ASEAN armies vow to fight terrorism, illegal arms
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Army chiefs from Southeast Asian nations began on Monday talks on joint efforts to combat terrorism and illegal arms trafficking that have plagued the region in recent years.
Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto suggested that the fifth annual meeting focus on a joint cooperation to crack down on groups with paramilitary training camps for terrorism purposes.
"Incidents like the one in Russia (Beslan, North Ossetia) must not take place in this region," Endriartono said after receiving army commanders from the nine other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries participating in the meeting at the Hilton Hotel in Central Jakarta.
He was referring to the school hostage-taking by terrorists, which ended on Friday with at least 335 people killed, mostly children, in Beslan in the southern Russian republic of North Ossetia.
"We also must step up efforts to curb rampant, illicit arms trafficking, as we believe that such activities have contributed to the armed rebellions in Aceh province and separatist movements in the Philippines," Endriartono said.
Also attending the talks were Indonesian Army chief Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu, Dato Sri Pahlawan Moh. Azumi bin Muhamad from Malaysia, Chasif Sinawatra from Thailand, Eifen L. Abo of the Philippines, Desmond Kwek from Singapore, Nguyen Nang Nguyen from Vietnam, Kenekhum Shengyehone from Laos, Dato Paduka Abdurrahman from Brunei, Meas Sophea from Cambodia and Mauraq Aye from Myanmar.
Ryamizard said the meeting, which will close on Tuesday, was aimed at upholding "solidarity among the ASEAN countries in facing terror threats" in addition to improving the professionalism of soldiers.
He said the army chiefs had come to an agreement to set up a joint command post and hold regular training sessions for soldiers to improve their capability in combating terrorism.
The talks on joint cooperation to deal with terrorist threats had surfaced last year when the army chiefs met for the fourth meeting in Malaysia, Ryamizard said.
Multilateral military cooperation in the region materialized in June when the navies of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore formed a joint patrol in the Strait of Malacca to fight the rampant piracy attacks in the world's busiest waterway. The so- called coordinated patrol was launched in response to the United States' plan for a security arrangement to prevent terrorist attacks that might target ships in the strait.
Southeast Asia has witnessed a series of terrorist attacks over the past few years, including the Bali bombings on Oct. 12, 2002.
Several of the convicted terrorists in the Bali blasts are believed to have undergone training in camps in the southern Philippines run by the Al-Qaeda-linked Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) regional terror network.
Indonesia was rocked by another attack in August 2003 when a JI suicide bomber struck the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, leaving 12 people dead.
JI has been blamed for those and other attacks across Southeast Asia. Its chief operations man, Riduan Ishamuddin, alias Hambali was captured in Thailand shortly after the JW Marriott bombing.