Mahathir downplays suicide terrorism

Mahathir downplays suicide terrorism

Associated Press, Kuala Lumpur

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad played down the threat of suicide terrorism on Thursday, saying Malaysian police had three would-be suicide bombers under surveillance long before arresting them last week.

The three men were among four religious militants arrested in the southern state of Johor on suspicion of being part of a plot thwarted earlier this year to level the U.S., British and Australian embassies in Singapore with truck bombs.

Malaysian government officials have said the four - three Malaysians and a Singaporean - had escaped an initial sweep of dozens of suspects in December and January, but eventually returned to Malaysia to visit their families. It remains unclear when they returned.

"I am not surprised" by the arrests, Mahathir told reporters. "We have always known of their presence, except the police decided to pick them up later, because that is the way the police operate."

Mahathir said it would be "a cause for concern" if the whereabouts of the suspects hadn't been known.

Malaysian police have detained about 70 suspected militants since mid-2001, most of them members of Jamaah Islamiyah, a group allied to al-Qaeda that wants to establish a hardline Islamic state in Southeast Asia and has been blamed for a string of attacks and plots in the region.

Mahathir, one of Asia's longest-serving leaders, called them "misguided people."

"They believe that through democracy they cannot gain power in this country," Mahathir said. "So they went to Pakistan and Afghanistan and learned how to use force to take over the government."

"They came back, but they are not well-prepared for this kind of thing and very soon we detected them and knew what they are up to," he said. "So they are not going to be a threat to this country."

Jamaah Islamiyah has been blamed for the murderous Oct. 12 bombings in Bali, Indonesia, that killed nearly 200 people, mostly tourists.