June 20th 2002
Asia-Pacific countries are considering pooling their resources to cope with a devastating terrorist attack. The idea is to have procedures in place that could be invoked immediately to manage a crisis and help the population recover. Measures might include training, command-and-control arrangements, provision of serums and even sniffer dogs to locate trapped victims. A Terrorist Incident Management and Response Protocol was one of the few proposals to emerge from the recent Asia Security Conference, attended by regional defence ministers in Singapore. It was suggested by Australian defence specialist Ross Babbage, who said that a massive terrorist assault—such as the seven fertilizer truck bombs that a group of Islamic militants allegedly planned to detonate simultaneously in Singapore before they were arrested in December—would be “beyond the response capabilities of any country.” Other delegates supported the proposal and planned to circulate a paper to collect views for a draft protocol.
