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.