May 31st 2002
By Alexander Nicoll
In June 1986, Paul Wolfowitz was in his office in the US embassy in Jakarta discussing preparations for July 4 celebrations when a mortar bomb set by a Japanese Red Army terrorist landed in the courtyard.
The bomb did not go off. But the former ambassador, now the US deputy secretary of defence, recalled the incident on Friday as he prepared to tell an Asian security conference in Singapore that the war on terrorism was not just America's war, but one for the whole world - and notably, for more than half a billion Muslims living in the Pacific basin region.
The weekend conference, organised by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, is intended for frank speaking, or as frank as can be achieved in the polite world of Asian diplomacy. The aim is to recreate for Asian defence officials and experts the informal atmosphere of the annual Munich security conference at which issues affecting Europe are discussed.
In an interview on Friday, Mr Wolfowitz indicated he at least would not hold back. He is known for his hawkish views within the Bush administration on how to deal with Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi president. However, when speaking on Saturday he belied the image of a rightwing Washington going its own way in the world, the deputy defence secretary emphasised strong commitment to Asian security and to a continued US role in maintaining it.
Mr Wolfowitz told Asian countries that the efforts of terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda were "a war against all of us. Terrorism is no stranger to Asia".
"I do believe we've gotten good co-operation, but at the same time, I have a sense they think this is our problem in which they're helping us - and I believe it's important for them to understand it's their problem in which they are helping themselves," he said.
Terrorist acts committed in the name of Islam, he said, were aimed principally at recruiting Muslims "to a cause that tries to condemn a billion Muslims to a medieval view of the world". Many of those Muslims were in Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and China, as well as the countries of the Asian subcontinent, he noted.
Mr Wolfowitz made it clear he felt leaders of many Muslim countries had not done enough to condemn the September 11 attacks on the US, or to persuade their constituencies that their best interests found no echo in the aims of al-Qaeda. However, he acknowledged it was difficult for Muslim to express such opinions. "The penalties for opposing these terrorists can be particularly high if you live in a Muslim world and a Muslim community. They don't argue with their enemies, they kill their enemies."
President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan and Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia's prime minister, had "stepped up quite boldly", he noted. But some leaders in the Middle East could do more. "We are pushing them to do more," he added.
Others, meanwhile, were helping more quietly. "We're interested in real results, not merely rhetorical stances, but ... this is a battle of ideas and a battle for minds and that is affected by what people say."
Drawing on his experience of Indonesia, Mr Wolfowitz singled it out as an example of a country vulnerable to Islamic terrorists that could benefit from closer co-operation with the US.
Indonesia is among 60 or so countries where foreign terrorists have "found it convenient to hide or burrow away", he said. Furthermore, the background of communal violence in some parts of the country "creates conditions where populations become radicalised and in the process of becoming radicalised can become receptive to the most extreme kinds of doctrine", Mr Wolfowitz said.
He welcomed the recent arrest of Ja'far Umar Thalib, head of the Laskar Jihad group and a prominent Islamic leader, for inciting violence in the Moluccas region of Indonesia.
Laskar Jihad, Mr Wolfowitz said, promoted "Islamic-oriented" violence against minorities and Muslim moderates. Although Indonesian security forces had established themselves in another violence-torn region, Sulawesi, there were fears trouble could erupt again if they withdrew. "That's not good for human rights, not good for democracy in Indonesia, not good for denying Sulawesi as a training ground and sanctuary for terrorists."
With the Indonesian armed forces in desperate need of reform to adapt to democracy, Mr Wolfowitz held out the prospect of restoring military ties such as training officiers at US staff colleges, suspended in the 1990s because of the army's abusive behaviour in East Timor. "It would be invaluable if we could re-establish a better line of contact with the Indonesian military," he said. It was "perverse" that Indonesian officers had received US training when the country was under a dictatorship, but longer did so now it was a democracy.
However, US help in Indonesia would not extend to sending American troops, as in the Philippines.
