INTERNATIONAL SECURITY Foreign Terrorist Fighters from Southeast Asia: What Happens Next?
Dr. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Dr. Colin P. Clarke and Samuel Hodgson write that the fight against ISIS is not over but merely entering a new phase, and that militants from the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia will play a role.
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is the chief executive officer of the private firm Valens Global. He is also an Associate Fellow at the International Centre for Counterterrorism (ICCT) – The Hague. Colin P. Clarke is an Associate Fellow at the International Centre for Counterterrorism (ICCT) – The Hague and a Senior Research Fellow at The Soufan Center. Samuel Hodgson is an analyst at Valens Global.
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The last stronghold of the Islamic State, the Syrian town of Baghouz, fell to a coalition of Kurdish and Arab soldiers (backed by American, French, and British commandos) in March 2019. Following the collapse of ISIS’s ‘caliphate’, there are still significant questions about the hundreds of fighters from Southeast Asia who travelled to Iraq and Syria to fight alongside ISIS and other militant groups. Some of these fighters and their families are being detained in prison camps run by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), while others have fled, and are planning their next move. In mid-February, the Indonesian government reversed a prior decision to repatriate nearly 700 Indonesian citizens who travelled abroad to join jihadist groups in the Middle East, citing the security and safety of the general public. Though not all returnees will engage in threatening activities upon leaving the Middle East, some may radicalise others, plot attacks, and join or create extremist networks—even, perhaps, within prisons. Radicalise others Southeast Asian jihadist networks could help facilitate returnees’ radicalisation activities. Established groups can provide returnees a platform from which they can indoctrinate others. In Indonesia, joining a terrorist organisation was not criminalised until 2018, so it is possible that some extremist returnees were allowed to resettle in their hometowns.
Further, Southeast Asian ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria have sought to recruit new jihadists at home. Malaysian fighter Muhammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi has been responsible for or linked to recruiting at least a third of the individuals arrested in Malaysia in connection with ISIS between 2013 and 2016, including the person who conducted the first ISIS-linked terrorist attack in the country. Even if they are captured, returnees may be able to continue to advance their cause from captivity. In the Indonesian and Malaysian penitentiary systems, terrorism convicts have radicalized fellow prisoners and guards. Returnees are likely to engage in such activity as well. Following a May 2018 prison riot in Indonesia involving over 150 detainees charged with terrorism, authorities transferred the prisoners to Nusakambangan, a prison island. However, simply relocating prisoners will not halt their activities. Plot attacks It is likely that Southeast Asian returnees will plot and conduct terrorist attacks, and a number of returnees have already been involved in plots and attacks in the region. In June 2017, Syawaludin Pakpahan, an Indonesian returnee, fatally stabbed a police officer. In Syria, he had fought with the Free Syrian Army rather than a jihadist faction. However, Pakpahan reportedly held jihadist beliefs, and sometimes helped guard nearby ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra posts, resulting in his dismissal from the FSA and return to Line of Defence
