RI to host counterterrorism center: Downer
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Monday that a counterterrorism center would be established in Jakarta to boost coordination and spearhead a multidimensional approach to eradicating terrorism in the region.
Downer also asked President Megawati Soekarnoputri to open a planned regional conference on counterterrorism early next year, which is being jointly organized by Indonesia and Australia.
"This will be a meeting among foreign ministers and police chiefs around the region, and the outcome of the coming meeting will be the establishment of a counterterrorism center here in Jakarta," said Downer, who was in town to address a security conference organized by the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP).
Downer further disclosed that the counterterrorism center aimed to encourage capacity building and cooperation among security officers in the region.
"We have talked about this with the President and we will be taking this forward in the coming conference," he said after a meeting with President Megawati.
The planned two-day conference is scheduled to be held in Bali on Feb. 4 and Feb. 5 and will be attended by regional states, including East Timor and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries.
Earlier, Downer said Australian and Indonesian police would cooperate in hunting down two alleged terrorists Azahari and Noordin Moh Top, who have been declared suspects in the Bali and JW Marriott Hotel bombings.
"We are providing assistance to the Indonesian police in the form of technical assistance and training," said Downer after meeting with National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar on Monday.
Meanwhile, a police officer commented that the death penalty handed down to terrorists in bombing cases couldn't stop terrorism from reemerging, because these terrorists would be glorified by a large number of people by the time they were executed, fomenting a new generation of terrorists.
"Remember -- when the body of (Fatur Rohman) Al Ghozi was sent home from the Philippines, thousands of people welcomed and accompanied his body to the cemetery. Nobody has dared since then to call him either a hero or a terrorist in the press," said Bali Police chief and former head investigator of the Bali bombing Insp. Gen. I Gusti Made Mangku Pastika on the sidelines of the CSCAP conference.
Al Ghozi was killed in October in a shoot-out with the Philippine military in the Southern Philippines. His body was sent to his family in East Java after a long controversial debate about how he was killed.
"So, law enforcement can't resolve terrorism, and will actually create another problem. Just wait until these three convicts are executed. I am afraid that they will be regarded as martyrs. Also, I see that the media treats them as heroes; this is a serious problem," said Pastika.
Amrozi, Ali Gufron and Imam Samudra have been sentenced to death for their key roles in the Bali bombings. The judicial process is still dragging on, because two of them have appealed to the high court, while one has appealed for presidential clemency. At least 202 people -- mostly foreign holidaymakers -- were killed and over 300 injured in the Bali bombings of October 2002.
"In my interviews with the suspects, I have come to the conclusion that they want to be heard and their concerns to be addressed, but they feel they have been neglected for a long time. This continuing marginalization creates frustration, which in turn can produce radicalism. This is the root of the problem," said Pastika.
He said the solution to the problem was to win the hearts and sympathy of Muslims so that Muslim leaders and the Muslim community would stand up against terror.