Indonesia’s “Ghost Birds” Tackle Islamist Terrorists: A Profile of Densus 88

[Valin]

Jamestown Foundation:

Jacob Zenn
8/12/11


Emblem of Densus 88

After the 2002 Bali bombings, Indonesia recognized that the main threat to national security came from regional terrorist networks whose leaders returned to Indonesia after Suharto fell from power in 1998. An elite counterterrorism unit, Densus 88 (Detasemen Khusus 88, or Special Detachment 88), was Indonesia’s answer to the terrorists who exploited the country’s weakened security environment. Among the terrorists were many former Afghan jihadis as well as Abu Bakr Ba'asyir and the late Abdullah Sungkar – the duo that founded Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) while in exile in Malaysia between 1985 and 1998.

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In 2007 Densus 88 captured Abu Dujana in Central Java with the help of U.S satellites operated by Australian Police which tracked his cellphone activites.(Tempo Interaktif [Jakarta], June 20, 2007; for a profile of Abu Dujana, see Terrorism Monitor, April 4, 2006).
· In 2009 Densus 88, acting on tips and surveillance, surrounded a house that Noordin Mohammed Top was renting in Solo. Noordin blew himself up along with his wife and two children to save himself from being killed or captured by Densus 88 (for a profile of Noordin Top, see Terrorism Monitor, July 25, 2006).
· In 2010, Densus 88 tracked down and killed Dulmatin, who had a $10 million bounty on his head, in an internet café in Jakarta. Indonesian President Yudhoyono confirmed Dulamtin’s death while giving a speech to the Australian Parliament (for a profile of Dulmatin, see Terrorism Monitor, July 9, 2006).
· In May 2011 Abu Bakr Ba'asyir received a 15-year sentence after his conviction for sponsoring a terrorist camp in Aceh that Densus 88 raided in 2010.

Densus 88’s collaboration with the U.S. and Australia has not gone unnoticed by the terrorists it hunts down. Abu Bakar Ba'asyir said during his trial that allegations of terrorism were “deliberately spread by God's enemy - the Zionists and their allies America and Australia, and followed by Densus 88” (The Age [Melbourne], February 23). Radical Islamic groups in the country, such as the Islamic Peoples’ Forums (FUI) and Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), see Densus 88 as a U.S. and Australian-backed paramilitary unit that systematically arrests and kills Islamic activists under the pretense of terrorism. They cite Densus 88’s start-up and operational funding as proof (Jakarta Globe, August 31, 2010).