A host of tasks are awaiting Caretaker Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan on Thursday and Friday, according to the Royal Thai Government website. Prawit automatically took over as caretaker prime minister after a majority of Constitutional Court judges voted on Wednesday to accept an opposition petition for deliberation on Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s tenure and suspended him from duty until a ruling is made. At 10am, Prawit was scheduled to preside over the national disaster warning system executive committee via video conference at the Five Provinces Bordering Forest Preservation Foundation in Bangkok’s Phaya Thai district. Prawit was later scheduled to meet Organization of Islamic Cooperation secretary-general Hissein Brahim Taha, who is visiting Thailand as a guest of the Foreign Ministry, at Government House in Bangkok’s Dusit district. On Friday, Prawit is expected to preside over a Defence Council meeting, even though Prayut is allowed to handle the task as defense minister. Wissanu earlier said that Prawit now has authority to give any order related to personnel administration and budget approval due to the Constitutional Court’s suspension of Prayut. He added that Prawit could also dissolve Parliament, but this would be hard to do so.
EXTRICATING NDONESIAN CHILDREN FROM ISIS INFLUENCE ABROAD
Indonesia urgently needs to revisit the possibility of repatriating the neediest of its young citizens stranded abroad, whose families had earlier joined ISIS. Most of these children are in camps in northern Syria but there are also small numbers in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Iraq. “Extricating Indonesian Children from ISIS Influence Abroad”, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) argues that the government could begin by bringing back small groups of unaccompanied children under ten years of age, who pose minimal security risk and are most vulnerable to deteriorating conditions in the camps.“The problem is that health and security conditions are worsening by the day in the Syrian camps, and the children are growing older,” says Dyah Kartika, IPAC analyst. “They need access to schools, a nurturing environment, and medical attention. If the government waits too long, the children will be further exposed to ISIS ideology.” The new report examines a 2019 list of Indonesians in camps and prisons run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Indonesian government has been trying to verify their citizenship, but with pseudonyms, misspellings and bad transliterations, it is a daunting task. At the time the data was collected, between March and June 2019, there were 555 Indonesians in SDF camps and prisons, including 367 children. Among the children, approximately 277 were under the age of ten and 34 were unaccompanied. In June 2021, there are fewer than ten children who are both unaccompanied and under the age of ten that could be prioritized for return. Bringing back children of ISIS families is no easy task. The report analyses the main challenges faced by the Indonesian government. These include definitional issues, bureaucratic competition, the difficulty of verifying nationality, evaluating the toll of exposure to conflict, assessing security risk, and finding relatives or others willing to provide care once the children are returned. In addition, COVID has meant stringent restrictions on travel, placing further obstacles in the way of repatriation. There are several models for rehabilitation of children exposed to violent extremism in Indonesia that could be modified to accommodate the needs of children repatriated from abroad. The report examines these models and argues that the government does not need to have every detail of rehabilitation programs in place before it starts extricating children from ISIS influence. It can start by bringing back the most vulnerable children and then modify programs as needed.
“It’s important that the government see these children as victims” says Dyah. “They deserve a chance to be children again.”
