| Submit your comments on this article |
| Southeast Asia |
| Asian nations discuss fight against terrorism in the region |
| 2007-03-05 |
| Indonesian prisons are a weak link in the country's fight against terrorism, with militants often emerging more organized and committed to violence than before they were jailed, a top anti-terror official said Monday. Gen. Ansyad Mbai made the remarks on the sidelines of a six-nation conference aimed at strengthening cooperation in the fight against terrorism in Southeast Asia. "The prisoners should be treated specially; they should be split up from one another," Mbai told reporters. "We must not allow them to become united, stronger and more radical while they are in jail." He noted a recent case in which Indonesian police seized a laptop from a notorious militant who they said used it to communicate with sympathizers outside the prison. Countries represented at the meeting included the Philippines, which is fighting the Abu Sayyaf Islamic militant group, Thailand, where militants are engaged in a bloody campaign for an Islamic state in the south, and Malaysia and Singapore, which have both locked up scores of militants in recent years. The Australian and Indonesian foreign ministers said nations had made progress against Islamic terrorism in the region, but that radicals were continually changing tactics and remained a threat. "We have foiled terrorist plots, captured and prosecuted terrorists and disrupted their networks, but they are still out there," said Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. "Even as our capacity to stop them improves, their methods and abilities become more sophisticated." Indonesia has arrested and prosecuted almost 200 militants with direct or supporting roles in attacks on its soil, the most deadly being the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, 88 of them Australian tourists. "We owe it to our citizens to wage an effective battle against terrorism," said Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda, adding more regional cooperation was needed to "counter the clever and seductive propaganda of the terrorists." |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #1 Some of these prisons defy belief. No discipline, and prisoners do whatever they want. It doesn't help that the guards get paid peanuts and are open to bribery. |
| Posted by: gromky 2007-03-05 06:38 |