ASEAN nations urged to join antiterrorism pact

ASEAN nations urged to join antiterrorism pact

Agencies, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia on Friday urged all Southeast Asian nations to accede to
a trilateral anti-terrorism pact it signed with Indonesia and
Philippines to forge an ASEAN agreement.

Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said he would raise the
matter at next month's annual talks with his counterparts in the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Brunei.

He said Thailand, Laos and Singapore had so far expressed
interest in joining the pact sealed last month in Kuala Lumpur to
combat terrorist groups and prevent them from using their assets
for transnational crime.

The treaty took calls for joint training exercises, the
establishment of hotlines, standard procedures on search and
rescue, and the sharing of intelligence.

"I will bring it up at the forthcoming ASEAN ministerial
meeting in Brunei. We hope that other countries will accede to
this agreement. It's a very constructive, useful agreement," he
told reporters.

"We think that post-September 11, it is useful to exchange
information to combat the greater threat of international
terrorism, things that may affect transnational crime, funds of
terrorists that may be kept in each other's country or
information that we obtained from third parties."

Syed Hamid said Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was
likely to discuss terrorism and the need for greater ASEAN
cooperation with his Thai counterpart Thaksin Shinawatra during
his July 5-7 visit to Thailand.

It is Mahathir's first trip to Thailand since Thaksin was
elected in January last year.

ASEAN security ministers at a special meeting on terrorism in
Kuala Lumpur last month endorsed the use of preventive laws to
fight the scourge but failed to agree on the definition of
terrorism.

They also lauded the pact among Malaysia, Indonesia and the
Philippines to combat terrorism but stopped short of mapping out
a regional agreement.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.