By Rafael D. Frankel, Globe Correspondent, 11/10/2002
BANGKOK - Thai authorities have stepped up security measures across the country amid reports that the perpetrators of the Bali bombings might have plotted the attacks from inside Thailand and worries that terrorism that has plagued other Southeast Asian nations could migrate here.
Law enforcement officials are paying particular attention to popular coastal tourist spots, whose white sandy beaches and turquoise seas draw millions of visitors each year.
Media reports, citing Asian and Western diplomatic and intelligence officials, said last week that members of Jemaah Islamiyah, a group linked to Al Qaeda, met in January in Thailand's far southern provinces, near the Malaysian border. While there, they planned attacks against Westerners in the region - including the Oct. 12 attack in Bali that killed 190 people, according to descriptions of the gathering, which first appeared in the Asian Wall Street Journal.
Among those attending the meeting was Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, who security specialist believe is the region's operations chief of Al Qaeda.
The Thai government vehemently denied that such a meeting took place. ''We have no information about Al Qaeda or JI in Thailand,'' said Lieutenant General Chumporn Manmai, the commissioner of the Royal Thai Police intelligence unit. ''Every special branch policeman is looking for their members, but we have only suspicions.''
The commissioner said, however, that ''one or two suspects'' of Al Qaeda or Jemaah Islamiyah could have passed through Thailand in the past year.
Although 95 percent of Thailand's 66 million people are Buddhists, the far southern provinces are predominantly Muslim. Separatist groups operating in the south have engaged in sporadic terrorist attacks on government and civilian targets in Thailand for nearly three decades.
On Oct. 29, in the south, five schools were burned, two bombs exploded, and one bomb was defused. No one was killed. Two suspects were arrested last week in connection with those attacks. Previously, intelligence agencies had not linked those groups to Al Qaeda or Jemaah Islamiyah.
However, Panitan Wittayakorn, a security analyst from Thailand's prominent Chulalongkorn University, said Thai authorities believe members of those groups may have attempted to contact members of Al Qaeda via telephone and e-mail over the last year. ''But to what extent [the contact is], is not officially known,'' Wittayakorn said.
With rising terrorism in the region, cooperation with US intelligence agencies has increased, Thai and US officials confirmed. And earlier this month, at a summit of Southeast Asian countries, Thailand acceded to an accord to share security information with Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines - the latter two being the hardest hit by terrorism in the region.
Whatever effort Thai authorities are making, they had better try harder, said Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism and security analyst and author of ''Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror.'' Jemaah Islamiyah is operating in Thailand, both in the south and in Bangkok, he said, citing debriefings of detainees who have admitted involvement with Al Qaeda.
''What we know is that in January, the key leaders of Jemaah Islamiyah had a meeting in southern Thailand, which included Hambali, the JI operational leader of Southeast Asia,'' Gunaratna said. The Thai government ''has not taken this business seriously, and for many years, foreign terrorist organizations, including Hezbollah and the Tamil Tigers, have used Thailand as a base.''
''It is time now for Thailand to take action against these groups. Bali could have very well happened in Phuket,'' the popular Andaman Sea resort town.
With the importance of tourism (it accounts for 6 percent of Thailand's economy) the government says it is scrambling many of its resources to ensure a repeat of Bali does not occur here.
Publicly, the US Embassy has expressed satisfaction that the Thai government takes terrorism seriously. But last Saturday, the State Department warned American citizens living and traveling in Southeast Asia that Thailand could be a possible terrorist target. It said terrorist organizations in the region have ''transnational capabilities to carry out attacks against locations where Westerners congregate.''
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra insists that Thailand is not a target for international terrorism because of its nonconfrontational stance in global politics. However, the recent allegations have raised the stakes for the country and may thrust it into a role in the US-led war on terrorism, observers say.
''If it is true, if these people were and are in Thailand, then we are involved much more than the government led us to believe,'' Wittayakorn said. ''It will create a whole new situation for Thailand.''
©2002 Globe Newspaper Company
Sunday, November 10, 2002
Saturday, November 09, 2002
Region forced to face terror
Southeast Asian nations coordinate databases, patrols
By Rafael D. Frankel
Special to the Tribune
Published November 9, 2002
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Following bombings in the Philippines, the breakup of Al Qaeda cells in Singapore and Malaysia, and the Bali nightclub explosions, Southeast Asia is coming to grips with the fact that it may be the epicenter of post-Sept. 11 international terrorism.
At this week's summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Phnom Penh, representatives from 10 countries agreed to set up a regional counterterrorism center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to focus on training, assembling databases of suspected terrorists, exchanging intelligence and establishing a cooperative border patrol.
"For the progress of all nations, we reiterate the barbarity of the attacks in Bali and strongly express our solidarity in combating terrorism in all forms," Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said at the three-day session.
While the talk was tough on terror, security experts said the ASEAN countries had better back it up or face more attacks just as costly in human and economic terms as the Bali explosions last month, which killed at least 190 people. The Muslim militant group Jemaah Islamiyah is suspected of being involved in the Bali attack.
"It better be an effective measure. As long as the Jemaah Islamiyah infrastructure remains intact--and we know it is intact, at least in Indonesia and in Thailand--it will pose a threat to them and to their neighbors," said Rohan Gunaratna, author of "Inside Al Qaeda--Global Network of Terror."
Gunaratna says that since the mid-1990s, Jemaah Islamiyah has been the Southeast Asian arm of Al Qaeda.
"It is very appropriate that [the regional center] will be located in Malaysia, because most of the [Jemaah Islamiyah] leaders in the region have lived for a long period in Malaysia," a country that does not hesitate to crack down on terrorists, he said.
"Terrorists are like foxes: They will always go in search of opportunities where there are weak leaders and weak security," Gunaratna added.
But skepticism about the new accord came from many corners. Even outgoing ASEAN Secretary General Rodolfo Severino expressed doubt as to what could be accomplished.
ASEAN "was interested in getting something out [on terrorism] in a hurry, which they did," Severino said. "Does it have any teeth? Well, there's a certain limit to what can be done through cooperation. First, there is a lot of work that needs to be done on the national level in the separate countries."
What had greater potential, Severino said, were narrower, regional agreements to cooperate on intelligence matters. One such agreement was recently reached by Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Before the Bali bombings, support and cooperation in fighting terrorism in Southeast Asia differed greatly from country to country. Malaysia and Singapore took tough lines on terrorism, and broke up what officials said was a plot by Islamic fundamentalists, believed to be tied to Al Qaeda, to attack American, British and Australian targets in the two countries.
The Philippines accepted counterterrorism training from the U.S. military as it fought the Muslim separatist group Abu Sayyaf in its southern islands.
But it took the Bali bombings to galvanize a regional effort to combat terror.
Perhaps the biggest change came from Indonesia. Before Bali, Jakarta had scorned requests from the United States, Malaysia and Singapore to get serious in fighting terrorism. Now, according to ASEAN summit delegates, Indonesia is willing to go along with nearly any suggestion rather than incur the anger of neighbors still upset about Jakarta's previous lack of action.
©2002, The Chicago Tribune
By Rafael D. Frankel
Special to the Tribune
Published November 9, 2002
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Following bombings in the Philippines, the breakup of Al Qaeda cells in Singapore and Malaysia, and the Bali nightclub explosions, Southeast Asia is coming to grips with the fact that it may be the epicenter of post-Sept. 11 international terrorism.
At this week's summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Phnom Penh, representatives from 10 countries agreed to set up a regional counterterrorism center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to focus on training, assembling databases of suspected terrorists, exchanging intelligence and establishing a cooperative border patrol.
"For the progress of all nations, we reiterate the barbarity of the attacks in Bali and strongly express our solidarity in combating terrorism in all forms," Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said at the three-day session.
While the talk was tough on terror, security experts said the ASEAN countries had better back it up or face more attacks just as costly in human and economic terms as the Bali explosions last month, which killed at least 190 people. The Muslim militant group Jemaah Islamiyah is suspected of being involved in the Bali attack.
"It better be an effective measure. As long as the Jemaah Islamiyah infrastructure remains intact--and we know it is intact, at least in Indonesia and in Thailand--it will pose a threat to them and to their neighbors," said Rohan Gunaratna, author of "Inside Al Qaeda--Global Network of Terror."
Gunaratna says that since the mid-1990s, Jemaah Islamiyah has been the Southeast Asian arm of Al Qaeda.
"It is very appropriate that [the regional center] will be located in Malaysia, because most of the [Jemaah Islamiyah] leaders in the region have lived for a long period in Malaysia," a country that does not hesitate to crack down on terrorists, he said.
"Terrorists are like foxes: They will always go in search of opportunities where there are weak leaders and weak security," Gunaratna added.
But skepticism about the new accord came from many corners. Even outgoing ASEAN Secretary General Rodolfo Severino expressed doubt as to what could be accomplished.
ASEAN "was interested in getting something out [on terrorism] in a hurry, which they did," Severino said. "Does it have any teeth? Well, there's a certain limit to what can be done through cooperation. First, there is a lot of work that needs to be done on the national level in the separate countries."
What had greater potential, Severino said, were narrower, regional agreements to cooperate on intelligence matters. One such agreement was recently reached by Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Before the Bali bombings, support and cooperation in fighting terrorism in Southeast Asia differed greatly from country to country. Malaysia and Singapore took tough lines on terrorism, and broke up what officials said was a plot by Islamic fundamentalists, believed to be tied to Al Qaeda, to attack American, British and Australian targets in the two countries.
The Philippines accepted counterterrorism training from the U.S. military as it fought the Muslim separatist group Abu Sayyaf in its southern islands.
But it took the Bali bombings to galvanize a regional effort to combat terror.
Perhaps the biggest change came from Indonesia. Before Bali, Jakarta had scorned requests from the United States, Malaysia and Singapore to get serious in fighting terrorism. Now, according to ASEAN summit delegates, Indonesia is willing to go along with nearly any suggestion rather than incur the anger of neighbors still upset about Jakarta's previous lack of action.
©2002, The Chicago Tribune
Thursday, November 07, 2002
Bounce back in Cambodia's step
Letter From Phnom Penh
BY RAFAEL D. FRANKEL, UPI Correspondent
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia—The Asean summit here was supposed to be Cambodia’s, and Phnom Penh’s, coming out party. After years of rebuilding following the devastation, and complete emptying of the city by the Khmer Rouge, Phnom Penh would finally be in the spotlight for a good reason.
And indeed, Phnom Penh has come out. But not because of the newly paved roads, the Christmas lights which adorned the trees lining the wide boulevards; not because of the new stop lights (a gift from the Chinese), which traffic actually obeys unlike more developed cities in Southeast Asia such as Bangkok; and not because of the beautiful riverfront, complete with a few swanky cafes and a stunning Foreign Correspondents Club.
The reason Phnom Penh is back as a city is because, as one of my motorcycle taxi drivers told me in broken, but effective English, “It’s annoying having Asean here. The roads are blocked, and many people can’t get to work.” As was so aptly put by him, though he probably didn’t realize it, people here have things to do, places to go, people to see. And that includes him, a 23-year-old university student who supports himself and his studies by driving his bike taxi on his down time.
To put it simply, Phnom Penh is bustling again. The central market—a kind of pentagonal-hexagonal (it was hard to discern exactly how many sides it had) building in the middle of the main traffic circle in town—is selling everything from soap, to delectable tropical fruits, to chickens.
Incidentally, those chickens arrived most unorthodoxly. Just as I pulled up to the market, so did the motorbike driver who had strapped two dozen live chickens by their feet on all sides of the back of his bike employing an elaborate tying technique which used twine and chicken wire.
In one part of town, a whole block of money changers does a brisk business exchanging whatever you have in your pockets to whatever currency they have in their glass boxes they rest their elbows on at all times. By my count, at least twenty-two different currencies were in stock at the place I changed my money. And they are the people to see, with better rates, shorter lines, and no passport presentation required.
There are a few reasons the city is moving again, but they all stem from one very simple fact: the violence, for the most part, is gone. Is it completely safe to walk the streets alone at night? No. The unconfirmed word on the street is that the first night the current U.S. ambassador was in town, he took his wife on a walk just outside the embassy compound. They were robbed. But is there a city in the Western world where that cannot happen?
In reality, most of the crime here these days amounts to daring purse snatches at high speeds. “What you get are these bandits who drive their motorcycles up to you while you’re riding, they match your speed, and if your purse or briefcase is exposed, they’ll yank it from you,” said David Kihara, an American who has lived in Phnom Penh for nearly two years working at the Cambodia Daily newspaper. “What that does is give you a choice. If you choose to hold on to your bag, you’re going down, and you’re in a lot of pain. Otherwise you let go, and they get your bag.”
Let’s get it straight though. The lesson isn’t to avoid Phnom Penh, but rather to keep your bag between you and the driver sitting in front you. That way, there’s nothing for the intrepid thieves to grab a hold of.
The most amazing thing about the sharp decline in violence is how it came about. Starting around four years ago, the government asked the people of Cambodia to turn in their guns. Lo and behold, most of them did! So in four years, the streets of Phnom Penh, along with Cambodia’s other main cities like Battambang, Siem Reap (home of the 10th to 12th century ruins of Angkor Wat), and Kampot, went from running gun battles at night to a few mugging incidents.
“The change really is dramatic,” one NGO worker told me last year when I visited Battambang, Cambodia’s third largest city and the capital of a northwestern province. “When I first got here ten years ago, as soon as the sun went down, you could hear the gun fire start. Now, we go out at night and enjoy a beer by the river,” he said, puffing peacefully on a cigarette at a riverside café (“Café” meaning a woman with a portable beer cart who sets up 20 metal chairs around five collapsible tables every late afternoon).
To be sure, not all of Cambodia’s dark side has disappeared. The illicit sex trade is still a booming business. At some markets in town—yes, though I cringe to use it, “markets” really is the best word to describe them—virgins of varying ages can be purchased for about $500, then sold back once used for $250. After that, one English teacher in Phnom Penh told me, they are “stitched up, and sold again.”
I didn’t see this market, though. And it must be said that sexual exploitation of this magnitude—especially in this part of the world—is not a uniquely Cambodian trait.
©2002 United Press International
BY RAFAEL D. FRANKEL, UPI Correspondent
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia—The Asean summit here was supposed to be Cambodia’s, and Phnom Penh’s, coming out party. After years of rebuilding following the devastation, and complete emptying of the city by the Khmer Rouge, Phnom Penh would finally be in the spotlight for a good reason.
And indeed, Phnom Penh has come out. But not because of the newly paved roads, the Christmas lights which adorned the trees lining the wide boulevards; not because of the new stop lights (a gift from the Chinese), which traffic actually obeys unlike more developed cities in Southeast Asia such as Bangkok; and not because of the beautiful riverfront, complete with a few swanky cafes and a stunning Foreign Correspondents Club.
The reason Phnom Penh is back as a city is because, as one of my motorcycle taxi drivers told me in broken, but effective English, “It’s annoying having Asean here. The roads are blocked, and many people can’t get to work.” As was so aptly put by him, though he probably didn’t realize it, people here have things to do, places to go, people to see. And that includes him, a 23-year-old university student who supports himself and his studies by driving his bike taxi on his down time.
To put it simply, Phnom Penh is bustling again. The central market—a kind of pentagonal-hexagonal (it was hard to discern exactly how many sides it had) building in the middle of the main traffic circle in town—is selling everything from soap, to delectable tropical fruits, to chickens.
Incidentally, those chickens arrived most unorthodoxly. Just as I pulled up to the market, so did the motorbike driver who had strapped two dozen live chickens by their feet on all sides of the back of his bike employing an elaborate tying technique which used twine and chicken wire.
In one part of town, a whole block of money changers does a brisk business exchanging whatever you have in your pockets to whatever currency they have in their glass boxes they rest their elbows on at all times. By my count, at least twenty-two different currencies were in stock at the place I changed my money. And they are the people to see, with better rates, shorter lines, and no passport presentation required.
There are a few reasons the city is moving again, but they all stem from one very simple fact: the violence, for the most part, is gone. Is it completely safe to walk the streets alone at night? No. The unconfirmed word on the street is that the first night the current U.S. ambassador was in town, he took his wife on a walk just outside the embassy compound. They were robbed. But is there a city in the Western world where that cannot happen?
In reality, most of the crime here these days amounts to daring purse snatches at high speeds. “What you get are these bandits who drive their motorcycles up to you while you’re riding, they match your speed, and if your purse or briefcase is exposed, they’ll yank it from you,” said David Kihara, an American who has lived in Phnom Penh for nearly two years working at the Cambodia Daily newspaper. “What that does is give you a choice. If you choose to hold on to your bag, you’re going down, and you’re in a lot of pain. Otherwise you let go, and they get your bag.”
Let’s get it straight though. The lesson isn’t to avoid Phnom Penh, but rather to keep your bag between you and the driver sitting in front you. That way, there’s nothing for the intrepid thieves to grab a hold of.
The most amazing thing about the sharp decline in violence is how it came about. Starting around four years ago, the government asked the people of Cambodia to turn in their guns. Lo and behold, most of them did! So in four years, the streets of Phnom Penh, along with Cambodia’s other main cities like Battambang, Siem Reap (home of the 10th to 12th century ruins of Angkor Wat), and Kampot, went from running gun battles at night to a few mugging incidents.
“The change really is dramatic,” one NGO worker told me last year when I visited Battambang, Cambodia’s third largest city and the capital of a northwestern province. “When I first got here ten years ago, as soon as the sun went down, you could hear the gun fire start. Now, we go out at night and enjoy a beer by the river,” he said, puffing peacefully on a cigarette at a riverside café (“Café” meaning a woman with a portable beer cart who sets up 20 metal chairs around five collapsible tables every late afternoon).
To be sure, not all of Cambodia’s dark side has disappeared. The illicit sex trade is still a booming business. At some markets in town—yes, though I cringe to use it, “markets” really is the best word to describe them—virgins of varying ages can be purchased for about $500, then sold back once used for $250. After that, one English teacher in Phnom Penh told me, they are “stitched up, and sold again.”
I didn’t see this market, though. And it must be said that sexual exploitation of this magnitude—especially in this part of the world—is not a uniquely Cambodian trait.
©2002 United Press International