RP, Australia approve closer anti-terror cooperation

SYDNEY — Australia may send more police to the Philippines for counter-terror operations, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday after signing a pact strengthening security ties between the two nations.

Speaking before the inaugural Philippine-Australia ministerial meeting in Sydney, Downer said he had been impressed with the efforts of Australian officers in the Philippines so far and hinted that the government would send more.

"It’s something we are going to spend more time talking with Filipino officials about," he said.

"We do already have some Australian Federal Police in the Philippines working with their Filipino counterparts in one way or another. To be honest with you, we mutually agree that where it’s possible to enhance that cooperation, it’s a good thing."

Australian police revealed in June that they had been involved for almost a year in a covert operation in the Philippines to crush Muslim extremist networks and stop the spread of terrorism in the region.

The police were deployed after the Philippines called for assistance following the bombing of a ferry in Manila Bay in February 2004, which killed more than 100 people.

Downer and Trade Minister Mark Vaile said discussions with Foreign Secretary Affairs Alberto Romulo and Trade and Industry Peter Secretary Favila focused on the threat of terrorism in the Asia-Pacific region.

The ministers shared assessments and reviewed bilateral counter-terrorism efforts, including Australia’s AUS$10 million ($7.7 million) assistance package to the Philippines, the Australian ministers said in a statement.

"Recognizing the efforts of the Philippine government to eradicate terrorist groups in the Philippines, our two countries are working closely together in a range of areas including law enforcement, maritime security and anti-money laundering cooperation," it said.

New high-level consultations between both nations’ counter-terrorism agencies will be established, and cooperation in border control and transport security will be expanded, it said.

The ministers also discussed expanding the bilateral trade and investment relationship, particularly in the Philippine mining sector.

Romulo said his country was ready to prevent foreign suicide bombers carrying out attacks, after reports Indonesian bombers may be in the capital city and more were on the way.

"While we are concerned about these so-called suicide bombers we are ready for them," Romulo told Reuters on Friday in Sydney, where he was holding talks with Australia’s foreign minister.

Indonesian suicide bombers might already be in Manila planning attacks on four targets with members of the homegrown Muslim rebel group Abu Sayyaf, Philippine national security adviser Norberto Gonzales said on Thursday.

On Wednesday, 26 people were wounded in two bombings in the southern Philippine city of Zamboanga. Authorities suspect the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group was behind the attack.

Gonzales said there were reports 10 suicide bombers had been sent to the Philippines and that the country could become a "major target" in a global expansion of militant violence.

However, Romulo dismissed suggestions the Philippines could replace Indonesia as the focus of international terrorism in Southeast Asia.

"Definitely not. We work closely with all our neighbors in the Asian region and we are effective in repelling them," he said, adding there was "no frontline" in the fight against terrorism in Southeast Asia. "That is why we have to exercise eternal vigilance in the region," Romulo said. "It is not like before, when you had state aggression, in this kind of warfare it is non-state — there are no country delineations, no state delineations.

"That is why there is this need for regional co-operation and involvement is very urgent," he said.

Indonesia has borne the brunt of terrorist attacks in Southeast Asia in recent years.

In 2002, the bombing of two nightclubs on the Indonesian resort island of Bali killed 202 people, many of them foreign tourists. It was, at the time, the worst militant attack anywhere in the world since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

Indonesia was hit again when a blast at the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta killed 12 in August 2003 and again with a suicide car bombing outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta in 2004 which killed 10 people, all of them Indonesian.

Indonesia has blamed Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian militant network, for the bombings.

In the Philippines, Abu Sayyaf has mainly been known for kidnappings for ransom before being blamed for deadly bombings in February and a blast on a ferry a year earlier that was the country’s worst terror attack. — AP, AFP