Jakarta, Indonesia, 8 May 2024
49 frontline practitioners from EU and ASEAN Member States took part in the two-day event to strengthen approaches to the management of extremist and high-risk inmates in the prison system and their transition back to life on the outside. The activity, which was part of the European Union’s counterterrorism and prevention/countering violent extremism (CT-P/CVE) Activity Plan for Indonesia and the Region, included a visit to the Cipinang Penitentiary.
A total of 49 frontline practitioners from the European Union (EU) and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Member States took part in a two-day event in Jakarta to strengthen approaches to the management of extremist and high-risk inmates in the prison system and their transition back to life on the outside.
The activity, which formed part of the EU’s counterterrorism and prevention/countering violent extremism (CT-P/CVE) Activity Plan for Indonesia and the Region, included a visit to the Cipinang Penitentiary.
The event was co-organised by the EU, the Indonesian Directorate General of Correction (DGC) under the Ministry for Law and Human Rights, and the EU security and defence project Enhancing Security Cooperation In and With Asia (ESIWA).
The regional workshop brought together corrections officers, prison officers, inmate relation officers and other frontline practitioners from across the EU and ASEAN member states such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
Indonesian institutions represented included maximum security correctional institutions on the island of Nusakambangan (Central Java), officers from Indonesia’s National Police Special Detachment 88 (Densus 88), the Directorate for Identification and Socialisation (Idensos), officers from the deradicalisation division of Indonesia’s National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) and the Centre for Detention Studies (CDS), Indonesia.
H.E. Sujiro Seam, EU Ambassador to ASEAN, said: “Given the societal impact of terrorism, attempting to rehabilitate, or at least disengage prisoners from violence, must continue to be a priority for counterterrorism efforts in the EU and Southeast Asia alike.”
“We are confident this interactive EU regional workshop contributed to the important ongoing mission of reintegrating prisoners by enabling a peer-to-peer exchange of ideas to overcome the many challenges we face in this complex field,” Ambassador Seam said.
Erwedi Supriyatno, Director of Prisoner Development and Child Assistance, Directorate General of Correction (DGC), Ministry of Law and Human Rights, Indonesia, said: “We are grateful for the cooperation in this regional workshop with the EU and hope that future cooperation can be enhanced in capacity building for officers, sharing best practices between the EU and the DGC, as well as in other fields that can improve correctional performance in both regions.”
In response to a sharp increase in terrorist activities in Southeast Asia and Europe in the mid-2010s, the EU’s diplomatic service European External Action Service (EEAS) established an EU Counter Terrorism/Security Experts Network, which includes globally distributed positions in 19 nations.
In December 2018, Marc Vierstraete-Verlinde became the first EU counterterrorism security expert for Southeast Asia, based in Jakarta with a regional focus on the 10 ASEAN nations. Following a range of consultations and engagements in 2019, an Activity Plan for EU Counterterrorism and P/CVE engagement in Southeast Asia — now commonly known as the Bali Work Plan – was developed, involving three primary thematic areas: finance, gender and youth, and prisons.
In March 2023, the EU partnered with BNPT to hold an EU-ASEAN workshop on promising practices related to the rehabilitation of prisoners convicted of offences under national anti-terrorism legislation. The content of these discussions informed a subsequent handbook of emerging best practice, which was endorsed by ASEAN’s Senior Officials Meeting on Transnational Crime (SOMTC) in August 2023.
“This EU regional workshop was special because it brought together expert practitioners from EU Member States and the ASEAN with intimate knowledge of the challenges of the prisons stream of the EU CT-P/CVE Activity Plan for Indonesia and the Region,” said Marc Vierstraete-Verlinde, EEAS Counter Terrorism/Security-Expert to SEA.
“With the support of the ESIWA project, such crucial initiatives connect officers from both regions directly involved with the management, rehabilitation and reintegration of high-risk prisoners, particularly those convicted of terrorism offences. These past two days have also been an excellent opportunity to jointly develop a coordinated, holistic approach to rehabilitation, and to put to practical use the practitioner-focused handbook on promising practice related to the rehabilitation of violent extremist inmates,” Vierstraete-Verlinde said.
A highlight of the regional workshop was an official visit to the Cipinang Penitentiary on 7 May.
“We are deeply grateful for the engagement of the Directorate General of Correction, under the Ministry for Law and Human Rights, for organising the visit to the Cipinang Penitentiary which was an excellent opportunity for EU practitioners to study firsthand the local security context and to allow for future collaboration and capacity building,” added Vierstraete-Verlinde.
About ESIWA
The ESIWA project works to enhance the EU’s security and defence cooperation with the Indo-Pacific in four thematic areas: counterterrorism and preventing violent extremism, crisis management, cyber security, and maritime security. The project is co-funded by the European Union, the German Federal Foreign Office, and the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. ESIWA is co-implemented by the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) & Expertise France.
In the domain of counterterrorism and preventing violent extremism (CT-PVE), ESIWA aims to contribute to information exchange, capacity building and mutual learning.
In early 2020, the ESIWA project was launched with CT-P/CVE as one of its four thematic areas and Indonesia among its initial five pilot nations. From September 2020, ESIWA began to support the EU Delegation in Jakarta and the implementation of the EU Activity Plan. In 2023, ESIWA implemented 11 workshops/ roundtables/ seminars under the EU Activity Plan, involving almost 500 participants.
Previous ESIWA activities in Indonesia have covered – among other subjects — maritime security, confidence building measures in cyberspace, standard minimum rules for the treatment of children, application of international law to cyberspace, good practice to respond to cybercrime, anti-money laundering & countering terrorism financing, crisis management, connecting women working in counterterrorism law enforcement, Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) handbook book tours, support to the development of Indonesia’s Knowledge Hub on Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism (#IKHub), and the repatriation of children from displacement camps of North-East Syria.
Source: Press and Information team of the Delegation to ASEAN