Indonesia: 6 Nations Agree to Combat Borderless Terrorism

Officials from Southeast Asian nations, Australia and New Zealand agreed at a meeting in Indonesia on Saturday that their governments would support one another in a forum working against a rising terrorist threat tied to battles with militants linked to the Islamic State (IS) in Marawi, the Philippines.

High-level officials from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Brunei joined their counterparts from Canberra and Wellington in a one-day conference co-hosted by Indonesia and Australia in the North Sulawesi provincial capital of Manado. Their discussions focused on terrorism in the region surrounding the Sulu and Celebes seas.

“Global terrorism is that lethal threat to all of our societies and with the collapse of the caliphate in the Middle East, the return of foreign terrorist fighters to our region and the increasing prevalence of cross-border terrorism, it is a threat that is becoming more severe, not less and therefore it demands a regional response,” Australian Attorney General George Brandis said.

“That problem has been thrown by recent events in Marawi.”

Wiranto, Indonesia’s coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, said the forum is focused specifically for countries surrounding the Sulu Sea to prevent the spillover of the Marawi conflict to neighboring countries.

“Countries surrounding the Sulu Sea have direct interests about security in the sub region and we limit this forum at the sub regional level,” Wiranto said in a joint press conference with Brandis after the meeting.

Wiranto also said IS changed its strategy by scattering militants to establish new strongholds around the world including Southeast Asia, following defeats in Syria and Iraq.

“They initially wanted to establish a new stronghold in Indonesia, in Poso (Indonesia), or in Marawi (the Philippines), but given the objective conditions, they chose Marawi,” Wiranto said, adding the participating countries were briefed by the Philippine delegation on the status of Marawi where government troops have battled militants since May 23.

Fighting terrorism through social media, laws

Other discussions focused on militants’ use of social media.

“The six countries agreed that there is an urgency to cooperate with companies that provide social networking, content sharing and messaging services,” Wiranto said.

Terrorists are using social media and the six countries agreed to learn from one another to counter extremist propaganda, he said.

The Indonesian government blocked online messaging service Telegram earlier this month over concerns that terrorists were using it to spread radical propaganda and teach followers to mount attacks or assemble bombs.

The participants also agreed to study prevailing laws in each country that criminalize extremists and militants returning to their home countries along with those who provide assistance and support to militants. This would be particularly important for Indonesia, as officials deliberate amendments to a counterterrorism law to criminalize terrorists or their supporters and allow possible military involvement, while maintaining respect to human rights.

Brandis commended Wiranto for bringing the six countries together to address common problems and “to build an architecture in which the six nations represented today can continue to work together, to learn from one another, to assist one another, to ensure that we always stay ahead of the terrorists."

Working together

Philippine National Security Adviser Hermogenes C. Esperon Jr. called the meeting fruitful because participants were able to learn from one another, he said.

“I think we have established good links with countries that have the same concerns,” he told BenarNews after the meeting.

Esperon said the leaders agreed to meet because they realized that they needed to cooperate because of the borderless nature of terrorism.

“Terrorism can happen in any country, because there is no need for big forces. They do not have to move in big formations, it can take one determined mind to impose upon us, that’s what we want to prevent,” he said.

In Marawi, operations to combat militants are ongoing while the battleground has been reduced from the original 16 to three villages in the densely populated area. Civilians remain trapped, Esperon said.

“We want to be very, very careful about it. It will be slower but that might serve the purpose because being slow in their liberating, we may be saving some innocent lives,” he said.

Wiranto and Brandis said participants agreed to repeat the forum next year.

Wiranto, the Indonesian coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, speaks to participants at the six-nation meeting in Manado, July 29, 2017. (Courtesy Indonesia Ministry of Political, Legal and Security Affairs)