RI GOVERNMENT CONDUCTING SEARCH, INVESTIGATION FOR MISSING CITIZENS IN TURKEY by Fardah

Jakarta, March 11, 2015 (Antara) - Of the twenty-five Indonesians that arrived at the Ataturk International Airport by a Turkish Airline flight TK-67 on February 24, 2015, on a tour organized by Smailing Tour travel agency, 16 have gone missing.

       No suspicions arose when 16 of them informed their tour leader that they wanted to visit other locations and promised to join the group again in Pamukkale, on February 26, 2015.

       Since then, they have disappeared and could not be contacted. Finally, the group leader decided to report the incident to the Indonesian embassy, which later informed the Turkish security authorities about the disappearance of the Indonesian citizens.            
  Until now, the 16 people comprising eight adults, a teenager, five children, and two infants hailing from Surabaya (East Java) and Surakarta (Central Java), have not turned up, and their whereabouts still remain a mystery.

        The Indonesian Intelligence suspects that they have crossed over to Syria from the Turkish border in order to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which later renamed itself to the Islamic State (IS).

        The easiest way to enter the IS base is by crossing the Syrian borders from nine of its neighboring countries, including Turkey.

       The Indonesian Interpol has sent a letter to its Turkish counterpart regarding its missing citizens, according to spokesman of the Indonesian Interpol's National Central Bureau (NCB) Brigadier General Setyo Wasisto.

         The letter was sent last week, and there is no response yet, he noted. 
   As speculations and rumors are circulating in the media about the fate of the missing people, the Indonesian government has decided to send a team to Turkey to look for them in the Mediterranean country.

         "There is already a team from Indonesia there to help the Turkish security authorities (find the 16 people)," Arrmanatha Nasir, a spokesman of the Indonesian foreign affairs ministry, stated on March 9, 2015.  
    He pointed out that Turkey is a vast country spanning an area of 770 thousand square kilometers and having several mountainous and difficult terrains.

         If someone is hiding somewhere in Turkey, it is very difficult to find him or her, he added.

         Several CCTV cameras have been installed along the Turkish border, but it is still difficult to spot them as the border stretches nine thousand kilometers.

          He emphasized that the ministry does not want to speculate about the reason why the 16 Indonesians left the tour group and until now their whereabouts are still unknown.

         The search and investigation process is still ongoing, the diplomat stated.

         "The foreign ministry is reluctant to speculate about their motive of leaving the tour group, including about suspicions that they might have joined ISIS," he noted.  
    In the meantime, Muhammad Iqbal, the ministry's director for the protection of Indonesian citizens and Indonesian legal entities (PWNI-BHI), stated that none of the relatives of the 16 Indonesians informed the authorities about them going missing.

         The ministry has no information on how they went missing and could not confirm whether they had joined ISIS.

         "We do not want to jump to a conclusion that they went to Syria to join ISIS. We do not even know whether this case has something to do with radicalization or not," Iqbal remarked.

        In the meantime, Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla hoped that the missing Indonesians are found soon.

       The vice president, however, expressed doubt whether they had joined ISIS.

        "I am not sure if they have joined ISIS. If they want to wage jihad, they would not bring along their children and wives," Kalla noted.

         Despite the rewards offered by ISIS to those becoming its members, the vice president was not convinced that the 16 Indonesians had joined the movement.

       The vice president emphasized that Indonesia is firmly resisting the ISIS movement.

        "We do not support Indonesians who join ISIS because it goes against our state principals and religion," Kalla affirmed.

       He supported the Indonesian foreign affairs ministry and the security authorities in their efforts to locate them.

       The National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT) suspected that the 16 Indonesian nationals who went missing in Turkey had entered Syria.

         "We cannot confirm it yet, but they have likely joined IS," BNPT Enforcement Deputy Insp. Gen. Arief Dharmawan informed Tempo on March 8, 2015.

         The BNPT has been working closely with the Turkish government and the anti-terrorism agency, he revealed.

        The agency has also appealed to the government to anticipate the possibility of the Indonesians joining ISIS.

         Some people are not merely joining the ISIS due to their ideological motives but financial reasons might also be the impetus behind this decision. The ISIS is offering salaries between US$8 thousand to US$12 thousand or equivalent to Rp100 million-Rp150 million per month for those willing to work for them, including for doing tasks such as cooking their food, he explained .

        "The big salary offers have also attracted people from Australia, the Netherlands, and other European countries to join ISIS," he stated.

        The Indonesian security authorities have managed to successfully foil two attempts by Indonesian citizens trying to leave the country to join ISIS last year.

        Following the trend of some Indonesians joining ISIS in Syria, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno has urged immigration authorities to tighten checks on Indonesian citizens traveling to the Middle East, particularly Turkey.

         "Check carefully the data of the people who show any indication of moving there," Tedjo noted on March 9, 2015.        
       He remarked that the National Police and the State Intelligence Board (BIN) have gathered data on Indonesian citizens who are likely to join ISIS.

        "The data will be sent to the immigration authorities to prevent those citizens from traveling abroad," he stated.

         Citing BIN's observations, he pointed out that several local militant networks have been found to have links with international militant networks.

        "Admittedly, these networks are particularly prominent in Bima and Poso," he revealed.

        The Indonesian government has denounced any presence of ISIS in the country and has arrested local terror suspects who have declared their support to the foreign group.

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