Southeast Asian partners work to curb terror threat
Reuters
Southeast Asian nations plan to use spy planes and drones to stem the movement of militants across their porous borders, defense officials said in early June 2017, as concerns rise over the growing clout of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the region.
Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines said they will launch joint air patrols this month at their shared boundaries in the Sulu Sea, in addition to existing maritime patrols.
Authorities in the region have urged greater cooperation to counter the fallout from a raging battle with ISIS-linked militants in the southern Philippines, the biggest warning yet that the ultra-radical group is building a base in Southeast Asia.
“Our open borders are being exploited by terrorist groups to facilitate personnel and materiel,” Le Luong Minh, Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), told the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
The region is home to 600 million people and includes Indonesia, which has the world’s highest number of Muslims. Authorities in Indonesia and Malaysia, also Muslim-majority, have said thousands of their citizens are sympathizers of ISIS, and hundreds have traveled to Syria to join the extremist group.
Indonesian authorities blamed ISIS for bombings in May 2017 that killed three police officers, the latest in a series of low-level attacks by the militants in the past 17 months.
In recent months, dozens of fighters from Indonesia and Malaysia have crossed from their countries to Mindanao in the southern Philippines, intelligence officials have said, passing through waters that have often been lawless and plagued by pirates. Mindanao is the one region in the largely Catholic Philippines to have a significant Muslim minority. (Pictured: A Malaysian naval officer stands in front of a patrol boat in Port Klang.)
ASEAN made a joint pledge with the United States on the sidelines of the Shangri-La forum to help the Philippines overcome the militant assault in the city of Marawi.
“What featured quite strongly in the U.S.-ASEAN meeting was the pledge by both U.S. and ASEAN members that we stand ready to help the Philippines … whether it’s information, intelligence or otherwise,” said Singaporean Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen.
Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, with the assistance of neighboring Singapore, have carried out joint maritime patrols in the Sulu Sea since last year after a series of kidnappings by the pro-ISIS Abu Sayyaf Group.
“We decided at least these three countries, to avoid being accused of doing nothing … we’re doing joint maritime and air patrols,” said Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, adding that the air patrols will be launched June 19.
“If we do nothing, they get a foothold in this region.”
Indonesian Defence Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu said his country will consider deploying drones and surveillance planes at its borders with the Philippines. The measures come amid concerns that fighters may try to escape the military offensive in the Philippines and flee to neighboring countries.
“We believe the elements involved in the Marawi clashes may try to escape through the southern Philippines and head either for Malaysian or Indonesian waters,” said Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, Malaysia’s counterterrorism police chief. “This is one of their only ways out.”
