SE Asian states form antiterror committee
SE Asian states form antiterror committee
Agence France-Presse, Manila
The Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand on Thursday agreed to form a joint committee that will boost multilateral cooperation against terrorism and other transnational crimes.
The decision to create the committee came at the end of a three-day security conference in Manila that was aimed at fine- tuning multilateral responses to terrorism hosted by the Philippines' National Security Adviser Roilo Golez.
The committee will provide "policy guidance" in the implementation of projects and establish a framework for cooperation in exchanging information and setting up communication procedures in the fight against terrorism.
Aside from terrorism, the joint committee will also handle other crimes like "piracy, money laundering, smuggling and gun- running," Golez said in a statement.
He did not say if this joint committee would have a permanent headquarters and where it would be located.
Golez earlier said security chiefs in the region were mulling the creation of an ASEAN center where intelligence information on threats could be assessed.
Regional security chiefs will also meet in Jakarta next Monday to discuss proposals for a joint-task force aimed at combating terrorism, Indonesian National Police Secretary for Interpol, Brig. Gen. Nanan Sukarna, said.
The three-day meeting would hopefully produce "a mechanism for a joint task force that can investigate terror-related crimes and agree on a procedure for the extradition of terror suspects" among 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as from other nations, Sukarna said.
The five Southeast Asian nations who took part in the Manila exercise forged an anti-terror pact last year, binding them to boost intelligence cooperation to fight terrorism. The five are all ASEAN members along with Brunei, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore and Vietnam.
Those left out from the committee acted as observers but had shown "keen interest" in joining the region's counter-terrorism pact, Golez said.
The terrorist bombings in Bali, Indonesia last year and a spate of attacks in the Philippines have highlighted the need for greater cooperation to crack down on suspected terrorist groups in the region who are believed to have formed links for attacks across borders.
Singapore last week linked the southern Philippines-based Muslim separatist group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) terror group, which has been blamed for the Bali attack.
Regional authorities said the JI's ultimate aim was to establish a caliphate comprising Malaysia, Indonesia, southern Philippines and Singapore.