London blasts seen as valuable lesson for Southeast Asia

London blasts seen as valuable lesson for Southeast Asia

Dan Eaton, Reuters/Jakarta

Copycats could stage deadly London-style bombings in Southeast
Asia's major cities, many of which are ill equiped to deal with
such carnage, the secretary general of the region's main
political grouping said on Monday.

The July 7 London attacks serve as a valuable lesson to remain
alert for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),
which is battling its own forms of home-grown terrorism.

"Vigilance against such kinds of terrorist attack must be
maintained. We have many urban centers in the ASEAN region and
our public transport systems are just as vulnerable," ASEAN
Secretary General Ong Keng Yong told Reuters in an interview.

"At the moment, we are doing a lot of cooperation that we
cannot talk about publicly. But we have been active in at least
two things. One is educating each other about the modus operandi
of such groups. And two, how do we deal with a situation when it
actually happens?" he said.

"We can't prevent it. We try our best ... but if it happens we
must not let further damage be done. That's what we are working
on."

Ong, a Singapore national, said there was some concern of
"copycat actions" by militants in the region who had been
following events in London, and a key lesson should be for
governments to engage all parts of society.

"What happened in London is a very obvious example of how
people who have been part of society ... could be motivated (to
violence)," he said.

"So we need to engage our Muslim populations, our Islamic
authorities ... all the segments in the population."

Initial investigations in London revealed that four British
Muslims, the youngest only 18, blew themselves up in separate
attacks on three underground trains and a bus during the main
rush hour, killing more than 50 people.

Southeast Asia's most populous nation, Indonesia, is no
stranger to suicide attacks by home-grown militants, but most
have been aimed at Western targets using car bombs.

There have been a string of attacks in Indonesia in recent
years blamed on the al-Qaeda-linked Jamaah Islamiyah network,
including the Bali nightclub blasts in 2002 that killed 202
people, mostly foreign tourists.

Ong, speaking ahead of a security meeting of more than 20
Asia-Pacific foreign ministers, including those of the 10 ASEAN
members, in Laos, said the issue of terrorism would be a key
topic of discussion.

The ASEAN Regional Forum, which includes representation from
the United States and the European Union among others, is held
every year and is the region's primary security forum. ASEAN
groups Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines,
Brunei, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia and Cambodia.

Ong said the upsurge in violence in southern Thailand was
likely to be one of the issues of concern to ministers in Laos,
along with the threat that terrorists pose to the vital Malacca
Strait shipping lane.

He said ASEAN members were disappointed by Washington's
apparent decision not to send its top diplomat, Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice, to the meeting, but that the decision was
not seen reflecting changing security priorities.

"There is a feeling among ASEAN colleagues that maybe there is
a point being made," said Ong.

He said Washington may be partly registering concern over its
perception of a lack of democratic progress and poor human rights
records in some Southeast Asian countries.

"I think there could be a combination of factors. It would not
just be Myanmar. In the U.S. Congress there are also people
unhappy with Lao policy (on ethnic minorities) or Vietnamese
policy on religious freedom."