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."