Activist Calls for Accountability of Indonesian ISIS Fighters

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Former National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) Chair, Ifdhal Kasim, advised Indonesia to let the former Indonesian ISIS fighters be held accountable for their actions prior to thinking about repatriation.

“The liabilities facing the [ISIS] fighters aren’t clear where it would end, but here we are debating about their repatriation. As if the [former Indonesian ISIS fighters] are international refugees who are waiting to be brought back home,” said Ifdhal in a written statement on Monday, February 10. 

He said that ISIS combatants will be made accountable for their actions under humanitarian law, international criminal law, and international human rights law. ISIS followers are considered to be a transnational movement that places the actors as non-state actors. 

Ifdhal strongly argues that former ISIS combatants can be taken accountable under international criminal law, international human rights law, up to the customary international law. 

However, he said there has yet to be a clear mechanism applied to make the suspects of terrorism accountable for the heinous crimes committed including genocide, a crime against humanity, and a war crime. 

The debate on this is still ongoing in the global stage, he said. Syria has also expressed the intention to adjudicate the former ISIS combatants with their own national criminal law, while the international community has voiced for the establishment of an International Counter-Terrorism Court (ICTC).

FRISKI RIANA