Pakistan is ASEAN's ally in war on terror

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.