January 11 2003

Singapore offers grim view of future terror

Eric Ellis, Singapore

IF the terror-filled days since the October 12 Bali bombings, and Osama bin Laden's vow to destroy Australia over its role in East Timor, have been hard to bear, be prepared for more.
To hear the Singapore security services tell it, the Islamist terror threat to our region is as potent as ever.
That's the message from a long-awaited white paper released by the Singapore Government yesterday into the extent of the Jemaah Islamiah network many believe responsible for the Bali bombings, and the plots to devastate the US and Australian diplomatic missions and other high-profile targets in Singapore.
The 50-page paper, released by Singapore's Interior Ministry and partly compiled from the interrogation of 31 suspected Islamic terrorists, all Singaporeans, rounded up by its security services last year, paints a gloomy picture of terror in the region.
It draws intimate links between JI and Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida network, claiming that JI operates as the local wing of al-Qa'ida in southeast Asia and Australia.
"Al-Qa'ida's links with the regional brotherhood of militant Islamic groups have given it a strong foothold in southeast Asia," the report says.
"Even if the US succeeds in dismantling al-Qa'ida, radical Muslim groups in the region will continue to pursue al-Qa'ida's agenda of global jihad.
"With their radical agenda and enhanced skills from al-Qa'ida, these groups, if left unchecked, will pose a grave threat to the security of southeast Asia for years to come."
Singapore's official view is at odds with that of Indonesia's top policeman, Da'i Bachtiar, who declared on Wednesday at a seminar promoting foreign investment in Indonesia that the multinational police investigations that followed October 12 had not unearthed any evidence linking JI and al-Qa'ida.
Wealthy Singapore, which has a majority Chinese population and whose very existence has long been an affront to hardline Islamists in the region, hosts a number of US military facilities and is a base for foreign companies in the region.
The plot to level Singaporean landmarks was unearthed when US special forces discovered reconnaissance videos of the city in the Afghan rubble. The videos show Islamist operatives casing areas and buildings frequented by Westerners, Americans in particular.
Since then, tiny Singapore has been in an effective lockdown as the Government sides with Washington in the war on terror.
Despite arresting 31 terror suspects, Singapore said it had not eliminated the JI network.
"Some members of the JI network are now believed to be hiding in neighbouring countries and may re-activate their earlier bombing plans," the report warns.
Singapore has detained the suspects under its much-criticised Internal Security Act, which allows for indefinite detention without trial and has been used in the past to quash domestic political dissent on the island-state to Lee Kuan-yew's long-ruling People's Action Party.