July 4, 2024
JAKARTA – Key members of the terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) in Indonesia have dissolved the organisation but analysts caution that the threat posed by the group, which has claimed responsibility for a string of deadly attacks in the region, remains potent.
In a video declaration made at the National Counter Terrorism Agency in Bogor, near Jakarta, on June 30, its senior leader, Abu Rusdan, said that JI’s senior council and the leaders of the group’s affiliated Islamic boarding schools “have agreed to declare the dissolution of the JI and return to Indonesia’s embrace”.
Abu Rusdan, a militant cleric and former JI leader arrested in Bekasi in September 2021, made the statement alongside other key figures, including Para Wijayanto, one of the most wanted terrorists in South-east Asia who was arrested in 2019 for recruiting militants and raising funds for Syria. They are still serving time.
“(We) are ready to be actively involved in promoting (the country’s) independence so that Indonesia becomes an advanced and dignified nation,” he said. “(We are) ready to follow the legal regulations.”
The Straits Times understands the event was organised by Indonesia’s national police counter-terrorism squad, Detachment 88. A video of their June 30 declaration was made public on July 2 on the hardline Islam website Arrahmah.
Abu Rusdan stated JI’s readiness to contribute to Indonesia’s progress and dignity, pledging to align the group’s educational curriculum with mainstream Islamic beliefs and remove extreme content from its curriculum and teaching materials.
Formed in 1993 by Indonesian clerics Abdullah Sungkar and Abu Bakar Bashir, JI – the South-east Asian affiliate of Islamist militant organisation Al-Qaeda – wanted to establish a conservative Islamic state in South-east Asia. Abdullah died in 1999, while Abu Bakar was jailed in 2011 for funding a militant training camp in Indonesia’s Aceh province and released in 2021 after serving two-thirds of a 15-year sentence.
The group was outlawed in 2008 after deadly attacks in the Philippines and Indonesia, including the bombings on the holiday island of Bali in 2002 that killed more than 200 people, many of them Australian tourists.
A concerted security crackdown and the authorities’ vigilance have since weakened JI, which has not staged a major attack in over a decade.
Terror analysts, however, cautioned that despite the latest declaration by the group, security threats remain.
Dr Noor Huda Ismail, a visiting fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, believes the declaration is the result of “constant discussion among JI elites such as Para Wijayanto and Abu Rusdan inside the prison”.
However, he warned about potential splinter groups within the JI that could use violence as a means to demonstrate their commitment to jihad.
“The mainstream JI will continue going mainstream but the violence faction or the splinters will use violence. To demonstrate their commitment to the jihad cause, they will adopt violence,” he said.
Mr Muh Taufiqurrohman, a senior researcher at the Jakarta-based think-tank Centre for Radicalism and Deradicalisation Studies, echoed Dr Noor Huda’s concerns, expressing caution about emerging organisations with new names that retain the ideological allegiance and membership characteristic of the JI.
“Once JI, always JI,” he said.
Mr Nasir Abas, once a regional commander of JI, hailed the dissolution of the group as “a major success” for Detachment 88, which has always encouraged members to break their allegiance and leave the organisation.
“I appreciate what Detachment 88 has done. The (senior members of JI) may be able to influence some JI members but not all,” he said.
But he added: “You still can’t underestimate JI. Their seniors may weaken, but their juniors might disagree.”
The declaration followed an attack on the Ulu Tiram police station in Johor on May 17 which left two police officers dead. While the attack was initially linked to JI, the Malaysian authorities later clarified that the attacker was a “lone wolf” with no connections to JI or other militant groups, despite his father’s past association with JI.