INDONESIA: Countries owe it to their citizens to wage an effective battle against terrorism, Indonesia's Foreign Minister says as security conference opens in Jakarta

Militant groups are devising new strategies to prevail as countries co-operate more closely, keeping victory against terrorism out of reach, Indonesia's Foreign Minister said on Monday. The comments came as Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda and his Australian counterpart Alexander Downer opened a Terrorism Conference in the Indonesian capital on Monday (March 5). Wirajuda did not spell out what the new tactics were, but experts say militants have found smarter ways to cross borders and battered groups seek to win popular support through charity and involvement in sectarian violence. He added: "As governments of countries under threat from terrorist networks, some of us have suffered the devastation of terrorists' carnage. We owe it to our own citizens to wage an effective battle against terrorism. For when terrorists are successful, they not only manage to kill large numbers of people, they also paralyse societies and destabilize political systems, and wreck economies." The two-day conference was chaired by Indonesia and Australia, which have worked closely ever since Muslim militants bombed nightclubs on Indonesia's resort island of Bali in 2002. Australians were the largest group that was killed in those attacks that left more than 200 dead, mostly foreign tourists. The four other participating countries were Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. The 2002 bombings have been blamed on Southeast Asian militant network Jemaah Islamiah (JI). Regional authorities believe it was also behind more recent major bombings. For the first time since 2000, Indonesia went a whole year in 2006 without a large-scale terror attack. However, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer warned against complacency. Downer said Muslim extremists like JI seek a world that bans the trappings of modern society. "We need to work together to prevent this kind of society, to reject this extremist ideology and to undermine the propaganda that the terrorists use to justify their acts and win support from vulnerable groups," he said. The meeting is a follow-up to a similar 2004 conference that produced the so-called Bali Counter-Terrorism Process. That included co-ordination in countering terrorist financing, investigations, prosecutions and intelligence-sharing. The co-operation has led to the prosecution of hundreds of militants in Indonesia, the killing of JI's alleged top bombmaker and the establishment of a regional counter-terrorism training centre for law enforcement officers. Border control, a headache for Southeast Asian governments given the region's history, shared language, and hard-to-defend sea borders, would be a a key discussion topic in the meeting, officials said. The six nations believe JI is bent on creating an Islamic state across their territories through a campaign of violence. Around 85 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people follow Islam, making it the world's largest Muslim population. Most Indonesian Muslims are moderates but there is a radical fringe that has been increasingly vocal and media-savvy.

ITN Source | March 5, 2007

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