Friday, July 29, 2005 (399 reads)

VIENTIANE, July 29,2005 (AFP) - Asian foreign ministers on Friday welcomed tiny East Timor as the 25th member of the region's main security forum. The country's foreign minister, Nobel peace laureate Jose Ramos-Horta, joined his colleagues at the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which groups the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations with partners including the European Union, United States, China, Japan, Australia and Russia. Ministers took turns to welcome their "good friend" and said they were looking forward to a partnership with the nation of about one million people. East Timor became independent as one of Asia's poorest countries in May, 2002 after a period of UN stewardship following a 1999 referendum to split from Indonesia. Its giant neighbour invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 to begin years of repressive rule. The United Nations says at least 1,400 people were killed during militia violence organized by the Indonesian security forces ahead of and after the referendum. ARF was established in 1994 to foster dialogue and consultation on political and security issues while aiming to develop confidence-building and preventive diplomacy. In addition to the 10 members of ASEAN -- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysian, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- the ARF groups Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea, the United States, and now East Timor. fl-it/br/jah

Friday, July 29, 2005 (541 reads)

VIENTIANE, July 29, 2005 (AFP) - Foreign ministers wrapped up Asia's main security forum Friday with a pledge to step up intelligence sharing on terrorism, which they called a threat to the "peace, order and security" of the region. Concluding a day of ministerial-level talks in the Lao capital of Vientiane, the 25-member ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) vowed to "better exchange relevant information and intelligence in a timely, effective, systematic manner." "The ministers reaffirmed the need to combat by all means, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and international law, threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts," a final statement said. In another signal of commitment to step up information sharing on terrorism, the ARF unveiled a new website which includes a restricted section aimed at speeding up the exchange of intelligence. Most of the forum's members, including Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members Indonesia and the Philippines, have suffered casualties in bombing attacks. But the issue has gained renewed urgency with the deadly bombings this month in London and the Egyptian resort Sharm el-Sheikh. This has reinforced the need "to increase the frequency and quality of intelligence exchanges to make sure that we're much better coordinated," Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told reporters here. Another major topic on the agenda was the North Korean issue, said a senior Southeast Asian official. The United States and North Korea resumed their dialogue for the fourth time this week in Beijing after a 13-month hiatus. South Korea, China, Russia and Japan are also party to the talks on ways to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear programs. All the participants are also members of the ARF. As defense officials from the ARF countries prepared Thursday for the ministers' talks, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon met for the first time in a year with North Korean counterpart Paek Nam-Sun. Ban said relations between the two sides were better than ever. The Korean ministers sat side-by-side at the minister-level ARF meeting Friday, when the forum also welcomed tiny East Timor as its newest member. They also agreed to accept Bangladesh as the 26th member next year. The ARF dialogue concluded a week of annual talks between foreign ministers and officials in the 10-nation ASEAN. That meeting was dominated by a row over Myanmar's 2006 chairmanship, after the European Union and United States threatened to boycott the group's meetings with the military government at the helm. The ARF's final statement expressed concern at the pace of democratisation in Myanmar and called for the country's special UN representative, who has been barred for more than a year, to be allowed to return. ARF's agenda also called for increased cooperation against piracy on the region's vital sea lanes and in responding to disasters like the killer tsunamis that swept the region last December. The forum went ahead without the foreign ministers its three most powerful members: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Japan's Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura and China's Li Zhaoxing. Indian officials confirmed Friday that their foreign minister was also absent. ARF was established in 1994 to foster dialogue and consultation on political and security issues. In addition to ASEAN members Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, the ARF groups Australia, Canada, China, East Timor, the European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea the United States. bur-ph/br/mtp

Friday, July 29, 2005 (561 reads)

VIENTIANE, July 29, 2005 (AFP) - Foreign ministers at Asia's largest security dialogue spoke out Friday against tendencies to stereotype Muslims as possible terrorists, addressing a growing concern among the group's Islamic members. Muslim nations at the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in the Lao capital Vientiane have complained that Muslims were being singled out in investigations into attacks and even at immigration check points. The foreign minister of mainly Muslim Malaysia, Syed Hamid Albar, said Thursday his country was concerned at the increasing profiling, particularly by the West, of Muslims as terrorists. "We are worried about the profiling," he was quoted as saying in Vientiane by the official Malaysian news agency Bernama. Syed Hamid complained that the suspicion fell on Muslims immediately after attacks, with police raiding their houses and publicising their pictures. Muslims were also accosted at immigration points because of their "Muslim looks", he said. Addressing these concerns, foreign ministers of the 25-member ARF, which includes the United States, said terrorism should not be identified "with any particular religion or ethnic group." In a statement issued at the end of their annual meeting, they said "terrorism, irrespective of its origins, motivations or objectives, constitutes a threat to all peoples and countries." They also welcomed improved dialogue among different religious faiths in the region. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the tendency to identify religion with terrorism was misguided. "There is a feeling that we need to make sure that we are not in any ways, as an international community, directing our wrath against Muslims as such," Downer said, adding that such anger must be directed "against criminals and terrorists". People of all faiths should "work together to make sure that those people who commit these acts of murder of innocent people are brought to justice," he said. ASEAN includes the world's biggest Muslim nation, Indonesia, home to the region's biggest terror attack, the 2002 bombings in Bali that killed 202 people, 88 of them Australian. The Bali attack and subsequent strikes in Jakarta have been blamed on the Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian affiliate of the Al-Qaeda terror network. Other mostly Muslim nations in ASEAN are Brunei and Malaysia. Largely ethnic Chinese Singapore has a substantial Muslim minority, while Muslims also have a presence in the southern Philippines and southern Thailand. The ARF also includes Pakistan, which has been trying to root out militants believed to be based in its remote tribal regions. Malaysia's Syed Hamid said he had raised his concerns about the stereotyping of Muslims with the European Union. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana also addressed the issue in Vientiane, saying the fight against terrorism should focus not only on the militants and their networks but also on the "root cause" of the problem. This could be done "through education and through better understanding of each other's faiths and societies," Solana said. mba/br/mtp