Fight against terrorism is far from over

Fight against terrorism is far from over

Dmitry Kosyrev, Political Analyst, RIA Novosti, Moscow

If the situation in the so-called international counter-terror
coalition were normal, the explosions on the Indonesian resort
island of Bali could have become a subject of serious discussion
by the allies, who drafted plans of restoring order in
Afghanistan a year ago. But is the coalition alive yet or have
the U.S. plans of launching an all-out war against Iraq have torn
it to smithereens? And what should the countries that are facing
the choice between helping the U.S. in its war on Iraq, a war
whose goals and motives are questionable, and focusing attention
on a quite real and growing terrorist threat nearby, do?

Australia is one of these countries. It was believed in the
past few weeks that Canberra supported the U.S. plans with regard
to Iraq as enthusiastically as Britain does. In fact, the list of
enthusiasts was limited to these three countries. Other
countries, such as Bahrain and Kuwait, speak about their
involvement in the war on Iraq with great unwillingness and will
demand a great deal for their contribution. But now Canberra must
decide if it should fight against a Muslim country in the far-
away Middle East when the threat of Muslim extremism has moved
very close to Australia's door?

That the bulk of victims in the Bali disco clubs are
Australians was not quite a coincidence. The terrorists clearly
directed their blow, above all, at the government of Indonesia
and its tourist industry, with the white people as mere victims.
But there are more Australian than any other tourists in
Indonesia and South East Asia as a whole, simply because of
Australia's proximity to the region. Australia is certainly not
the U.S. but the rise of terrorism in the region is directly
threatening Australia not only as a U.S. ally. Relations between
Canberra and Jakarta have never been very good and they
deteriorated when Canberra supported the secession of East Timor
from Indonesia in 1999.

So, Australians are favorite targets for local terrorists.
Besides, quite a few Indonesian immigrants live on the fifth
continent and it is quite easy for terrorists to work among them,
if they wish to do this. If Canberra decides to support the U.S.
war on Iraq, the question will be as good as settled. Bush is far
away but Australia and Australians are close targets.

Who are the main suspects in the Bali terrorist acts? It has
become fashionable to blame everything on Jemaah Islamiyah, an
umbrella group that is operating throughout the region, in
particular in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.
It is an umbrella group because unlike purely local Islamic
zealots, Jemaah was set up in 1999 as the key regional structure
of the international terrorist web centered around al-Qaeda.

Its task was to coordinate the local jihad fighters and
guarantee centralized deliveries of weapons and money to them.
Omar al-Farouk, an al-Qaeda agent responsible in the organization
for South East Asia who has been recently detained by the
Americans, revealed many details about the Jemaah. It was his
testimony that prompted the Americans to close embassies in
several Southeast Asian countries a month ago, a year after the
September 11 tragedy in the U.S. The detained terrorist said
lorries loaded with explosives would be blown up at these
embassies. The explosives have not been found and were probably
used to stage terrorist acts in Bali.

The problems of Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri
are very similar to the problems of his Pakistani colleague,
Pervez Musharraf. It is a risky undertaking to clamp down on
local Islamists in a country with most Islamic population --
nearly hopeless if risked without international assistance. It
may cost the president his chair at best and possibly lead to
chaos and violence is several cities. As if chaos and violence
have been in short supply there.

In short, South East Asia should be cleansed of local
terrorist organizations. The war will not help. A long and
painstaking work is needed that calls for international efforts
and funds. Central Asia and Pakistan (where the recent elections
registered an incredible growth of the influence of local jihad
fighters) need the same medicine. And the situation in
Afghanistan, where the fight against terrorism began in the first
place, is not optimistic either. Not to mention the recent
terrorist act against U.S. servicemen in Kuwait or the explosion
of the Limbourg supertanker off Yemen. Even the richest and
strongest countries of the world have problems.

Of course, the world could have left Afghanistan and bin Laden
alone a year ago. We could have waited until friends of the
Taliban seized power in Tajikistan or Pakistan or in some of
their provinces, and more skyscrapers crumbled down in the U.S.
But since the war has begun, we must not stop it now; we must not
leave individual countries alone in their struggle against the
rearing terrorist snakes. And, most importantly, the fight
against terrorism must not be replaced with a war launched to
resolve the problems of American economy, in particular oil
prices and control of the Middle East, something which the Bush
administration is trying to do now.