Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa has warned against the stigmatization of former terrorist convicts and combatants in order to help them reintegrate within society
ocial Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa has warned against the stigmatization of former terrorist convicts and combatants in order to help them reintegrate within society.
“Do not alienate them. Let their children go to school. They have equal rights as citizens,” she said after visiting a number of ex-terrorist convicts and combatants at the Lingkar Perdamaian Foundation in Lamongan, East Java, on Sunday, as quoted in a press release.
During the visit, the former convicts and combatants, as well as their family members, sang the national anthem “Indonesia Raya” while waving red-and-white flags.
She said her ministry would assist them in establishing small enterprises. “The ministry also provides psychological counseling for them.”
The National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) reported in March that 184 former terrorists had attended the agency’s deradicalization program in 17 provinces.
The foundation’s chairman, who is also a former terrorist convict, Ali Fauzi, said the organization had been founded in November, last year.
“Together we secure our ‘big home’ Indonesia and strive for new hope for the future,” said the brother of the 2002 Bali Bombing convicts Amrozi and Ali Imron.
A former terrorist convict, Sumarno, said he hoped to run a motorcycle garage with the help of the foundation.
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