JAKARTA — Sefa Riano didn’t try to hide his plans or his beliefs. A Facebook page that police traced to him is plastered with photos of bearded men in camouflage uniforms holding rifles and banners hailing “The Spirit of Jihad”.
One status update declares ominously, “God willing, I will take action at the Myanmar Embassy, hope you will share responsibility for my struggle.’’ It ends with a yellow smiley face.
Days later, police arrested Riano, whose Facebook name is Mambo Wahab in central Jakarta. Police say he and another man were on a motorbike carrying a backpack filled with five low-explosive pipe bombs tied together. Riano, 29, is awaiting charges related to allegations that he plotted to bomb the embassy to protest the persecution of Muslims in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
A police investigator revealed Riano’s connection to the page to The Associated Press. The investigator spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to talk to reporters. The page was still online yesterday though it had not been updated since his arrest.
Police said a growing number of young people in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, are being targeted for recruitment by terrorists on the social media site. More than one in four of the country’s 240 million people are on Facebook, thanks in large part to cheap and fast Internet-capable phones.
Mr Muhammad Taufiqurrohman, an analyst from the Centre for Radicalism and De-radicalisation Studies who works closely with Indonesian anti-terrorism officials, said 50 to 100 militants in the country have been recruited directly through Facebook over the past two years.
He said there are at least 18 radical Facebook groups in Indonesia, and one of them has 7,000 members. Police said some sites where radical discussion takes place focus on Islam, while others engage in talk about committing violence, such as how to make bombs. Access is blocked unless group administrators allow users to participate.
Mr Gatot S Dewabroto, spokesman for Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Information, said Facebook responds quickly when officials ask them to remove such content. But he added that after one page is blocked, others quickly spring up.
The police investigator said authorities were alerted about “Mambo Wahab’s” Myanmar bombing status update by other Internet users. Police used information collected from arrested militants in Riano’s online networks to track his Web footprint.
After getting his Internet Protocol address and eventually linking that to a mobile phone, authorities say they were able to tap into conversations involving Riano and the plot’s alleged mastermind, the investigator said.
Indonesian police say Facebook is one of many places where they’ve found terrorist activity online. They have detected militants using online games for attack drills.
A group was caught uploading propaganda videos on YouTube and terrorists are known to have purchased weapons using video calls, said Brigadier General Petrus Reinhard Golose, the director of operations at Indonesia’s anti-terrorism agency.
Mr Ansyaad Mbai, who heads Indonesia’s anti-terrorism agency, said Facebook has become “an effective tool for mass radicalisation,” and that police need more authority to respond to online behaviour.
“Radical sermons and jihadist sites are just a mouse click away.” AP
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