REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesian and Saudi Arabian policies will strengthen cooperation in counterterrorism, as one of the points of the agreement signed by the two officials during Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud's visit to Indonesia last month.
As a follow up to the signed memorandum of understanding (MoU), Saudi's Public Security Director Lt Gen. Othman bin Nasser Al-Mihrij visited Indonesia's police headquarters to meet National Police Chief Gen. Tito Karnavian to further discuss the exchange of intelligence information in an effort to combat the threat of terrorism.
"Our country is considered quite successful when it comes to counterterrorism. Of course, Saudi is open to all countries, including Indonesia, to improve cooperation in this field," Lt. Gen. Al-Mihrij stated during a press conference held at the residence of Saudi Ambassador to Indonesia Osama Mohammed Al-Shuibi in Jakarta, on Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia is internationally recognized as one of the countries that has been successful in combating terrorism, which was proved by a medal of recognition awarded to Saudi's Crown Prince Muhammed bin Nayef by the US Central Intelligence Agency last February.
Bin Nayef, aged 57, who has been serving as the interior minister since 2012, had overseen a crackdown on al-Qaeda, a group that killed security officers and foreigners in the kingdom between 2003 and 2007.
According to Al Jazeera, a royal next-in-line to Saudi Arabia's throne who survived an assassination attempt by al-Qaeda has been awarded the George Tenet Medal in recognition of his "excellent intelligence performance, in the domain of counterterrorism and his unbound contribution to realizing world security and peace."
To this end, Lt. Gen. Al-Mihrij has expressed willingness to share experiences and best practices of fighting terrorism during the reciprocal visit of Indonesia's Police Chief Gen. Karnavian to Saudi Arabia in May.
Al-Mihrij also pointed out that as compared to Indonesia, in which the duty of combating terrorism has been specifically carried out by the elite anti-terrorism unit Detachment 88, the Kingdom of Saudi has handed over the task to a special team formed through a collaboration between several institutions.
"We will give an opportunity (to the Indonesian police chief) to look closely at Saudi's experiences and success story in addressing this issue, ranging from the threat posed by al-Qaeda to the ISIS recently," Al-Mihrij noted.
Indonesia's Deputy Chief of Police Comr Gen. Syafruddin stated that the official visit will be made as Gen. Karnavian plans to perform an umrah at the start of Ramadan.
During the visit, both countries' heads of security institutions will hold in-depth discussions for the implementation of the inked MoU that mainly covers the handling of cross-national crimes, such as terrorism, cyber crimes, theft and weapons smuggling, corruption, money laundering, human trafficking, as well as smuggling of migrants.
Particularly with regard to dealing with the militant group ISIS, Syafruddin said that the personnel of Detachment 88 have visited Turkey, Jordan, and Saudi several times to escort Indonesians who had allegedly joined the group and were planning to return to the country as foreign terrorist fighters.
Of the nearly two thousand Indonesians who had entered Syria, only 1,300 of them were officially registered. The rest, or about 700 people, who illegally entered the war-torn country and planned to return to Indonesia to allegedly spread radical values, would be anticipated by the Detachment 88.
"This duty has been carried out over the years by the detachment and all security personnel. Hence, if the special force is conducting law enforcement measures, it was all to prevent any act of terrorism in the country," Syafruddin remarked.
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