By Ainur Rohmah
JAKARTA, Indonesia
Indonesia says it is planning to repatriate 16 of its nationals being held in Turkey on suspicion of trying to join Daesh in Syria, but they are refusing to come home.
Police spokesman Anton Charliyan told reporters Wednesday that those arrested could not be forced to come back as they don't have the right documents.
"It's actually their right to be willing to go back to their country or not," he told reporters at National Police headquarters in South Jakarta.
Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, director of the Protection of Indonesian Citizens and Legal Entities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has said that only five of them -- from one family -- have passports.
On Tuesday, acting National Police chief Comr. Gen. Badrodin Haiti said that the group had rejected the Turkish government’s offer of sending them home as many wanted to continue onwards to the war-torn country.
“All of them refused to be sent back to Indonesia,” Badrodin told reporters at police headquarters.
On March 4, Turkey notified Indonesia that it had arrested and detained 16 Indonesians -- comprising one man, four women and 11 children -- in the Turkish border city of Gaziantep -- 97 kilometers north of Aleppo, Syria -- more than six weeks ago.
News of their detention sparked speculation that they were 16 members of an Indonesian tour party who had gone missing after entering Turkey at the end of February.
However, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said last week that the tour group had yet to be located, meaning 32 Indonesians had either been arrested, were missing, or went missing in Turkey.
Indonesia has since sent a team consisting of police, foreign ministry and intelligence agency officials, and members of the National Counter-Terrorism Agency to Turkey.
Charliyan said Wednesday that police were still negotiating the group's deportation and were yet to interrogate them.
"We want to explore their goals, and who sent and financed them," he added.
On Tuesday, The Jakarta Post reported Indonesia's National Intelligence Agency chief Marciano Norman as saying that Turkey and Indonesia were mulling two options -- whether to repatriate the 16 Indonesians or find another country to offer them asylum.
He added that the second option was being seriously considered, as there were indications that they had sold all their assets in Indonesia and “brought members of their families to the Middle East country to look for a better life."
“If they are brought home, they will have nothing left. But again, the [Indonesian] government has an obligation to provide protection for its citizens,” Norman said.
Indonesia's Vice President Jusuf Kalla said Wednesday that nationals who travel to other countries and take up arms to defend them would lose their nationality.
"It is according to the constitution," he underlined to MetroTv.
Norman also said Wednesday that the agency is studying a video titled "the light of Tarbiyah on the Caliphate World" which has been circulating on YouTube since March 15.
The video contains footage of children aged between 7 and 15 years old practicing war games and carrying arms in a house with a large courtyard flying the flag of Daesh.
"That's what we are doing [investigating], whether they're children of Indonesia or not," he said.
The video has since been blocked and deleted by the Ministry of Communication and Information.
"It's out of circulation," he underlined.
