RI to host counterterrorism center: Downer

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.