SE Asian leaders may skirt U.S.-led strikes

SE Asian leaders may skirt U.S.-led strikes

P. Parameswaran, Agence France-Presse, Bandar Seri Begawan

Southeast Asian leaders will adopt a broad declaration condemning terrorism at their upcoming summit here but may skirt the prickly issue of U.S.-led air strikes in Afghanistan, officials said Saturday.

Indonesia and Malaysia, while condemning the deadly Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington, have criticized the retaliation in Afghanistan, saying it was killing innocent people without stamping out terrorism.

Aside from Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, leaders from Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam will attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit on Monday.

The two-part ASEAN leaders' declaration will comprise an "unequivocal condemnation of terrorism" and "a set of cooperative activities at the regional level to combat terrorism", ASEAN spokesman M.C. Abad said.

The leaders will also meet their counterparts from Japan, China and South Korea jointly and individually on Tuesday as part of the annual "ASEAN plus three" dialog.

A proposal for the "ASEAN plus three" leaders to also issue a joint anti-terrorism statement was shot down due to a lack of consensus, officials said.

Japan had made the hotly-debated proposal at a preparatory meeting among senior officials on Saturday and received strong backing from South Korea, the Philippines and Thailand, an ASEAN official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He did not say who objected to the plan.

Fuzi Razak, secretary general of the Malaysian foreign ministry, said "there is no consensus" among the senior officials.

Fuzi said however that the "ASEAN plus three" position on terrorism would be reflected in a statement of the chairman (Brunei) at the end of their meeting Tuesday.

ASEAN senior officials on Saturday refined a draft declaration by the Philippines condemning the U.S. attacks and seeking a common strategy to combat terrorism.

"The response (to the draft declaration) is promising and it will be adopted substantially," said Lauro Baja, Philippines undersecretary for foreign affairs.

Officials said the declaration would be unlikely to have any reference to Afghanistan or the U.S.-led military strikes there.

"This is about ASEAN cooperation against terrorism. ASEAN is not participating in (retaliatory attacks against) Afghanistan," said ASEAN secretary-general Rodolfo Severino.

The Taliban hardline Islamic regime in Kabul is accused by the U.S. of harboring Osama bin Laden, the main suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington.

While Muslim nations Indonesia and Malaysia have deplored the U.S.-led attacks, which have exacted casualties among Afghan civilians, Singapore and the Philippines gave full support to the strikes on Afghanistan.

Muslim Brunei, the current chairman of the ASEAN Standing Committee, is heading talks to hammer out the final declaration by the leaders, who will begin arriving here in the sultanate's capital on Sunday.

It was not immediately clear whether Malaysia and Indonesia would demand a clause in the declaration calling for a halt to U.S. strikes on Afghanistan during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan beginning in the middle of November.

Aside from the terrorism issue, the ASEAN leaders are expected to adopt a blueprint to fight the AIDS scourge, a proposal to set up the world's largest free trade area covering Southeast Asia and China, as well as the current regional economic downturn.