T

errorism is a form of extraordinary crime, which should also be countered by extraordinary strategy and measures.

The crime is extraordinary, because terrorism very often employs sophisticated weapons, which tend to create mass casualties; involves organized groups, either national or transnational; attacks random and indiscriminate targets; includes the possible existence of state-sponsored terrorism; and relies upon solidarity, as well as networking, among transnational radicals and non-state actors.

For Indonesian people, the crime of terrorism is more than a discourse because, both before and after the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2011 in the United States, Indonesia has been a target and dealing with such political violence for years.

The bombing in late 1998, which was followed by more than 25 terrorist attacks resulting in mass casualties of innocent people, and particularly the Christmas violence of 2000 and the Bali bombings, have shocked the population.

The interdepartmental cooperation between the Indonesian police and intelligence services, supported by foreign law enforcement agencies, has led to the arrest of hundreds of suspected terrorists, some of whom have been brought to justice.

Some have been sentenced to capital punishment or to life imprisonment. Others have been severely punished by long prison sentences, while the actor intellectuals, Dr. Azahari and Noordin M Top, were killed in police operations. Terrorism, however, remains a permanent threat.

Radicalism and fundamentalism are the root causes of terrorism and terrorist networks still exist.

For this reason, the government of Indonesia is very concerned about the need to develop and promote a comprehensive strategy for fighting terrorism and radicalism.

The efforts of both government and society to create a viable future strategy and operational counter-terrorist policy will focus particularly upon: improving international cooperation; increasing critical infrastructure protection at local levels; improving security and bomb detection equipment in the public sphere; revising and expanding efforts to provide a legal basis for preventive measures against terrorism; efforts to deal with upstream problems, such as poverty and radicalization; as well as efforts to rehabilitate and reeducate ex-militants.

The status of the Coordination Agency to Eradicate Terrorism has been raised to become the Interdepartmental National Antiterrorism Agency, which will help deepen the professionalism now underway in Indonesia’s security and legal sectors.

Amid the many serious efforts to resist combating terrorism repressively, a sharp criticism emerged from the International Crisis Group’s Sidney Jones (May, 2011), regarding the death of more than 28 suspected terrorists in police raids since February 2010. She said that the police’s special Detachment 88 should be accountable and controlled in the future.

It is expected that an intended lethal use of firearms should be based on proportionality and, moreover, used only in exceptional circumstances, such as in self-defense, or in defending others against a threat of imminent death or serious injury.

Article 4 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, (ICCPR, 1966), stipulates that the rights to life and freedom from torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment are non-derogative, meaning that States Parties to the covenant are not permitted to restrict these rights for any purpose.

In this regard, the Plan of Action contained within the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (2006) stipulates the measures to ensure respect for human rights for all and the rule of law as a fundamental basis in the fight against terrorism. One of the many areas of international cooperation to combat international terrorism is the importance of defending human rights while combating terrorism.

Article 2 of the Indonesian Anti-terrorism Law No. 15/2003 stipulates that the effort to combat terrorism should not entail any form of human rights violations.

This safeguard is based on the awareness that by sacrificing human rights and fundamental freedoms, we do not fight terrorism but support it.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in a document published in 2009, explains that human rights obligations form an integral part of the international legal counter-terrorism framework, both through the obligation on states to prevent terrorist attacks, which have the potential of hugely impacting upon, and undermining, human rights, as well as the obligation to ensure that any counter-terrorism activities respect human rights.

These criticisms are very positive in nature and should be accepted wisely, although we also need to understand that every kind of terrorism, whatever the acts, methods and practices, should be wiped out and unequivocally condemned as a common enemy of mankind, a crime against the law of nations (delictum ius gentium) and is unjustifiable, (regardless of the motivation), in all its forms and manifestations, wherever it occurs and whoever perpetrates it.

The writer is a professor at the Diponegoro University, Semarang, and former governor of the National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas).