June 1st 2003
SINGAPORE (AP) — U.S. and Southeast Asian defense chiefs said Sunday that security should be tightened to prevent terrorist attacks on ports and waterways, but a lack of resources is making the job difficult.
``With the hardening of land and aviation targets, the threat of terrorism is likely to shift to maritime targets, particularly commercial shipping,' Singapore Defense Minister Tony Tan told delegates at the second annual Asia Security Forum.
A lack of money and manpower have left many ports and waterways vulnerable, delegates said. In some cases, international joint inspection agreements had led to confusion over who had the jurisdiction to do certain tasks, they said.
U.S. Navy Pacific Command Admiral Thomas Fargo said U.S. navy ships patrol the U.S. West coast to support the Coast Guard because the civilian security agency lacks the resources to handle the terror threat alone.
The bombing of the USS Cole three years ago in Yemen, which killed 17 American sailors, put a spotlight on the need for greater port security, Tan said, adding that ships might also be used to transport weapons of mass destruction.
A ship-screening cooperation agreement between Singapore and the United States introduced last year to help combat terror has experienced minor difficulties, he said.
Singapore was the first Asian country to allow U.S. Customs officers to monitor ship manifests and flag high-risk ships for inspection by port authorities. Singapore uses searches and gamma-ray technology to examine the contents of containers.
The arrangement created some confusion over who had authority in Singapore's port, Tan said.
``There are problems of sovereignty in the posting of U.S. Customs in our port, the infringement of Singapore's sovereignty,' Tan said.
However, he said he was confident the jurisdiction issues would be resolved and that the initiative would be ``a firm feature of world shipping in coming years.'
Australian Defense Minister Robert Hill said the terror threat in Southeast Asia had been underestimated.
Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaida linked group blamed for the Bali bombings in October last year that killed 202 people, mostly tourists, is ``clearly much larger and more capable than we initially realized,' Hill said.
In the Philippines, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front separatist group has been accused of killing 210 people in attacks this year — although the group denies involvement in a series of bombings there.
Hill said last month's bombings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which killed 25, and Casablanca, Morocco, which left 31 dead, serve as warnings that terrorists have not been defeated.
``We have made progress against al-Qaida ... and other terrorist organizations,' said Hill. ``But the recent terrorist atrocities in Riyadh, Casablanca and the Philippines — and continuing arrests around the world — show that while weakened and disrupted there are not yet defeated.'
Robert O'Neill, chairman of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said more information sharing between nations is necessary to better combat terror.
``The terrorist network should be matched by a superior one between governments,' O'Neill said. ``No government can fight terror effectively alone.'
He said the region needs a shared database of ``terrorist activities, personalities, practices and supporters both within the region and outside it.'
The Singapore conference brings together around 20 defense chiefs from the Asia-Pacific, Britain, France and the United States.
