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| Southeast Asia |
| Yudhoyono and Downer warn of JI threat |
| 2006-02-28 |
| The most dangerous terror groups are more resilient, creative and technologically savvy than ever, despite being driven further underground by the global security crackdown since Sept. 11, 2001, Indonesia's leader warned Monday. "Terrorists keep changing their strategies and tactics," Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the president of the world's most populous Islamic nation, in a speech to open an international counterterrorism conference. To keep up, governments must anticipate these changes and adapt to them before the terrorists have a chance to strike, he said. If the terrorists "try to think one step ahead, we must think two or three steps ahead," Yudhoyono told the conference in Jakarta, which brought together officials and experts from more than 40 nations. Law enforcement agencies across the region have arrested hundreds of terror suspects, including top Jemaah Islamiyah leaders. The group's chief bomb-making expert Azahari bin Husin was killed last November in a raid on an Indonesian hideout. But several key Jemaah Islamiyah leaders remain on the run, including Malaysian Noordin Top, its operational chief, and Dulmatin, an Indonesian electronics and explosives specialist who goes by only one name. "The fact that they are on the run does not make them any less dangerous," Yudhoyono said. They are "more adaptable, more resilient, more autonomous, more creative, more 'techno-minded' and more determined to launch spectacular attacks with no regard whatsoever for casualties," he said. Yudhoyono cited al-Qaida's use of jetliners as missiles in the Sept. 11 attacks as an example of the ingenuity of some terrorists' thinking. Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, whose people and embassy have been targeted by Jemaah Islamiyah attacks in Indonesia, said the recent adoption of the tactic of suicide bombings in Indonesia was a worrying trend. The willingness of "misguided young men" to strap bombs to their bodies makes the planning and execution of attacks easier for terrorist leaders and permits the militants "to portray themselves, and their acts, in heroic terms," Downer said. Conference participants said governments and religious leaders should make battling extremist Islamic thought a priority, and try to counter the militants' message that those who kill in the name of their faith will be rewarded in heaven. "We must not lose this battle for the hearts and minds," Yudhoyono said. "Yes, (terrorists) want to harm us, but they also want to radicalize our society, undermine our values, destabilize our community, because this is the best environment for them to grow." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |