Rice makes pledge on Southeast Asian terror fight
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today vowed to help fight terrorism in Southeast Asia, warning that Islamic militants blamed for a series of suicide bombings threatened to turn the vibrant region into “a ring of fire.”
Rice, wrapping up a trip to cement political ties with Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, faced a series of small protests outside the heavily fortified US mission over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
She did not appear fazed by the demonstrations, repeatedly praising the country for its traditions of tolerance and religious moderation.
“Groups like Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah want to destroy this region’s dynamism … and turn Southeast Asia literally into the ‘Ring of Fire,”’ she said, promising further US assistance in the fight against terrorism.
“Asians know this all too well, especially Indonesians,” Rice added, noting that five terrorist attacks since 2000 have killed more than 240 people, many of them Muslims.
Rice’s visit to Indonesia was partly an effort to present the best face of the US to the country.
It included a tour of an Islamic grade school, where she chatted with pupils, and promises to help the country fight its widening bird flu outbreak.
Rice praised Southeast Asia’s recovery from its 1997-1998 financial crisis, saying the region is now undergoing an “economic miracle.”
“Across the world, millions of people wake up every morning and they buy a cup of coffee made from beans grown in East Timor and (the Indonesian island of) Sumatra,” she said.
“They call on mobile phones built in Thailand and the Philippines. They put on computers manufactured in Malaysia, and in the coming years many of the microchips will bear a label ‘made in Vietnam.”’
Human rights groups today criticised Rice for restoring full military ties with Indonesia, saying the army remains a threat to the country’s young democracy.
Indonesia’s military “remains a largely rogue institution which commits human rights violations without concern for the law,” said a statement issued jointly in Washington DC, by four non-governmental groups.
The military was the main pillar of the 32-year dictatorship of former strongman Suharto, who was ousted during massive pro-democracy street protests in 1998.
The US cut all military ties with Indonesia the next year after the army and its militia proxies devastated East Timor during its break from Jakarta’s rule.
Last November, however, Rice waived all restrictions on military assistance, citing Jakarta’s co-operation in the US war on terror.
Washington said that continuing to isolate the Indonesian military was no longer in its strategic interest.
“The administration’s abandonment of congressionally imposed restrictions ... rewards and encourages continued human rights violations, impunity, and corruption, thus undermining Indonesian democracy,” the groups said in their statement.
