Terrorist war shifts to Southeast Asia

Terrorist war shifts to Southeast Asia

Don Pathan, The Nation, Asia News Network, Bangkok

With the arrival of U.S. troops in the southern Philippines to
advise local troops in their fight against separatist Abu Sayyaf
guerrillas, and the announcement by the Thai police chief that
violent attacks may be coming to Thailand, the focus of the war
on terrorism has effectively shifted to Southeast Asia.

Since the September 11 attack against the United States,
accusations have surfaced linking armed Muslim groups in
Southeast Asia to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda, making headlines
here and there.

At the moment, Jakarta is trying to clarify the status of
Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, allegedly the chief bombmaker and a key
leader of Jemaah Islamiya. Authorities said the group has cells
operating in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

The Philippines police said alGhozi, who was arrested on
January 15, went to Singapore in October to "assist in the
preparation for the bombing of the U.S. and Israeli embassies,
the Australian and British high commissions, U.S. companies and
military installations".

The planned attacks were derailed when Singaporean authorities
tracked down a unit of 13 plot members. A videotape recovered by
the authorities supported the allegation that the men were
plotting to take out the targets.

Moreover, in a related incident, 15 members of the Jemaah
group were arrested in Malaysia just weeks before the Singaporean
incident.

In Thailand, the order to step up security came after the Thai
Embassy in Kuwait obtained information that airline offices of
some Western countries, as well in Saudi Arabia, Thailand,
Malaysia and Singapore could come under attack.

What's nerve racking for the security community here is that
the announcement came just days after these series of arrests.
The crackdown came as a rude awakening for the diplomatic
community here, as well as the country's security agencies.

Moreover, the confirmation that eight of 13 members of Jemmah
arrested in Singapore had received training in al-Qaeda training
camps in Afghanistan reinforced the growing fear that a bin
Ladenstyle global jihad has been taking root in the region.

However, not all are convinced that regional radical groups
share bin Laden's global aim -- the destruction of the U.S. and
its allies by any means necessary.

Jemmah Islamia's notion of paradise on earth may include
renegade chunks of Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Nevertheless, it is still a far cry from bin Laden's ambitious
agenda of a global jihad, argued Donald Emmersen, a scholar at
Stanford University's AsiaPacific Research Centre, at a recent
hearing at the U.S. Congress.

He maintained that the armed Muslim groups in the region were
not "capable of, or even interested in, acquiring 'global reach'
in the sense of threatening the United States, despite the
continued captivity of two American missionaries at the hands of
Abu Sayyaf".

Consider the Laskar Jihad, whose stated mission is to defend
Muslims against what they called "Christian attacks" in
Indonesia's Maluku and Sulawesi islands. Despite the high body
counts in these two places, the attacks should be understood in
the context of Indonesia's communal violence along with
atrocities committed against the East Timorese, and attacks
against Chinese communities.

Thailand's Muslim separatists in the Deep South, as well as
the secessionist movement in the Indonesia province of Aceh,
should be perceived in the same light.

Moreover, there is no evidence to suggest that these two armed
separatist groups are part of any global movement aimed at
creating an ummah, the classical definition of Islamic
"community" that inspires other radical groups such as al-Qaeda.

Thai Muslims may be sympathetic to bin Laden but their actions
have not gone beyond shouting antiAmerican slogans in front of
the U.S. Embassy or a campaign to stop buying American goods.

As with the Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines, the ongoing clashes
between the Aceh Freedom Movement (GAM) and the Indonesian armed
forces centre on territorial control. There is nothing to suggest
that these two Muslim groups are looking to expand their
operations or ambitions beyond their selfproclaimed boundaries.

Perhaps this helps to explain why not all people, Muslim and
nonMuslim, are jumping with joy at the idea that some 600
American troops are in the southern Philippines, supposedly on a
mission to "advise" local troops in their fight against the Abu
Sayyaf.

Street protests in the Philippines -- as well as the Thai
Muslim opposition against Thailand's permission to allow the U.S.
troops to use its military installations -- point to the fact
that many here are not comfortable with the presence of American
troops in their backyard, much less with any suggestion of
opening up a second front against terror in Southeast Asia.

For the time being, regional governments here are taking
matters one day at a time and making the best out of the
situation.

Malaysia has been clamping down on members of the opposition,
including the son of the spiritual leader of the opposition party
PAS who has been charged with carrying out a bomb attack.
However, not all are convinced that the allegation is not
politically motivated.

It is not sure if "Mahathir's crackdown against his Muslim
opponents reflects their potential for violence more than his
appetite for control", Emmerson said.

The Philippines, meanwhile, has managed to obtain some
military hardware from the U.S. in their fight against Abu Sayyaf
separatists, not to mention welcoming American troops to the
troubleplagued region.

Aware of the benefit that the country, as well as its armed
forces, could gain from making friends with the United States,
Indonesian President Megawatti Soekarnoputri, leader of the
world's largest Muslim country, made perhaps the most important
trip of her presidency when she visited Washington to pledge her
support in the fight against global terrorism.

It remains to be seen if the ongoing development will evolve
into something more concerted and more collective in nature. But
if the scope of the violence expands beyond the traditional
boundaries and stated aims of the radical groups here, regional
governments will be hardpressed to take up something that they
have never done before -- working together as if their lives
depended on it.