Antiterrorism deal needs time to be effective

Antiterrorism deal needs time to be effective

Yogita Tahilramani
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

The tripartite antiterrorism agreement signed recently by the
Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia will not take effect
immediately as the three neighboring countries still need a
substantial amount of time to design their legal frameworks and
communication centers, says a government official.

Marty Natalegawa, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, said on Monday that the agreement would take effect only
after the three countries had notified they had readied their own
institutions to simultaneously enforce it.

"Each of the three countries is required to set up a liaison
center that will be in charge of operations. The center will have
members from all government institutions that are in charge of
security, defense and law enforcement," Marty told The Jakarta
Post on Monday.

The three-way agreement, inked by the three countries' foreign
ministers in Kuala Lumpur on May 7, is scheduled to help
enforcement agencies to monitor potential security threats
effectively through a more rigorous exchange of information.
Apart from targeting potential terrorist threats, the pact will
look at ways of tackling other transnational crimes, such as
smuggling, drug trafficking, hijacking, illegal trafficking of
women and children and piracy.

Marty added that once the liaison center and the legal
technicalities were established, only then would the pact come
into effect.

When asked if it could take up to two years for the legal
technicalities and the setting up of the communications center to
be completed, Marty said quickly that it would "not necessarily
take that long," and that preparations were already under way.

The pact allows for the exchange of airline passenger lists
and the carrying out of joint training and exercises against
terrorism and other transnational crimes, but extradition matters
are not covered in the pact, which has made it somewhat vague.

Philippines President Gloria Arroyo Macapagal earlier ordered
the release of two of three Indonesians detained in mid-March by
Philippine authorities at the Ninoy Aquino international airport
in Manila, for alleged possession of explosives components.

Agus Dwikarna, the only one still detained in the Philippines,
has his pretrial hearing scheduled for May 16. According to
recent media reports in the Philippines, intelligence officials
have identified Agus as leader of a militant group that helped
train Al-Qaeda operatives.

Agus is a senior official of the Laskar Jundullah militia.

Foreign media reports have stated that Laskar Jundullah had
set up a secret paramilitary training camp near the riot-torn
city of Poso in Central Sulawesi, in late 2000. The camp,
allegedly located near Poso, had reportedly attracted at least
two dozen militants from the Philippines, several from Malaysia
and scores from the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.

Marty said on Monday that Indonesia would not rely on such
reports as the foreign ministry had yet to receive any
confirmation on these reports via official communications from
the Philippines. "We will rely solely on official
communications ... short of that, we will not be arriving at any
conclusions," Marty said.