Pakistan is ASEAN's ally in war on terror

Siswo Pramono, Deputy Director for Global Organization, Indonesian Foreign Ministry, Jakarta

The recent improvement in relations between Pakistan and India could pave the way for Pakistan's participation in the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).

ASEAN should invite Pakistan to join regional efforts to suppress terrorism. The strategic interests of both sides are at stake.

The security of both ASEAN nations and Pakistan is undermined by terrorism. In Pakistan, terrorists have claimed at least 537 lives in the past three years. President Pervez Musharraf narrowly escaped a second assassination bid in December last year. In Indonesia, a single terrorist attack in Bali on Oct. 12, 2002 claimed 202 lives, adding to the death toll of previous attacks in this country.

While many terrorist groups in ASEAN countries and Pakistan are home grown, globalization helps them network internationally. An International Crisis Group (ICG) report suggests "linkages" between Southeast Asian and Pakistani terrorists:

o Many suspected terrorists in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Pakistan are the veterans of the Afghan war of independence (but this by no means suggests that all Afghan veterans are terrorists);

o Many Southeast Asian terrorists were once trained in jihad- ist camps in Pakistan. The ICG has listed the names of about 70 Afghan alumni who originated from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore;

o As the flow of Saudi funds was disrupted and the Afghan war turned into inter-factional wars, the training centers of Southeast Asian mujahidin were moved from Pakistan to Mindanao, in the Philippines;

o The governments of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Pakistan have tightened their grip around terrorist groups -- in Southeast Asia, about 200 suspected terrorists were arrested -- but they cannot control religious extremism;

o In both in Indonesia and Pakistan, religious extremism has been exploited by terrorist groups to promote their cause and has aggravated various sectarian conflicts in both countries -- Christian-Muslim conflicts in Maluku, Indonesia and Sunni-Shia conflicts in Baluchistan, Pakistan;

o The arrest in September last year by Pakistani authorities of 13 Malaysian and 6 Indonesian students for suspected ties with religious extremists indicated the extent of the link between extremists in Pakistan and those in some ASEAN countries.

Because terrorist groups in ASEAN and Pakistan are interlinked regional cooperation is necessary to suppress them. But such cooperation faces constraints.

Right now, both ASEAN and Pakistan lack the resources to deal with modern-day terrorists, who have successfully tapped into the benefits of globalization. Modern transportation and communications systems make it increasingly easier for terrorists to acquire weapons, transfer funds, propagate their ideologies and set up international networks.

However, modern terrorists are by no means invincible and nation states must take advantage of opportunities to overcome them.

In South Asia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, and Pakistan in 1987 developed the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Its Regional Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism took effective measures against terrorists by providing better arrangements for their extradition and prosecution.

This year, Pakistan hosted a SAARC meeting to set an additional protocol to the 1987 convention. This additional protocol criminalizes the provision, collection or acquisition of funds for the purpose of committing terrorism.

While in Southeast Asia anti-terrorist conventions are absent, ASEAN has developed an extensive regional political infrastructure to deal with terrorism. At Bali's Concord II meeting, countries pledged the full use of their powers to counter terrorists.

ASEAN's plan to combat terrorists is now sustained by three pillars: the South East Asia Regional Centre for Counter- Terrorism (SEARCCT) in Kuala Lumpur, the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in Bangkok, and the coming Indonesia Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation (ICLEC).

Potential hotspots -- Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines -- have equipped themselves with national laws to combat terrorists.

As such, the proposed ASEAN-Pakistan cooperation should focus on extradition and intelligence cooperation. Focusing on extra- territorial investigations and mutual legal assistance is also necessary. With such arrangements, Indonesian police would be given access to investigate Indonesian citizens held in Pakistan on terrorist charges, and vice versa. The "Gun Gun case" is one such example. Gun Gun, whose real name is Rusmawan Gunawan, is the younger brother of Riduwan Isamuddin alias Hambali, the most wanted terrorist suspect, who was arrested last year.

ASEAN-Pakistan cooperation should help promote the teaching of jihad in the context of pluralism and tolerance. Civil societies and moderate ulemas of both sides should assert greater role in this.

It should be noted that, while difficult to implement, the Pakistani government has pledged to impose a madrasah reform plan (standardization of the religious curricula) with the aim of monitoring the activities of the madrasah. ASEAN should follow this Pakistani initiative.

The ARF would provide the best format for ASEAN-Pakistan anti- terrorism cooperation since the ARF's objective is to facilitate cooperation between ASEAN and its friends on regional security matters.

Pakistan's participation in Southeast Asian security is not something new. In 1954, Pakistan was already a member of the US- led Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). Thus, Pakistan was historically part of the then-Southeast Asian security community.

Now, with Bali Concord II, Southeast Asia is moving towards a new ASEAN security community. Following the Sept. 11, terrorism has always loomed high in the ARF agenda.

From the perspective of ASEAN, Pakistan's (in)ability to suppress terrorist groups operating in its borders will affect the peace and security of key ARF activities.

Pakistan's participation in ARF is thus not only necessary but also relevant. Pakistan meets the "criteria for participation" as adopted by the ARF in July 1996.

ASEAN-Pakistan cooperation is also one answer to the 10th ARF Ministerial Meeting in Phnom Penh last year, which called for the region to better coordinate against terrorism.

At best, ASEAN-Pakistan cooperation could completely eradicate terrorism in Southeast Asia.

The opinions stated above are solely those of the author.