KL to open regional antiterrorism center

KL to open regional antiterrorism center

Reuters, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia, in cooperation with the United States, will open an antiterrorism center next week as part of a drive by Southeast Asian nations to combat militancy, Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said on Tuesday.

Police and the military will not be involved in the center, which will focus on studies of terrorist organizations, and give instruction on border security and how to deal with the aftermath of a terrorist attack, officials said.

Washington proposed last year that Malaysia host a center, after thanking Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad for his government's help in the war on terror after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

Ties between the two have become strained since then, but they maintain strong defense and security links.

Mahathir, a strident critic of the U.S.-led attack on Iraq, accused the West on last Thursday of using the 2001 attacks on the United States as an excuse to return to "violent old ways" and attack Muslim nations.

Malaysian officials say the U.S. threatened in March to withdraw Ambassador Marie Huhtala after anti-U.S. remarks by Mahathir. In May, Huhtala said Washington found some statements by Malaysian leaders "offensive".

Malaysia decided to fund the center on its own rather than risk stoking antiU.S. sentiment among the majority Muslim Malay population, but it still took U.S. help.

"Subsequently with their cooperation and necessary personnel expertise from the U.S., we have established what is called Southeast Asia Regional Center for Counter-Terrorism," Syed Hamid told reporters.

Malaysia has arrested close to 90 suspected militants since early 2001, the bulk of them on suspicion of belonging to Jamaah Islamiyah, a shadowy regional group whose leadership has ties to al-Qaeda, according to police.

Jamaah Islamiyah is accused of being behind the Bali bomb attacks last year, which killed more than 200 people, most of them Western tourists. It is fighting to create a conservative Islamic state across Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, the southern Philippines and southern Thailand.

But there are many other militant groups in the region besides Jamaah Islamiyah.

The center, to be officially opened on July 1, is primarily for officials from the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN).