By Ainur Rohmah and Hasan Ozkal
JAKARTA, Indonesia / GAZIANTEP, Turkey
A group of 16 Indonesians arrested near Turkey’s border with Syria are not members of an Indonesian tourist party that vanished last month, Indonesian officials said Friday.
News of their detention in the border town of Gaziantep sparked speculation that they were the same 16 who went missing after entering Turkey at the end of February.
However, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said Friday that the tour group had yet to be located, meaning 32 Indonesians had either been arrested or were missing in Turkey.
Referring to the detained group, she said: "We have obtained information that they were indeed trying to cross into Syria."
It was claimed by Indonesia on Friday that the group was detained more than six weeks ago.
Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, the Foreign Ministry director responsible for Indonesian nationals abroad, said the 16 were arrested Jan. 29 in Gaziantep, 45 kilometers (27 miles) north of the Syrian border, having arrived in Turkey two days earlier.
However, Turkish police in Gaziantep insisted the group was arrested Wednesday.
Iqbal claimed the Turkish government had not announced their detention earlier due to difficulties in identifying them. Only five, belonging to the same family, were carrying passports.
According to Iqbal, the Turkish authorities had trailed the group following their arrival.
He said the Indonesian government had not been able to establish any links between the party and Daesh or any other organizations.
Police in Gaziantep said the group were detained as they travelled in a minibus close to the Syrian border Wednesday, having arrived in Gaziantep from Istanbul by coach earlier that day. An unnamed source told The Anadolu Agency the Indonesians had been in touch with Daesh over the Internet and had been promised a monthly stipend of $10,000 per person in Syria.
They have appeared in court in Gaziantep and are in the process of being deported, police said.
The Indonesian Embassy in Ankara declined to comment when contacted by AA.
Indonesia's Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir told AA that the detainees consisted of one man, four women and 11 children -- three girls and eight boys. Turkish authorities said two men, three women and 11 children were arrested.
Nasir confirmed they did not belong to the tour party, who arrived in Turkey on Feb. 24 with Smailing Tours and promptly disappeared, and said Indonesia was sending a team to Turkey "to investigate their goals and improve [security] cooperation with Turkey."
He said the ministry was coordinating with the National Police, the State Intelligence Agency and the National Counter-Terrorism Agency to "discuss how to handle the detention of 16 citizens in Turkey, as well as the 16 citizens who broke away from the tour group."
Police in Indonesia confirmed Friday that they had received the identities of the detained group. "We've got the data of 16 people captured," Commissioner General Badrodin Haiti, chief of the National Police, said, according to the BeritaSatu news portal. "We will match [it] with the embassy's data."
He speculated that the group of women and children, from West Java and East Java provinces, were going to join their husbands already in Syria. "But we cannot be sure," Haiti added.
Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim nation and has been combating small numbers of homegrown militants since the early 2000s. The government has raised concerns recently over Indonesians traveling to the Middle East to join Daesh and has said 514 Indonesians have links to the group.
- Additional reporting by Anadolu Agency correspondent Satuk Bugra Kutlugun in Ankara.
