Indonesia praised for killing Azahari
Indonesia praised for killing Azahari
Agencies, Busan, South Korea
United States President George W. Bush and Southeast Asian leaders congratulated Indonesia on Friday for killing of one of Asia's top terrorist suspects, but stressed that vigilance would be needed to stop other militants who continue to plot attacks, officials said.
Terrorism was high on the agenda when Bush met Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and six other Southeast Asian leaders on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Busan, South Korea.
During their meeting, the leaders talked about the killing of Malaysian terrorist suspect Azahari bin Husin in an Oct. 9 police raid on his hide-out in Batu, East Java.
Azahari was an alleged leader of the al-Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian terrorist group Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), and suspected of playing a key role in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people and the deadly restaurant bomb attacks on the same island last month.
"Everybody congratulated President Yudhoyono but they also said 'this, by no means, is the end of it. We should continue, we should get the other people who are involved,"' Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo, who attended the meeting, told The Associated Press.
Stopping Azahari was "a success, but we need more performance together, and that we can do by sharing resources, intelligence, working together," Romulo cited the leaders as saying.
On Thursday, Susilo told a business gathering on the sidelines of the summit that "Azahari's demise is the most significant counterterrorism achievement this year for Indonesia."
He said Indonesia would "relentlessly hunt down" other terrorists, including Azahari's key accomplice Noordin Mohamad Top.
In another development, the U.S. and the major economies of Southeast Asia agreed to work on signing a regional trade agreement and encouraging wider private U.S. investment.
In a statement issued in Busan, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) said the group plans to negotiate a "trade and investment" pact. There was no timetable set.
ASEAN includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Combined, they have 500 million people and gross domestic product totaling $737 billion. It also includes Myanmar, which the U.S. criticizes for having a brutal human-rights record.
The U.S. and ASEAN members will "enhance economic cooperation," on issues "including but not limited to trade and investment facilitation" and "undertake missions and measures to strengthen the investment climate in ASEAN, thereby encouraging U.S. investment into the region," the statement said.
President George W. Bush, whose administration refers to Myanmar by its previous name, Burma, said in a speech Nov. 16 in Japan that Myanmar "should be one of the most prosperous and successful in Asia but is instead one of the region's poorest." Bush is halfway through a four-country trip through Asia to reassert U.S. influence in the region and strengthen political and economic ties.
Myanmar, a country of 42 million people, has been under international sanctions since the military nullified elections won by the National League in 1990. The military has ruled Myanmar for 42 years.
"The result is that a country rich in human talent and natural resources is a place where millions struggle simply to stay alive," Bush said in the speech. "The people of Burma live in the darkness of tyranny -- but the light of freedom shines in their hearts."