF: 07 JAKARTA 2916 AND PREVIOUS 
 
JAKARTA 00000545  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1.  (U) This message is Sensitive but Unclassified -- Please 
handle accordingly.. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  CT experts from Indonesia led a recent 
training workshop which focused on strategies for 
deradicalizing terrorists in prison.  Mission was one of four 
co-sponsors of the workshop, which included police, 
prosecutors, judges and prison officials from areas where 
significant numbers of terrorists are currently held. 
Workshop participants also came up with a series of 
recommendations--from hardened facilities to outreach to the 
home communities of convicted terrorists--which Mission will 
pursue.  END SUMMARY. 
 
SEMINAR IN SEMARANG 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The latest USG-supported CT training workshop 
brought together over 40 law enforcement and judicial 
officials on March 11-13.  The event was held at the Jakarta 
Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation (JCLEC) in Semarang, 
Central Java, and was jointly sponsored by the Embassies of 
Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Mission Jakarta through an 
INL-funded grant provided by the DOJ Office of Overseas 
Prosecutor Development and Assistance Training (OPDAT). 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Participants included police, prosecutors, judges 
and prison officials from the provinces of Central Sulawesi, 
Maluku, Central Java and Jakarta--all of which have been the 
site of significant terrorist activity in the past. 
Presenters included Indonesian CT experts from the Indonesian 
National Police (INP), the Attorney General's Office (AGO), 
the Supreme Court, and the Department of Corrections at the 
Ministry of Law and Human Rights (MLHR), and two foreign 
experts. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) The course was the latest in a series of training 
courses held over the past several years (ref B) aimed 
primarily at improving knowledge of CT issues and 
strengthening interagency coordination in investigations and 
prosecutions.  The current program partly followed this 
format but with a key additional element:  the presence of 
corrections officials, specifically, the heads of six prisons 
with significant terrorist populations.  This yielded intense 
discussions on the handling of terrorists in custody and the 
development of recommended actions. 
 
PITCH FOR "SOFT POWER" APPROACH 
 
¶6.  (SBU) INP Brig. Gen. (ret.) Ansyaad Mbai, head of the 
GOI's CT Coordination Desk, set the tone for the workshop in 
opening remarks that "soft power" was "the key" to defeating 
terrorism in Indonesia.  Noting the long history of Islamic 
radicalism in Indonesia, he asserted that many of the leaders 
of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) were direct descendants of 
participants in earlier Islamist movements.  Acknowledging 
the importance of law enforcement activity in the short term, 
Mbai suggested any long-term solution to terrorism required 
the elimination of the underlying ideology that supports 
terror. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Brig. Gen. Surya Dharma, who heads the INP's elite 
Detachment 88 CT sqad (SD-88), and Prof. Dr. Sarlito Wirawan 
Sarwon, from the Department of Psychology at the Universty 
of Indonesia, described the INP's informal deadicalization 
program.   Sarlito said deradicalization was based on the 
premise that terrorists were not mentally ill, but rather 
rational actors motivated by a genuine desire to change 
society.  As a result, the key to reforming them was not 
 
JAKARTA 00000545  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
ultimately through punishment but through moral suasion. 
Surya Dharma echoed these comments, explaining that winning 
terrorists' hearts and minds required demonstrating that 
their INP captors were also devout Muslims.  Doing so 
required that the INP treat prisoners humanely, invite them 
to pray together with police and meet with prisoners' 
families.  Once terrorists accepted that their captors were 
devout Muslims, they became more susceptible to alternate 
interpretations of jihad. 
 
MANAGING TERRORISTS IN PRISON 
 
¶8.  (SBU) While SD-88 has been experimenting with 
deradicalization for terrorists in police custody, 
participants readily acknowledged that the situation for 
terrorists in prison was far from optimal.  Several prison 
heads stated that prisons lacked the resources to provide 
adequate physical security and that terrorists were not only 
maintaining their connections but in some cases actively 
recruiting other prisoners and even prison staff.  The head 
of a prison in Central Sulawesi stated repeatedly that the 
best solution for terrorists was to try to imprison them in 
provinces other than their own.  (Note:  This has in fact 
already been done for several terrorists who were involved in 
particularly heinous crimes.) 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Dr. H. Mochamad Sueb, Director of Registrations for 
the Director General of Prisons at MLHR, said rehabilitation 
was a necessary component of corrections for all prisoners, 
including terrorists.  The main element was humane treatment, 
which included reducing overcrowding, providing adequate 
health care and allowing opportunities for vocational 
training.  Given limited resources and a rapidly growing 
prison population, these had become very difficult to 
provide, and many prisons were looking towards early release 
as a short-term solution.  Regarding terrorists, Sueb 
emphasized the need to work with the INP to monitor the 
activities of terrorist prisoners, particularly visits from 
family and others.  He described a new effort led by Mbai to 
create a deradicalization guidebook for use in prisons. 
 
IMPROVING COORDINATION AMONG LAW ENFORCERS 
 
¶10.  (SBU) While much of the program focused on "soft power," 
the workshop also addressed the need to foster improved 
coordination between law enforcement practitioners in the CT 
field.  In a joint presentation, Senior Superintendent 
Hamidin from SD-88 and Narendra Jatna from the AGO Task Force 
on Terrorism and Transnational Crime described how 
cooperation in recent cases related to violence in Central 
Sulawesi resulted in better prosecutions and longer 
sentences.  Explaining that successful prosecutions began 
with thorough investigations, the presenters made clear that 
police and prosecutors had a responsibility to work together 
to make sure that CT cases are handled properly from 
beginning to end.  These comments were echoed by two foreign 
experts, Deputy Superintendent Doug McKenna, the British CT 
liaison officer based in Malaysia, and John Shipley, 
Assistant US Attorney from the southern district of Florida. 
 
NEXT STEPS 
 
¶11.  (SBU) The workshop included small group sessions where 
participants brainstormed ideas, yielding several 
recommendations.  First, participants agreed that physical 
security in prisons holding terrorists needed to be improved, 
including higher walls, installation of CCTV and better 
control over visitations.  Participants also called for the 
drafting of standard operating procedures to standardize the 
treatment of terrorist prisoners.  Second, participants 
 
JAKARTA 00000545  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
agreed that prisons needed to encourage deradicalization and 
to prevent further radicalization among prison populations. 
Some recommended that the Ministry of Religion play a role in 
this effort.  Deradicalization was seen as especially 
important given that many terrorists convicted after the 2002 
Bali bombing were already nearing the end of their terms and 
would be released over the next few years. 
 
¶12.  (SBU) Third, participants agreed on the need to engage 
terrorists' home communities to reduce communal tensions and 
the attractiveness of violent ideologies.  Participants from 
Maluku and Central Sulawesi underscored the importance of 
outreach to community leaders and schools to reduce the 
likelihood of retaliation against prosecutors and judges 
trying terror cases. 
 
¶13.  (SBU) Participants' assessments of the workshop were 
overwhelmingly positive, particularly from the prison 
officials, many of whom were attending a seminar of this 
nature for the first time.  Post intends to follow up on the 
contacts made at the workshop and look for ways to support 
GOI efforts to deradicalize terrorist prisoners. 
 
HUME