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).