President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) inaugurated the Indonesian Peace and Security Centre (IPSC) in Sentul on Monday (April 7th), proclaiming it an important step toward making the country and the region safer.

"With the IPSC, we are showing our serious commitment to world peace," SBY said. "We hope the centre will improve tolerance and security in Indonesian and to the world."

The centre – built at a cost of Rp 1.643 trillion ($144.2m) – has seven facilities: the Tentara Nasional Indonesia (TNI) Peacekeeping Mission Centre, Counterterrorism Training and Deradicalisation Centre, Centre for Disaster Management Education and Training, TNI Force Standby Centre, Language Development Centre, Defence University and Military Sports Centre.

"We spent four years building the IPSC from 2010-2014. Even though we are still working on how to arrange all the trainings and programs, we really think IPSC brings a lot of hope for peace in Indonesia," Defence Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro told Khabar Southeast Asia at the event.

Challenges ahead

Terrorism convicts who have served their prison sentences will undergo programmes aimed at safely and successfully reintegrating them into society at the new Counterterrorism Training and Deradicalisation Centre.

"This is good to show our commitment to curb terrorism and to disengage radicals before they return to society. However, the centre will also have challenges managing the programme," terrorism expert and founder of the Institute for International Peace Building Noor Huda Ismail said. "We will need to learn from other countries' experiences. For example, how will the counterterrorism centre separate radicals?

Each decision will result in certain consequences. For example, mixing former radicals [with regular prisoners] can be a recruitment opportunity, and if we separate them, there is a possibility of consolidation."

Armando Sutanto, a University of Indonesia graduate student in security studies, said a successful deradicalisation effort would require many human resources.

"We will need trainers who help them with personal skills, religious leaders to help in exploring peace through religion, [and] counsellors to help them physically and mentally," he told Khabar.

"We will need more experts from the field, not only those with a security background … but also psychologists and psychiatrists who will be able to help the radicalised individuals to be more open and feel accepted once they decide to return to society."

Sentul resident Gunawan Winarto hopes the centre will have a local impact as well.

"Last year, the IPSC hosted a counterterrorism exercise," he said. "We really hope that this will bring peace to West Java as well." Fellow resident Rianti Wahayuni is sceptical.

"It is just making a lot of noise, and too many outsiders come and go," she said. "We can barely keep track of them. I doubt that this will bring any benefit to us directly."