RP calls for stepped up intelligence sharing

Sat, 11 Sep 2004, 00:00 WIB | Source: AP

Agencies
Manila/Kuala Lumpur

The Philippines on Friday urged Southeast Asian countries to step
up intelligence and information sharing, saying a deadly bombing
in Indonesia shows the terrorist threat continues.

"We may have continued to score big against terrorists, but
the attack at the Australian Embassy in Indonesia's capital
clearly indicates that the challenge is indeed far from over,"
presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said in a statement.

"There is need to further strengthen intelligence and
information-sharing across our regional neighborhood," he said.

Indonesian authorities have vowed to hunt down suspected
Muslim militants behind Thursday's blast, which killed nine
people and wounded 173.

Philippine troops and police went on full alert after the
blast amid fears of terrorism linked to the anniversary of the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

Lt. Gen. Alberto Braganza, commander of military troops in
metropolitan Manila, said soldiers have augmented police guarding
eight embassies - including the United States, Canadian, Japanese
and European Union missions - as well as the homes of three
ambassadors who requested added security. The Australian Embassy
is being guarded by a police security task force.

In a separate development, Malaysia tightened entry points on
Friday to keep watch for two long-sought Malaysian militants who
are believed to have built the car bomb that exploded outside
Australia's embassy in Indonesia.

Azahari Husin, a British-trained engineer, and Noordin
Mohammed Top disappeared from Malaysia three years ago during a
crackdown against the al-Qaeda-allied Jamaah Islamiyah terror
group.

They have since been linked to blasts on Indonesia's Bali
island that killed 202 people in October 2002, and to last year's
suicide bombing that killed 12 at the J.W. Marriott hotel in
Jakarta.

Malaysian security officials told The Associated Press on
condition of anonymity that surveillance at entry points -
already stepped up after the pair eluded an Indonesian dragnet
earlier this year - was being reinforced.

"We are also strengthening intelligence gathering with our
counterparts in the region to prevent a spillover from
Indonesia," an official said.

Azahari and Noordin are believed to be under the protection of
some JI supporters in Indonesia, but Malaysia has long suspected
they might try to return home.

Meanwhile, New Zealand offered police forensic investigators
to Indonesia on Friday in the wake of the bomb blast that killed
at least nine people outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta.

Prime Minister Helen Clark New Zealand was appalled by the car
bomb that exploded in front of the embassy building, killing nine
and wounding 173.

With a special focus on terrorism in Asia, Australia, Britain,
Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore began the largest joint
military drills in years on Friday.

Thirty-one naval ships, 60 military aircraft, two submarines
and 3,500 soldiers began the first of 16 days of exercises in the
South China Sea as part of an aggressive upgrading of a 30-year-
old Five Powers Defense Arrangements (FPDA) pact.

Thursday's bomb attack outside Australia's embassy in Jakarta
that killed nine people provided a bloody reminder of why the
pact, established in 1971 primarily to protect Malaysia and
Singapore from invasion, needed to be brought up to date.

"The horrific bombing in Jakarta yesterday is yet another grim
reminder that terrorism is a clear and present danger in this
region," Singapore's chief of defense, Ng Yat Chung, told
military staff from the five countries in a speech.

In a statement, Australian Ambassador Ruth Pearce said
security measures and procedures were further strengthened at the
embassy following the blast in Jakarta with security personnel at
the building housing the mission "exercising extra vigilance."
She did not elaborate.

Troops and plainclothes intelligence agents were deployed in
21 other strategic places in the capital, including shopping
malls, bus stations, ports and the business district, Braganza
said.

Sea marshals with bomb-sniffing dogs were boarding commercial
vessels leaving Manila to deter possible attacks by terrorists or
pirates, officials said.

The Philippines has been battling armed groups, including the
al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf, Marxist rebels and Muslim
separatists, and is considered a likely terror target.