Malaysia set to launch antiterror center

Malaysia set to launch antiterror center

Agencies, Kuala Lumpur

A Southeast Asian antiterrorism center that was proposed by the
United States will begin operating in Malaysia before the end of
the year, a diplomat heading the project said on Monday.

Malaysia has picked a senior diplomat to head a regional
antiterrorism center which it hopes to launch by the end of the
year in partnership with the United States, reports said on
Monday.

Zainal Abidin Zain, the foreign ministry undersecretary for
Southeast Asia and Pacific, has been appointed director-general
of the center, Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar was quoted as
saying by The Star.

"We will launch our programs very soon ... definitely before
2003 is over," Zainal Abidin told Associated Press.

Malaysia said last year it would host the center after U.S.
President George W. Bush spoke about the idea during a meeting
with Southeast Asian leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation forum in Mexico.

But Kuala Lumpur's staunch opposition to the U.S.-led war in
Iraq subsequently raised questions about whether the center
should be moved elsewhere. However, officials in this
predominantly Muslim country stressed they remained committed to
the fight against terrorism.

Syed Hamid said on Sunday that the center would be run like an
institute, holding training programs, workshops and seminars to
help the region implement antiterrorism measures.

Zainal Abidin said officials were in the final stages of
identifying a headquarters in Kuala Lumpur for the center and
recruiting support staff, who would initially comprise Malaysians
only.

He said Malaysia would foot the bill of setting up the
facility, but other governments, including those outside
Southeast Asia, might be invited to help fund and participate in
future programs.

Deputy Defense Minister Shafie Apdal has said the United
States may offer some financial assistance to set up the center
and "if it does, we will accept it".

Experts from around the world will serve as instructors at the
center, which will be open to all 10 members of the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) when it is launched.

Southeast Asian leaders have stepped up cooperation against
terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States,
last year's Oct. 12 nightclub bombings on Indonesia's Bali island
and a series of bomb attacks in the Philippines.

Malaysia and Singapore have detained without trial scores of
suspected militants from Jamaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaeda-linked
extremist group suspected in the Bali bombings and accused of
plotting attacks on U.S. embassies and other diplomatic missions
in Southeast Asia. Suspected members have also been arrested in
the Philippines.

Malaysia was one of Asia's leading critics of the Iraq war,
warning it would kill innocent Iraqis, fuel international
terrorism and worsen the global economy.