June 3rd 2002
Some of Region’s Countries Indicate Reluctance at Making Washington’s Fight Their Leading Priority
By Barry Wain
At an unprecedented meeting of Asia’s defense ministers in Singapore, differences emerged between the U.S. and some regional countries over the Washington-led war on terrorism.
U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz arrived on Friday at the inaugural, three-day Asian Security Conference organized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, and said Asians are threatened as much as Americans by organizations such as Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network. Terrorism is the “single greatest threat to peace and freedom in our time,” he said.
But many Asian states apparently aren’t prepared to treat the war on terrorism as a new Cold War and give it overwhelming priority, as the U.S. is urging. Delegates, including U.S., British and Japanese legislators, as well as European officials and independent security experts, expressed as much concern about other issues, ranging from possible nuclear war between India and Pakistan, to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the difficulties of engaging a rogue North Korea.
In his remarks, Mr Wolfowitz said that while New York and Washington – the targets of the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks – might be thousands of miles away, terrorists have Asia in their sights as well.
“This scourge of terrorism threatens us all,” he said. “It threatens hundreds of millions of moderate Muslims in East Asia who are among the principal targets of the terrorists.”
Singapore, which has arrested 13 members of an al Qaeda-linked group that allegedly was plotting to blow up U.S. military interests in the city-state, supported Mr Wolfowitz. Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew warned that keyleaders of the group are still at large in the region and said: “A Muslim terrorist is more potent operating transnationally than a communist terrorist.”
But Indonesian Defense Minister Matori Abdul Djalil said that combating terrorism constitutes only one priority for Jakarta, which is trying to make the transition from an authoritarian system to a democracy while dealing with a weak economy. Also no the national agenda, he said, is maintaining territorial integrity – a reference to independence movements in Aceh and West Papua – and resolving ethnic and religious conflicts.
Although Mr Wolfowitz and Mr Lee stressed that the war on terrorism isn’t directed against Islam, Mr Matori said Muslims fear it will become a world-wide assault on Islam and the Muslim community. He also said the countering terrorism requires “a careful and comprehensive” approach, aimed at addressing both the symptom and root causes of the problem. “In many cases, a security approach alone isn’t enough,” he said.
Malaysian Defense Minister Mohamad Najib Tun Abdul Razak also pointed to the need to remedy the underlying conditions that breed terrorism. While stressing that the terrorist threat to Southeast Asia is “real”, he said the global fight against terror should be accompanied by a global war against injustice, poverty and underdevelopment.
“The psychological traumatization of the American public and the U.S. administration was the major impact of Sept. 11,” said Brian Job, a Canadian strategic analyst. “That simply doesn’t translate abroad – not even to Europe, let alone to Asia.”
Defense ministers or their representatives from 22 countries, including China, Japan and Russia, gathered for the first time at the invitation of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and agreed to meet again next year.
Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes attended the inaugural conference despite the crisis with Pakistan, after initially deciding to stay at home. He said he was persuaded to travel to Singapore by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and other cabinet colleagues.
