Hatchet-burying Encounters
The diverging wall crumbles. Feelings of hatred melt. A harboring need for revenge wears away. They go hand-in-hand to regrow the seeds of humanity.
Former terrorism convicts take part in a friendly gathering with the Special Detachment 88 Anti-Terror Police in Bogor Regency, West Java, Friday (7/4/2023). The gathering was attended by 49 former terrorism convicts, seven former combatants and four bomb survivors.
Silaturahmi, an Islamic term referring to the spirit of establishing or strengthening relationships, has allowed what looks to have forged an unlikely unity between ex-terror convicts and terrorist attack survivors. The diverging wall crumbles. Feelings of hatred melt. A harboring need for revenge wears away. They go hand-in-hand to regrow the seeds of humanity.
"[We] have become friends. [We are even] like family," Iwan Setiawan (52) said, in reference to number of men whom he had talked to, including Sofyan Tsauri (47).
It was an afternoon in the middle of Ramadan. Iwan, who is a bomb survivor from an attack in Kuningan, South Jakarta, was sitting on one of the chairs arranged in a row when Sofyan approached and greeted him. Iwan got up. Both shook hands and pressed each other’s cheek. After asking about each other’s condition, they exchanged stories about their activity, work and family, as well as talking about future plans.
The same courtesy was also showed by Iwan when Roki Aprisdianto and six other people took turns approaching him within the two-hour gathering. An air of amiability was palpable as they talked, with smiles occasionally beaming on their faces.
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Apart from his personal experience meeting with ex-terror convicts, Iwan said most fellow survivors still found it an unacceptable encounter because of what they had suffered from terror acts.
Iwan survived a bomb explosion in front of the Australian Embassy on Jalan Rasuna Said in Kuningan, South Jakarta, on 9 September, 2004, which killed nine and injured 160 people. Iwan and his wife Halila Seroja Daulay were passing on a motorcycle when the bomb went off. They were on their way to Manggarai, South Jakarta, for a pregnancy check-up as Halila entered her eighth month.
The explosion tossed them off the bike. Iwan's right eye was seriously injured by shrapnel and he has since had an eye prosthesis (artificial eye) installed. Halila incurred a serious head injury, which caused her to frequently lose consciousness and eventually die two years after the explosion.
Most fellow survivors still found it an unacceptable encounter because of what they had suffered from terror acts.
Sofyan Tsauri is a former terror convict. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2011 for his involvement in the Dulmatin terror network by providing 24 firearms, 19,999 bullets and 93 magazines. He was given remission and released from jail in 2015.
Roki Aprisdianto is also a former terror convict who was involved in bomb attacks on several traffic police posts and churches in Surakarta, Central Java, between 2010 and 2011. He was also found guilty of planting a bomb at the Pasar Kliwon Police Office in Surakarta, on 20 November 2012. He was sentenced to nine years in prison.
FKAAI Foundation administrator and survivor of the Australian Embassy bombing, Iwan Setiawan, at the FKAAI Office, Jakarta, Sunday (16/4/2023). The FKAAI Foundation distributed zakat to a number of bomb survivors in Jakarta, Tangerang and Depok.
That afternoon, Iwan, Sofyan and Roki met at a silaturahmi and iftar event initiated by the National Police antiterror special detachment 88 (Densus 88). The gathering, which was held in Bogor, West Java, brought together 48 ex-terror convicts, seven ex-terror cell combatants, four terror act survivors and dozens of Densus 88 officers. Around 30 children of terror convicts were also present.
It was not the first time Densus 88 had organized such a gathering, in which Iwan encountered those from a dark moment in his past. He was also brought over to visit them in their prison several times as part of a terrorism deradicalization campaign promoted by the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT).
He said an occasion that he would never forget was his encounter with convicts sentenced to death in the bomb attack on the Australian Embassy. They were Iwan Darmawan Munto alias Rois and Ahmad Hassan. He said the meeting had given him an invaluable lesson – he had been harboring abhorrence toward the two leaders behind the incident that had broken apart his life.
Iwan had nurtured the urge to avenge Rois and Hassan's crime. He had wanted them to feel the pain he had gone through the loss of his eye and wife. However, the meeting appeared to provide a turn-around.
“At that time, Hassan apologized. He cried in remorse. He offered qisas [retributive justice], which is paying an eye for eye. From there, I thought I was not the only victim. He was also a victim of wrong understanding or ideology,” Iwan said.
The urge to meet terror convicts was no longer to demand explanations about the reasons behind their acts. He wanted to let go of the hatred and revenge that had been a heavy burden for him.
After all, we are human beings who are aware what pain, suffering, loss mean to us. So, as survivors we let our conscience speak for itself.
He was keen to be big-hearted, big-chested, to purify his intentions to worship, establish bonds with fellow human beings. He was resolved to strengthen himself by strengthening terror convicts to no longer hold on to radical views.
“After all, we are human beings who are aware what pain, suffering, loss mean to us. So, as survivors we let our conscience speak for itself. The message becomes easier to let out," Iwan said.
Former terrorism convicts pray before breaking their fast during a friendly gathering with the Special Detachment 88 Anti-Terror Police in Bogor Regency, West Java, Friday (7/4/2023).
Sense of humanity
Densus 88 chief Insp. Gen. Marthinus Hukom said after being neutralized from violent ill-will, former terror convicts were invited to embrace human values within themselves, at which moment bomb survivors like Iwan were involved.
“The essence of deradicalization is to bring back the lost humanity. We bring [survivors and criminals] together so they can see that they actually had something in common, namely they are both human beings who have and need love. That is what we continue to explore in order that love permeates the hearts of terror convicts," Marthinus said.
Humanitarian approaches are also applied when busting up terrorist groups, given that arresting is a process of the state to implement justice, which does not allow even the slightest violence.
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Based on humanitarian grounds, Densus 88 regularly holds meetings for survivors and former terror convicts. Apart from being part of deradicalization measures, the meetings are also held to allow the three elements (survivors, convicts, police) to build bonds of humanity. With the gatherings, it is hoped that barriers can crumble and collapse.
In the end, all these deradicalization steps are expected to lead convicts to their reintegration into society. “We prepare communities to accept former terror convicts without stigmatizing them. Former terror convicts have gone through the detention process, which may reflect their triumph over themselves. They were expected to explore their own humanity that had been eroded by the doctrine of violence," Marthinus said.
Social acceptance
However, efforts to fight public stigma do not always to bear fruit, as former terror convict Iwan Wahyudianto (44) testified. In 2017, he joined Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), which is affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). He was arrested by Densus 88 in 2018 and after serving his sentence he was released from prison in 2020.
Back in his community, his ears became used to hearing ridicule thrown at him by people. Not only oral, but also physical persecution and discrimination did his family endure in their neighborhood in West Java. His wife and five children found the persecution so unbearable they moved to Jakarta.
Wahyudianto is still struggling to get back into the formal workforce he used to be part of. However, not all people take the attached terror label for granted and he currently works for a friend.
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"The label still persists and it's undeniable that [ex-terrorists] are the target of prejudice. What’s necessary is how to place oneself in their prevailing conditions,” he said.
Family and social support play a significant role in rebuilding hope and enthusiasm for life. Wahyudianto’s steps toward a new life are getting firmer after he joined the Indonesian Akhlakulkarimah Activist Communication Forum Foundation (FKAAI) in 2021.
The label still persists and it's undeniable that [ex-terrorists] are the target of prejudice.
Housing former radicalist-minded proponents and convicts, IS group combatants and terror-act survivors, the forum, which is supported by the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) and Densus 88, aims to reintegrate former terror convicts into society.
Mixing with people who have the same fate enables Wahyufianto to learn about acceptance and make compromises in his circumstances. "Regret always comes later. The options are whether we let ourselves be dragged on by the past or move ahead to the future," Wahyudianto said.
The question is how wide the door of silaturahmi can open to allow them to merge back into the community.
This article was translated by Musthofid.
