Terrorism Financing Over Time
In December 2016, East Aleppo which was originally controlled by the armed militia (terrorist) Jaysh Al-Islam (Islamic army formed to fight Iraq and Syria) was finally re-controlled by the Syrian government which was then led by Bashar al-Assad. After being freed from terrorist groups, the Euro News Channel, which came to cover the area, accidentally found boxes containing food aid bearing the words Indonesia Humanitarian Relief (IHR), a donation agency from Indonesia. The boxes were in a food warehouse suspected of belonging to the Jaysh Al-Islam terrorist group in the Al-Kalasa district, East Aleppo.
The crisis that occurred in the post-conflict Aleppo area made charities in Indonesia and many other countries actively collect aid funds which they hoped would be distributed to the Syrian people. The question is, why boxes containing food and aid from Indonesia were actually found at the Jaysh Al-Islam headquarters, while hungry people from Aleppo claimed to never have received any aid.
In Indonesia, there are at least ten large institutions that focus on collecting donations for Syria. Among them, Aksi Cepat Tanggap (ACT), Indonesia Humanitarian Relief (IHR), Synergy Foundation, Forum Indonesia Cares for Syria, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Friends of Syria, Zakat House, Yufid.TV, Radio Roja, Caring for Muslims, Syrian Medical Mission, and Darut Tauqid Community Care Fund.
Dina Sulaeman, a Middle East Geopolitical Expert and Founder of the Indonesia Center for Middle East Studies (ICMES) told The Apex Chronicles, from research conducted since 2011, some donations to Syria have fallen into the hands of terrorist groups. She wrote this in her personal blog and included various digital trace evidence from the donation collecting agency.
“Regarding the humanitarian aid that reaches terrorist groups, there are actually several factors, one of which is the partiality factor,” she said.
The partiality factor is very likely to have been the main factor why donation institutions in Indonesia are aggressively raising funds for Syria. According to Dina, alignments can arise because of an understanding or points of view or shared ideologies between the party sending the aid and the conflicting groups.
Dina emphasized, those donating institutions were not from the United Nations such as UNICEF, UNHCR, UNOCHA, or other non-governmental humanitarian agencies that entered legally with the permission of the Indonesian Embassy. These institutions always distribute aid regardless of the parties to the conflict and the aid is aimed at the refugees. The institutions referred to by Dina, channel their assistance specifically to groups that are pro-regime overthrow.
There were several large factions in the anti-government camp, namely Jaysh Al Islam and the FSA, which share the same basic ideology as the Ikhwanul Muslimin (IM) and the Jabath An Nusrah group, which shares similar ideas with the Al-Qaeda Network, also the ISIS soldiers who had controlled Aleppo. In addition to these large factions, there are hundreds of other terrorist groups in Syria such as Faylaq ar Rahmah, Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zinki, Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya, and so on. Even though they have different names, Dina Sulaeman emphasized that their ideology is the same, namely they want to establish a caliphate in Syria by means of terror.
“Some of the examples above are trans-national organizations, so it is not surprising that Indonesia is so enthusiastic about Syria. Because the group that took up arms in Syria has branches in Indonesia,” said Dina.
Dina gave an example with the Indonesian Ikhwanul Muslimin (IM), which is affiliated with Jaysh Al-Islam and takes the position as supporters of the Free Syrian Army. Jabath An-Nusrah which in Indonesia, according to Dina, is affiliated with Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) which has long expressed support for the Al-Qaeda group.
“So it is natural that support for rebel groups in Syria is so crowded in Indonesia,” she continued.
Between Aid Supply and Arms Supply
The Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) released a report that the numbers of Indonesian combatants in Syria will continue to grow, because the “Jihadi” humanitarian aid teams also facilitate the entry of this fighters. The report also mentions that the most active Indonesian extremist organization in Syria since the conflict erupted is Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). Many Indonesians who got to Syria worked through Ahrar al-Sham, an ally of Jabath an-Nusra. Indonesia’s involvement in Syria can have an impact domestically in several ways, one of which is reviving the power of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and strengthening other groups that have proven adept at fundraising for Syria. This could have the effect of connecting Indonesia to the global jihad network.
For example, in February 2018 the Jabhat Fatah al-Sham group which later changed its name to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) carried out terror in Eastern Ghouta and caused riots between the Syrian army and the HTS group. Around the same time, the Indonesian donation agency ACT (Quick Response Action) launched a fundraising campaign to help the Ghouta region. They put up banners that read “Save Ghouta” in almost all regions in Indonesia and the hashtag #SaveGhouta flooded Indonesian mass media lines.
Data from Indopress.id stated that ACT managed to raise more than Rp 11.6 billion in funds. However, ACT said that they did not cooperate with the Syrian government, but partnered with Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH), a humanitarian organization from Turkey. The Maula TV channel said that IHH as the largest donation agency in Turkey also supplied weapons to the mujahideen. On January 3, 2014, the Turkish daily Huriet released a report about aid trucks bearing the IHH markings containing ammunition and weapons to be sent to Jihad forces in Syria. The same report also states that the IHH agency was arrested by Turkish police for supplying weapons to Syria.
In addition to ACT, other funding agencies for Syria such as Indonesia Humanitarian Relief, Synergy Foundation, Forum Indonesia Cares for Syria, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Friends of Syria, Zakat House, Yufid.TV, Radio Roja, Muslim Care, Syrian Medical Mission, and People Care Fund Darut Tauqid, according to Dina Sulaeman has a digital track record showing their affiliation with terrorist groups in Syria.
“For example, the Indonesian Forum for Syria Cares (FIPS) created the BumiSyam.com website and if we read the articles on the site, it can be seen that they are siding with the mujahideen groups, including Jabath An Nusrah, Ahrar Syam, and Jundul Aqsa,” explained Dina.
In October 2013, Yufid.TV and Radio Roja stated on their websites that the donation from Indonesia was handed over to the representative of Indonesian Volunteers for Syria, Ustadz Abu Sa’ad alias Muhammad Nur Huda in the amount of USD 45,187. This institution also entrusted money to Abu Sa’ad around Rp 5 billion. Abu Sa’ad who died in 2016 was an admirer of Jabath An Nusrah and called Ahrar Syam a mujahideen.
Campaign and Propaganda
The Syrian medical mission agency is also suspected of providing cooperation to the Free Syrian Army. This allegation arose from the upload of photos from Fathi Yazid Attamini who was heavily involved in collaborating with the Free Syrian Army. Dina Sulaeman said that Syrian donors were flying the same flag as the flag flown by the Syrian armed militia.
They raised donations using various methods, such as distributing photos and videos related to the deplorable condition of Syria with thousands of bloody victims, creating websites, placing banners, campaigning on social media, and holding tabligh akbar activities.
“They have often used fake photos and videos since 2012,” said Dina.
Based on the results of her research, the people in photos and videos that circulated were sometimes not from Syria, but from incidents that occured in other places like in Iraq or Palestine. In the fundraising campaign these victims were portraited as victims from the violence of the Bashar Al-Assad regime in Syria.
IPAC in 2014 released a report that most websites, Facebook pages and print media about Syria featured news about the brutality of Syrian government forces and pro-Assad militias against Sunni villagers, usually followed by video rounds of anti-Shia sentiment.
Among them, the fundraising method carried out by HASI (Hilal Ahmar Society Indonesia). HASI makes appeals via a website designed for cross-organizational appeal. The websites are named kiblat.net and Muslimdaily.net. The two sites are thought to have close ties to the family of Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, one of the founders of Jemaah Islamiyah. Through their website, they announced the launch of a new organization called the Indonesian Muslim National Committee for Syria in March 2012 with a bank account number for online donations.
Fundraising was also done by holding public discussions (tabligh akbar) about Syria that invited as many people as possible, ending with calling for donations. A report from IPAC states that between 2012 – 2013, JI held 60 discussions throughout Indonesia and succeeded in raising funds of Rp. 10,700,000,- or around USD 1,070 in Klaten, Central Java. In June 2013 the tabligh akbar was held again in Bandar Lampung and managed to collect donations of Rp. 130,000,000, – or around USD 10,700.
In their tabligh akbar they usually preach that giving material support for jihad in Syria is as important as fighting there. From the funds collected, they channeled their assistance in the form of medical assistance, food, clothing, and other basic needs. Most of the food and clothing aid was distributed to the areas of Jabal al-Akrad and Idlib, south of Aleppo.
Based on the results of research from Dina Sulaeman, Idlib is an area that is free from government control, and is filled with terror militias with various names, and has Turkish support. The Idlib area became an evacuation area for terrorists who lost to the Syrian national army when there was chaos in Ghouta. This means that if a donation collection agency claims to send donations to Idlib, then the agency has an affiliation with one of the terrorist groups.
Funding The Most Important Element of Terrorism
According to Dina Sulaeman, the first thing that must be done to stop radicalism and terrorism is to stop the flow of funds from the Gulf countries to radical and terrorism groups in Indonesia.
“If you really want to stop radicalism and terrorism in Indonesia, the first thing to stop is the flow of funds. Because if they don’t have funds, they can’t hold any activities, for example, they can’t print books, they can’t hold recitations, they can’t carry out military training activities, and so on.” she said.
In addition to improving strategies in the field of deradicalization and disengagement, the Indonesian Government needs to develop anti-terrorism financing policies in order to strengthen the implementation of the Anti-Terrorism Financing Law by considering the potential for misuse of donations for terrorism activities. The Government needs to increase public awareness in providing voluntary donations to certain groups, especially related to raising funds for conflict area communities. In this case, there is a possibility that the money does not reach those who should receive assistance, namely the victims, but instead reaches the hands of radical groups.
Improved border control and financial integrity systems are also very important matters for further scrutiny, thus the exchange of information and strategic coordination between authorized institutions such as investigators, financial supervisors, financial intelligence institutions, the private sector and relevant Ministries with an interest in managing public information data is an important step in overcoming threats related to misuse of donations.
In line with Dina, Silvia Laksmi, researcher and expert on Counter Terrorism Financing and Anti Money Laundering, emphasized that the funding aspect of a terror group is the most important element for the survival and activities of a terror group. Ideological support and network structure are not enough to sustain a terror group.
“It takes a flow of funds that are able to support their terror activities and operations,” she explained.
It should be noted that the funding system in a terror group is always changing due to dynamics and various causative factors. Silvia Laksmi, citing the results of Steve Kiser’s research which states that the structure of terrorism financing in the Al-Qaeda terror group is experiencing dynamics as part of the group’s adaptation process to environmental conditions and situations.
Al-Qaeda’s funding structure comes from two sources, namely internal and external sources. Internal sources come from revenue, movement, and storage. Examples include Osama bin Laden’s wealth, business, wealth of Al-Qaeda members, commodity trading, and drug trafficking.
Internal sources of displacement come from cash smuggling, non-registered informal transfer systems (hawala), and business transactions. And lastly, internal storage revenue comes from precious/gold jewelry, tanzanite, banks that are sympathetic to or controlled by Al-Qaeda. External sources of income come from individual donations, charities, investigative results, and supporting state donations. Meanwhile, external sources of displacement come from transfers and business transactions. While the external source of storage comes from fake bank accounts.
At the beginning of its establishment, al-Qaeda relied on funding from Osama bin Laden’s wealth and donations from rich people, but these donations could be easily traced back to the benefactors. In 1990, Al-Qaeda begin prioritizing business and donations from charitable organizations as a source of funding.
Terrorist groups in Indonesia are also experiencing changes in funding sources, especially following the Bali Bombings. Characteristics of their funding came from all cross the country, especially from international organizations such as Al-Qaeda and from corporations associated with Al-Qaeda. After the Bali bombings and Law no. 9 of 2013 concerning the Prevention and Eradication of the Financing of Terrorism and the establishment of PPATK by the Government, their characteristics have changed.
“Previously, they were central in nature, and changed to small haps. They form small groups in their organization. This changes the character of the network and has an impact on changing their funding sources,” said Silvia.
In 2014, when ISIS first entered Indonesia, they began to empower themselves domestically. The Indonesian government has also strengthened it’s anti-money laundering measures, making cross-border transactions and banking easier to monitor. It has also improved law enforcement while terrorist groups have shifted domestic funding such as collecting donations, establishing local businesses.
The types of terrorism financing in Indonesia have clearly changed. In the past when ISIS and Al-Qaeda still existed, Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) collected funds through robbery, both bank robbery and robbery of gold shops. They claim that the results of the robbery are halal. Then, in its development their source of funding comes from charitable donations. In the past, the donations they received were from mosque to mosque by submitting proposals to donors. The process is very manual because they use religion as a commodity.
“In its development, the donations they collect are increasingly sophisticated due to technological and social media factors, then business,” said Silvia.
The establishment of the PPATK and the Law No. 9 of 2013 concerning the Prevention and Eradication of Criminal Acts of the Financing of Terrorism were said by Silvia as progress in efforts to tackle and control the financing of terrorism in Indonesia. Prior to 2013, Indonesia only used the terrorism law as a way to prevent terrorism. PPATK launched the International Fund Transfer Instruction Report (IFTI) which helps detect cross-border money transactions regardless of value, especially funding from the Middle East for funding local terrorist groups.
Reporting from the BNPT website, PPATK also collaborates with BNPT and a number of institutions such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the State Intelligence Agency, and the Special Detachment 88 Anti-Terror Police and formed a Task Force on the List of Suspected Terrorists and Terrorist Organizations (DTTOT) as a forum that oversees criminal acts of funding. terrorism.
Silvia warns, “The public should be more aware of collecting donations, because terrorist groups often use religion and humanitarian activities as commodities to attract people’s attention to raise funds. We have to be more aware of whom we give and what the money will be used for.”
