`Asian nations must brace for retaliation from terrorists'

`Asian nations must brace for retaliation from terrorists'

Eileen Ng, Agence France-Presse, Karambunai, Malaysia

Asia must brace itself for retaliatory terrorist attacks on "soft targets" following the U.S.-led attack on Iraq, experts at a security meeting here warned on Friday.

As the Iraq war entered its second day, experts at an ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) conference on counter-terrorism and transnational crime called for the establishment of a common security standard and deeper links to deny terrorists room to operate.

The European Union's terrorism working group president, Dionyssos Sourvanos, said governments worldwide, especially in Asia, must keep a close watch on so-called soft targets such as holiday resorts, supermarkets and areas with a big Western presence.

"For the time being, the fear we have is that groups like the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) and the al-Qaeda would focus on soft targets, rather than heavy blow attacks although in the long-run or medium-term, we might expect something harder," he told reporters.

"Everything depends on the situation on the ground in Iraq... if the situation is very nasty, then we have to be careful also of other targets."

He said the tough task now for Asian governments was to ensure adequate security measures at their various tourist spots without scaring away visitors.

Japan's international counter-terrorism deputy director Kenichi Bessho, in a paper presented at the meeting, agreed terrorists were "shifting their targets to vulnerable facilities" and warned of the danger of weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of terrorists.

"The Asian region, the most dynamic and growing area, could attract terrorists as a possible target," he said, adding that it was "indispensable" for law-enforcement agencies in the region to boost cooperation.

Canada's deputy director of terrorism Peter Bates said Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network would exploit the war in Iraq to justify its activities.

"We are concerned that we will see an increase in terrorist activities," he said.

"Obviously groups like al-Qaeda are very well organized, well financed and very dedicated to the mayhem that they are creating. We are all vulnerable and what we need to do is to develop a common standard of security worldwide."

Apart from the al-Qaeda-linked JI network, Australia's newly appointed ambassador for counter-terrorism Nick Warner said groups such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines, as well as the Malaysian Militant Group also posed threats.

In his paper, he said the ARF must put in place a solid network of arrangements to close all gaps and "deprive terrorists of the space in which to operate."

With porous borders and identity and document fraud a key problem, Warner called for tighter controls on movement into and through countries.

He also urged the region to increase law enforcement, redouble efforts to cripple terrorist financing and improve intelligence sharing.

Warner defended Australia's move to join the war, telling reporters that the removal of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein would "lessen the threat of growing international terrorism." Robert Pollard, the deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Kuala Lumpur, called for more extensive information sharing and other activities to "make sure we can keep terrorists on the run."

Since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, he said, 68 countries had detained 1,600 suspected al-Qaeda members. But more must be done to ensure terrorists cannot exploit "gaps between nations," he said.

Pollard is heading the delegation after Cofer Black, the counter-terrorism head in the US state department, canceled his trip here due to the war.

A total of 118 delegates from 19 countries are participating in the two-day ARF talks focusing on border and document security.