[Indian Prez] Pratibha to seek Asean cooperation in fighting terror

Vientiane (LAOS), September 10, 2010
Parvathi Menon
The Hindu (India)

President Pratibha Devisingh Patil's 10-day state visit to the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) and Cambodia will see India seeking cooperation in new areas, including collaboration in combating extremism and terrorism, a concern that India is now taking to its eastern allies.

“I look forward to an exchange of views with Laos and Cambodia on how we can promote greater stability and security in the region,” Ms. Patil told the Indian media. The three countries have “much to gain by cooperating with each other in combating extremism and terrorism,” she pointed out.

“As part of our ‘Look East Policy' from the early 1990s, India has emerged as one of the largest trading partners of Asean [Association of Southeast Asian Nations]. As country coordinator for India from 2003-06 in Asean, Laos played a proactive and supportive role in enhancing India's profile in the region,” said Ms. Patil.

She noted that under Cambodia's Asean chairmanship India attained summit-level partnership.

Asked how India viewed China's growing presence in the region, she said India's relationship with Beijing was enduring and strong. “We believe that there is enough scope in the world for both the countries to develop and grow and both can fulfil and achieve their aspirations simultaneously.”

The President, who is visiting the two countries on the invitation of Laos President Choummaly Sayasone and King of Cambodia Norodom Sihamoni, is accompanied by a business delegation from India. The second Indian president to visit the Lao PDR, Ms. Patil was met at the International Wattay Airport in Vientiane on Thursday by Khempheng Pholsena, Minister in the office of the Prime Minister.

During her four-day stay in Lao PDR, Ms. Patil will visit historical sites in Luang Prabang. It is expected that several agreements will be signed between the two countries, including in the field of culture. In Cambodia, the President will visit Siem Reap to see the Angkor Wat complex.

Two foreigners charged in terrorism hoax after business dispute

Jun 4, 2010
DPA

Phnom Penh - Two foreign nationals have appeared in a Cambodian court after an escalating business dispute saw threatening letters sent to three Western embassies, local media reported Friday.

The letters reportedly stated that foreigners with al-Qaeda links would bomb the embassies of the United States, Britain and Australia.

Police spokesman Kirt Chantarith told the Phnom Penh Post newspaper that a Nepali man and a Bangladeshi man had been charged with spreading disinformation.

'We found that this case came from a business dispute, and there is no relation to terrorism,' he told the newspaper.

Spokesmen for the embassies involved declined to comment on the arrests.

Questions surround Thai land mine claim

Friday, 12 February 2010
Vong Sokheng
The Phnom Penh Post

A MILITARY court in Phnom Penh is set to announce a verdict today in the case of a Thai national accused of planting land mines along the Thai-Cambodian border.

Suphap Vong Pakna confessed during testimony last week that he planted at least five explosive devices in a disputed area in Oddar Meanchey province. The man said he was paid by Thai soldiers to lay the mines before he was arrested last February. His lawyer said Thursday that he plans to argue for a lenient sentence.

“I hope that the court would consider the minimum jail term for my client because he was cheated by the Thai soldiers, he lacks education, and he has a mental health problem,” lawyer Sam Sokong said.

The lawyer said his client is charged with attempted murder, endangering national security and entering the country illegally – which he said could result in a prison term of between 15 and 30 years in the event of a conviction.

The case has led to renewed focus on a still-unresolved 2008 incident in which two Thai soldiers were severely injured when they stepped on land mines near the border. The Thai government said the mines had been freshly planted and pointed the finger at Cambodia.

Leng Sochea, deputy secretary general of the Cambodia Mine Action Authority, said Thailand must address the incident, noting that a diplomatic note sent to Thailand in response to the allegations had gone unanswered.

“We need an explanation from the Thai government. Otherwise we will lose face because of their allegation,” Leng Sochea said.

“We want the Thai government to look at the history of land mines and the confession of the Thai man.”

The Post was unable to reach Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn for comment Thurday, but he has previously declined to comment on the case.

Meanwhile, figures released Thursday suggest a continued drop in the number of land mine or explosive remnant of war (ERW) casualties registered in the Kingdom last year. In 2009, 243 people were injured or killed by explosives, compared with 271 in 2008, according to statistics from the Cambodia Mine/ERW Victim Information System.

Krishna, Clinton head to Thailand Tuesday for security meet

July 20th, 2009
Ians (India)

NEW DELHI - Hours after their meeting in the Indian capital, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will Tuesday head separately to Thailand to attend Asia’s top security forum that will be dominated by terrorism, the North Korean nuclear issue and the global financial crisis.

Clinton leaves Delhi for the Thai island resort Phuket Tuesday morning, followed by Krishna a few hours later.

Krishna’s presence at the post-ministerial meeting of the 10-nation Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the 27-nation ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) underlines India’s growing stakes in the economically vibrant East Asian region that boasts an annual output of $1.1 trillion and represents more than half the world’s population.

Krishna is likely to meet the foreign ministers of China, Japan and Australia, among others, on the sidelines of the security meet.

India and ASEAN have finalised a free trade area agreement (FTA) in goods, scheduled to be implemented from Jan 1, 2010. Discussions on agreements in investment and services will start soon. The FTA seeks to eliminate tariffs on over 4,000 products, which include items ranging from chemicals to electronics.

ASEAN comprises Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar and Brunei.

Clinton’s participation in the conference will be watched closely as it marks the return of the US to the resource-rich East Asia region, where Beijing and Washington are vying for influence.

New Delhi is a dialogue partner at the ASEAN and participates in the ASEAN summit and the extended 16-nation East Asia summit that also comprises China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand besides the 10 ASEAN nations.

Founded in 1994, the ARF comprises 27 countries, including the 10 ASEAN member states, the 10 ASEAN Dialogue Partners (Australia, Canada, China, the EU, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the United States), and other countries in the Asia and Pacific region (North Korea, Pakistan, Timor-Leste, Mongolia, Bangladesh and Papua New Guinea).

Terrorists might take advantage of the weakness of Cambodia, such as corruption, poverty and lax management of the border: US

Cambodia refutes U.S. underestimation of its anti-terrorism capability

PHNOM PENH, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The Cambodian Information Minister has refuted a U.S. State Department report about the country's capability of countering terrorism as "not 100 percent correct," national media said on Sunday.

The recently issued U.S. report about the global anti-terrorism situation claimed that terrorists might take advantage of the weakness of Cambodia, such as corruption, poverty and lax management of the border, to carry out illegal acts in its territory, despite the government had made a clear promise to crack down on this type of crime, the newspaper Jian Hua Daily quoted the minister as saying.

In addition, Cambodia lacked training and other resources to counter terrorism, it added.

Khieu Kanharith, also spokesman for the Cambodian government, said "there is no country in the world that can control its border with 100 percent accuracy, neither Cambodia."

However, "the government has established strong and trustworthy relations with different communities in order to nip any social violence in bud," the spokesman said.

Meanwhile, the newspaper also quoted a senior official of the Interior Minister as saying that there is minimum possibility that terrorists' acts occur in Cambodia, and fighting against money laundering should be the kingdom's priority in the anti-terrorism field.

According to official reports, no major terrorism case with global connection has occurred in the country so far.

Chams Face Wariness of Non-Muslim Neighbors

By Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
23 April 2009

Cambodian Mulism leaders say their religion is still widely misunderstood by their neighbors, thanks to images on television and in the media of terrorists and extremists.

For example, since newly built mosques on the outskirts of Phnom Penh appeared, so have groups of foreign Muslim missionaries, wearing long beards and traditional robes, creating worry in nearby non-Muslims.

The imam of Kilometer 8 Mosque, Saleh Pin Apu Taleb, in Phnom Penh’s Russei Keo district, said the visitors are people who have come to educate Cambodia’s Cham Muslims on Islam, Allah and morality.

The visitors are from Arabic countries, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia and India, the imam said, but they are not extremists.

He dismissed as misplaced the fears of non-Muslim neighbors who worry the men look like the extremists on television.

“They have just come to find dharma,” he said, using a Buddhist expression to explain the well-meaning intentions of the visitors.

“They come in groups of four, or five, or sometimes 10 people, and they educate us Cambodian Muslims in following our god,” said one Cham woman, who only gave her name as Mary.

Cambodia’s Chams are mostly considered peaceful and outside the realm of religious extremism.

However, Hambali, the leader of the group Jemaah Islamiyah, which was responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings, hid in Cambodia prior to his arrest in Bangkok in 2003.

Later that year, three other Muslims were arrested by Phnom Penh authorities and later found guilty of conspiring to commit terrorist acts against the US and British embassies.

Since then, the Chams have received greater attention from the West, and earlier this week the US sponsored a series of seminars to help Cambodian police understand Islam in Cambodia.

“Cambodian Muslims take active participation in the Cambodian government in the fight against all forms of terrorism in this country,” Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng said at the opening of the seminars, on Monday.

US Ambassador Carol Rodley said Cambodian Mulsim leaders had been “forthright and united in their condemnation of terrorism, pointing out that Islam is a religion of peace.”

Hun Sen's diplomatic juggling act

Jul 18, 2008
By Geoffrey Cain
Asia Times (Hong Kong)

PHNOM PENH - More than any other Southeast Asian country, Cambodia finds itself caught in the middle of competing United States and Chinese diplomatic overtures. With Washington offering bilateral strategic initiatives and Beijing rich financial assistance, Prime Minister Hun Sen has deftly balanced the country's diplomacy between the two superpowers to his government's political advantage.

In 2006, the US opened a massive new embassy in Phnom Penh, underscoring Washington's new diplomatic commitment to the country. The facility includes office space for fighting global terrorism, including a large US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) presence and a new joint National Counterterrorism Committee, established in 2007.

FBI director Robert Mueller pointed to the fact that Jemaah Islamiyah operative Riduan Isamuddin, alias Hambali, had taken refuge in a Cambodian Muslim school before his capture in Thailand in 2003 as one reason for setting up the new counterterrorism agency. US Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli chimed in that unnamed radical Muslim groups were bidding to impose with funding a stricter interpretation of Islam on the local Muslim Cham community.

China, on the other hand, has deployed commercial resources to win influence. Since 2005, Beijing has offered up around US$600 million in annual economic aid, with funds earmarked for roads, bridges and dams. Unlike the previous aid received from Western donors - which in recent years accounted for over half of the country's national budget - Chinese money comes with no pre-conditions that Hun Sen’s government fight graft or move towards more democracy.

In February this year, the Chinese government promised to help electrify Cambodia's power-starved countryside, including a $1 billion commitment for two major dam projects. Those projects will alleviate chronic power shortages, which the World Bank says have led to the world's highest energy costs.

The projects will also help power operations of the more than 3,000 Chinese companies now situated in Cambodia and which in 2007 produced US$1.56 billion in revenues, accounting for 7% of gross domestic product (GDP), according to Economic Institute of Cambodia statistics. China now employs a sizable proportion of the national workforce, supplanting the mostly Western non-governmental organizations and garment factories which dominated the local economy in the 1990s, when the country first emerged from decades of war.

Cambodia's economy is expanding at double digit growth rates and China's economic interest in the country has intensified since 2005, when US oil company Chevron discovered what some have projected are large stores of oil and gas off the country's southern coast. Those growing commercial ties were witnessed in the establishment in February of a special economic zone at the coastal town of Sihanoukville, from which goods will be produced for export duty free to China.

At least six Chinese companies have so far signed contracts with the zone's two Chinese and Cambodian developers. Once a second phase of construction is completed in 2011, the Sihanoukville zone will have the capacity to accommodate 150 companies and 40,000 workers. The Chinese developers hope the zone will export $2 billion worth of products per year by 2015, according a joint press release.

Hun Sen attended the SEZ's launch and noted after signing an official agreement with the project's developers that the new facility would stoke growth in the Cambodian economy and strengthen bilateral ties with China. Beijing has donated nine patrol boats to the Royal Khmer Navy to help secure the new facility against piracy and trafficking.

While China's economic influence grows, that of the US is on the wane. In recent years the US has given around $150 million in annual economic aid, a small fraction of China's commercial patronage. At the same time US-Cambodian trade ties have fallen off, seen in the 30% year-on-year decline in garment exports to the US in 2007. The US has long been the primary importer of Cambodian textiles, which is still the country's largest export item.

By offering more aid through strategic initiatives, the US policy towards Cambodia has apparently shifted after emphasizing throughout the 1990s the promotion of democracy and the rule of law. That frequently put the two sides at diplomatic loggerheads, notably over an FBI investigation into a March 1997 bomb attack against a rally held by opposition politician Sam Rainsy in the capital Phnom Penh which killed at least 16 and injured 150 people, including a US citizen.

According to a Washington Post story from June 1997, which quoted four US government sources with access to classified material, the FBI had tentatively pinned responsibility for the blasts and subsequent interference in their investigations on Hun Sen's personal Brigade 70 bodyguard unit. The US has never publicly released the investigation's findings, although US-based Human Rights Watch earlier this year called upon Washington to re-open its long-stalled investigations. "Instead of trying to protect US relations with Cambodia, it should now finish what it started," the rights group said in a statement.

Terror ties

Instead, the US State Department claimed in a recent report on trafficking in people that the human rights situation in Cambodia is improving under Hun Sen's watch. It praised in particular his government's efforts to combat human trafficking. More controversially, the FBI in April last year invited national police chief Hok Lundy to Las Vegas for discussions on counterterrorism, even though Lundy has been implicated in a number of serious human rights abuses.

According to Human Rights Watch, which said it has presented its own evidence to the US government, Lundy was part of the conspiracy that carried out the 1997 grenade attack, an act the FBI had previously classified as a "terrorist act". He also commanded battalions loyal to Hun Sen that carried out the July 1997 coup that ousted co-prime minister Norodom Ranariddh, where some opposition party members and supporters were killed in extrajudicial fashion and many more fled into exile.

Last week's murder of a Sam Rainsy Party-aligned journalist, Khem Sambo, also raises questions about possible government actions in the run-up to general elections scheduled for July 27. Former co-prime minister and now the leader of a political party under his own name, Norodom Rannaridh, recently sought refuge in Malaysia after the government leveled defamation charges against him.

The US's upbeat assessment of Cambodia's human rights record may be seen as a diplomatic response to China's more unconditional and commercial approach to bilateral relations. There is also the historical guilt factor, shared by both the US and China, and a major complication in winning over Hun Sen's trust. Beijing famously backed the murderous Khmer Rouge regime, both while the radical Maoists were in power from 1975-79 and after they were overthrown by Vietnamese forces in 1979 and took up guerilla arms around the Thai border.

The genocidal regime is now held responsible for the deaths of as many as 2 million Cambodians, including ethnic Chinese businessmen. Meanwhile, the US is estimated to have killed over 500,000 Cambodians during its secret bombing campaign from 1969 to 1970, which intensified the country's civil war. The US also backed the 1970 Lon Nol-led coup which deposed Prince Norodom Sihanouk as head of state.

Some estimate China now has the upper hand over the US in terms of relations with Cambodia. While Hun Sen welcomes US counterterrorism initiatives, which will likely go a long way in improving the government's surveillance capabilities, the premier's statements about the actual risk of terrorism to Cambodia have been conflicting.

After a foiled bomb attack of the Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Monument in July 2007 by a group of local radicals, Hun Sen asserted his government's will to combat terrorism. But by February 2008, he apparently flip-flopped his position by saying that there were no terrorists in Cambodia.

More clearly, Hun Sen's cooperation on US counterterrorism initiatives is subordinated to his government's drive to promote more Chinese trade and investment. Foreign investment approvals from China amounted to $763 million in 2006, nearly double the 2005 figure, according to the Council for the Development of Cambodia. Those figures were expected to be even higher last year with the various deals signed by the two sides.

While the US tries to deflect China's commercial diplomacy, Beijing has simultaneously landed on ways to unite economically and culturally with Cambodia, including through outreach to politically influential ethnic-Chinese entrepreneurs. It's also apparent, some say, in the fading popularity of the English language over Mandarin Chinese, also known as Putonghua, in local schools. Cambodia is now home to the largest Chinese school in Southeast Asia, Duan Hua, which currently enrolls over 8,000 students. The most popular Chinese courses are specifically geared towards business, with students reasoning that English language capability may help to land jobs with international aid organizations, while Mandarin, which is taught across mainland China as the official language, will catapult them into more lucrative positions in business.

Another indication that China is winning the struggle for hearts and minds came in January, when Cambodian police halted and threatened to deport US activist actress Mia Farrow for attempting to stage a protest against China's commercial relationship with Sudan's murderous regime. Farrow said she picked Cambodia as a symbolic place for her protest, given both Sudan's and Cambodia's genocidal experiences while receiving Chinese assistance. Government spokesman and Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said at the time that authorities banned the protest because it had "a political agenda against China", a stance Hun Sen's government clearly doesn't share.

Geoffrey Cain is a Cambodia-based journalist. He may be reached at
geoffrey.cain@gmail.com

Extremist Funds Reach Chams: Ambassador

By Taing Sarada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
06 June 2008

Click here to listen the program in Khmer

Although Cambodia's Cham Muslims are a "very peaceful and tolerant group," there is a growing concern they receive funds from outside extremists, the US ambassador to Cambodia said this week.

A lot of money was coming into Cambodia's Chams from groups spreading a violent, intolerant form of Islam, which have a lot of resources and are attracted to poor communities, Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli said at a talk in Washington Monday.

Meanwhile, Cambodia and the US continue to work on counter-terrorism, Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Khieu Sopheak said.

The ambassador was right to be concerned, because terrorism can grow if countries don't pay attention, he said.

Adhoc President Thun Saray said many countries face extremism, and not always from Muslims, but Cambodian authorities should pay attention to ensure terrorism is not a threat here in the future.

US Dept of State: Cambodia is vulnerable to terrorists and terrorist influence

Country Reports on Terrorism

Released by the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism
April 30, 2008
Source: US Department of State

Chapter 2 -- Country Reports: East Asia and Pacific Overview

Cambodia

Cambodia's political leadership demonstrated a strong commitment to take aggressive legal action against terrorists. However, Cambodia's ability to investigate potential terrorist activities was limited by a lack of training and resources. The government passed a counterterrorism law and a law to combat terrorist financing, and comprehensive domestic legislation has been promulgated and implemented. To date, the Cambodian government has fully cooperated with United States counterterrorism efforts on many levels, despite its limited resources.

Conditions in Cambodia, such as porous borders, endemic corruption, massive poverty, high unemployment, a poor education system, and disaffected elements within the Cham Muslim population, which makes up approximately five percent of the population, could make the country vulnerable to terrorists and terrorist influence. Although the Cham were not generally politically active, the Cambodian government feared that Cham areas might provide safe haven to terrorists. For example, Hambali, the Indonesian national and key member of Jemaah Islamiya accused of involvement in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings, took refuge in a Muslim school in Kandal Province in 2002-2003.

One violent group among the many peaceful and law-abiding Kampuchea Khmer Krom groups attempted to blow up the Vietnam-Cambodia Friendship memorial using three improvised explosive devices in July, providing evidence that terrorist groups were capable of conducting domestic attacks in Cambodia. Although no one was injured, the Cambodian government thoroughly investigated this case, and eventually arrested and jailed the responsible individuals.

Cambodia's National Counterterrorism Committee (NCTC), a policy level decision making body established by the government in 2005 and chaired by the prime minister, continued to develop its resources. In December, several NCTC officials traveled to the United States for USG consultations.

In July, Cambodia's Senate approved a Counterterrorism Law after it was passed by Cambodia's National Assembly on June 26. On July 20, following the Senate’s approval, the King enacted the law, which addressed aircraft safety, maritime navigation safety, the protection of nuclear materials, the financing and provision of material support to terrorism, and other important issues affecting national security and safety. It also implemented measures to enhance international cooperation regarding terrorism offenses.

In June, the Cambodian government enacted the Law on Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism. The government was also working on decrees and sub-decrees to bring these counterterrorism laws fully into effect. In addition, the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) circulated nationwide the UN Security Council lists of individuals and entities involved in global terrorism. The NBC officially instructed all financial and banking institutions operating in Cambodia to scrutinize and freeze assets of these persons and entities.

The Australian and Cambodian governments jointly sponsored a Maritime Security seminar in November to train Cambodian military, police, and other officials. At this seminar, Prime Minister Hun Sen stated that Cambodia's maritime security is a priority in fighting against drug trafficking, human trafficking, terrorism, crossborder crimes, and piracy. He added that cooperation with international partners to combat terrorism and crossborder criminals had improved. As part of ongoing cooperation on counterterrorism capacity-building, training was conducted with elements of the U.S. military in conjunction with the USS Essex ship visit to Cambodia.

In June, the Royal Government of Cambodia designated three government focal points to work on the multilateral Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, co-chaired by the United States and the Russian Federation. The government strictly controlled the use of weapons, explosive devices, chemical substances, and radioactive materials.

With U.S. assistance, the Government of Cambodia installed computerized border control systems at Phnom Penh and Siem Reap airports, and at the land border crossing of Poipet and Koh Kong. There are 20 land border checkpoints. During a November International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS Code) assessment visit by the U.S. Coast Guard, various Port security officials expressed a need for additional USG-funded training, tactical equipment, and technical materials in order to continue improving security standards. The Cambodian government also cooperated fully with U.S. requests to monitor terrorists and terrorist entities listed as supporters of terrorist financing.

The Cambodian government cooperated with a number of other governments on counterterrorism issues. The FBI conducted a "Major Case Management" course in Cambodia which reviewed Cambodia's new Criminal Procedures Law, instructed best practices in evaluating evidence, and increased the government's investigative capacity. Counterterrorism training was also provided by Singapore, Australia, Russia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The Germans, as G8 President, convened a local CTAG (the G8’s Counterterrorism Action Group) meeting December 13, to exchange views on the nature of the terrorist threat in Cambodia and the region; to share information about assistance programs in Cambodia building capacity and countering terrorist threats; to discuss the question of whether the UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) "menu of services" included any activities of interest to donors; to hear a readout of the Australian-sponsored maritime security seminar; and to exchange information on the National Counterterrorism Committee.

Hun Sen accuses media of linking Islam with terrorism

Cambodian PM accuses media of linking Islam with terrorism

Friday, April 4, 2008
ABC Radio Australia

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has accused major media organisations like CNN and the BBC of unfairly linking terrorism to Islam.

He made the comments in an opening speech at a two-day international conference on interfaith cooperation for peace, being held in Phnom Penh.

Hun Sen said it is inaccurate to link the world's 1 billion Muslim population to acts committed by small numbers of people.

He said when terrorism occurs in one place, a politician or the media will link it to Muslims as a whole.

''Terrorism is terrorism. It has nothing related to religion,'' he said.

''Therefore, all politicians and media should change their attitudes in using any words relating to Islam.''

He said the "biggest mistakes" had been made by major television networks such as America's CNN, Britain's BBC and TV5 of France.

Representatives from the 10 ASEAN member states are taking part in the conference, as well as Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

Cambodia says it is terror free

Thu, 02/14/2008

Phnom Penh (Xinhua) - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has said the country is free of terrorism and must stay this way if the tourism industry is to continue growing, the Cambodian Daily reported Thursday.

Hun Sen made these remarks at the opening of the four-day Asean (Association of Southeast Asia Nations) anti-terrorism conference Wednesday in Siem Reap.

"If Cambodia is a target of a terrorist attack like what the Hambali group was trying to stage in 2002, the prosperity and development that we have achieved would definitely be destroyed," he told the US and Asean delegates at the conference. Countries must join hands to combat this threat, he added.

Cambodia was selected to host the conference as it had successfully helped the Thai and US authorities arrest Riduan Isamuddin, an Indonesian citizen and operations chief for the militant group Jemaah Islamiyah.

Jemaah Islamiyah was responsible for carrying out the 2002 Bali bombings and the 2003 Marriot Hotel bomb attack in Jakarta.

US FBI chief says Cambodia's fast-growing economy makes it important in anti-terror fight

2008-01-31

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Cambodia's recent fast-paced economic boom makes it crucial to cooperate with the country in fighting terrorism and global crime, the chief of the U.S. FBI said Thursday.

«It's an important country to us because of the potential for persons transiting Cambodia or utilizing Cambodia as a spot for terrorism,» Robert Mueller said at a news conference in the capital, Phnom Penh.

He spoke after inaugurating an FBI office at the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh. The office is headed by Laro Tan, a Cambodian-American.

As the Southeast Asian nation expands financially and is drawn deeper into the growing global mesh of the Internet, Mueller said it was important to see how it was affected by the growth of international financial fraud.

Mueller was also visiting the country for talks with Prime Minister Hun Sen and other officials to strengthen cooperation in fighting terrorism and transnational crime, to which Cambodia is seen as vulnerable because of weak and allegedly corrupt law enforcement.

Hambali, an Indonesian said to be a key leader of the regional Jemaah Islamiyah terror network, reportedly spent several months in Cambodia in 2002 and allegedly tried to use it as a base from which to launch attacks.

Hambali, whose real name is Riduan Isamuddin, was captured in neighboring Thailand in 2003 and later transferred to the prison at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Mueller praised the cooperation Washington has received from the Cambodian police.

«I might say in particular that our relationship as it addresses terrorism and the threat of terrorism has been exemplary and the exchange of information between our services has been the second to none,» he said.

The Cambodian national police force is headed by Gen. Hok Lundy, whom New York-based Human Rights Watch has accused of ordering an extrajudicial killing, as well as involvement in drug smuggling and human trafficking. The government has dismissed the allegations as nonsense.

Hok Lundy was denied a U.S. visa in 2006 for reasons never made public. Last year, however, the U.S. State Department granted him a visa to attend counterterrorism meetings hosted by the FBI.

FBI chief lauds Cambodia for its role in 'war on terror' [-Mueller talks about weak policing and corruption, but graft is a "problem worldwide"]

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — The head of the FBI on Thursday hailed Cambodia's role in the US "war on terror", as the agency opened its first office in Phnom Penh amid rising concern over regional extremism.

Robert Mueller said the relationship between the countries in addressing the threat from extremists was "exemplary".

As he came to the end of a two-day visit, during which he held talks with his Cambodian counterparts, Mueller added: "The exchange of information between our services has been second to none."

His trip, part of a three-country Asian tour, came amid Washington's increasing efforts to further ties with the formerly communist nation, particularly in security.

Law enforcement officials have in the past expressed concern that Cambodia's porous borders and weak policing could make it a haven for extremists.

"Cambodia is an important country to us for the potential of persons transiting Cambodia, using Cambodia as a spot for utilising terrorism," the FBI director said.

Hambali -- real name Riduan Isamuddin -- who was allegedly a key member of the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) network, reportedly spent several months in Cambodia before being captured in Thailand in 2003.

Mueller's visit follows a series of law enforcement exchanges, including Cambodian National Police Chief Hok Lundy's trip to Washington last April for anti-terror talks with the FBI.

The invitation was made to Hok Lundy -- who was previously refused a visa to the US over alleged involvement in human trafficking -- despite criticism from rights groups over reported abuses by his forces.

Mueller said Thursday that the issues of weak policing and corruption were part of his talks with Cambodian officials, but that graft was a problem worldwide.

Robert Mueller's visit to Cambodia

U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller, right, and U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia Joseph Mussomeli prepare to cut a ribbon to inaugurate the FBI legal attache office at the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia, Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008. Mueller visited Cambodia and held talks with Cambodian officials to enhance cooperation in the fight against global crimes, including terrorism and human trafficking. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)
Head of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Robert Mueller (R) and U.S. ambassador to Cambodia Joseph A. Mussomeli smile after they cut a ribbon during the inauguration of an FBI office in Phnom Penh January 31, 2008. The FBI opened its first office in Cambodia on Thursday, amid increasing concerns over regional terrorism, a U.S. embassy official said. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea
Head of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Robert Mueller (R) and U.S. ambassador to Cambodia Joseph A. Mussomeli cut a ribbon during the inauguration of an FBI office in Phnom Penh January 31, 2008. The FBI opened its first office in Cambodia on Thursday, amid increasing concerns over regional terrorism, a U.S. embassy official said. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea
U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller addresses a press conference at the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia, Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008. Mueller visited Cambodia and held talks with the country's officials to enhance cooperation in the fight against global crimes, including terrorism and human trafficking. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

The 'Tet offensive' in today's world

On February 1, 1968--during the Tet Offensive--General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, director of South Vietnam's national police force, executed a Viet Cong prisoner on the streets of Saigon.

THE VIETNAM WAR : 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF TET OFFENSIVE

International terrorists are openly and aggressively talking about their own 'Tet offensive'

Thursday January 31, 2008
By ALAN DAWSON
Bangkok Post

Forty years ago this morning, the city of Saigon was the focus of one of the most audacious battles of history. The Tet offensive, named because Jan 31, 1968 was the first day of the Chinese New Year (called ''Tet'' in Vietnamese), turned the Vietnam War into eventual communist victory, but it also changed the conduct of wars. Lately, few successful conflicts have been fought without a campaign comparable to Vietnam's Tet offensive, and that raises the rather alarming but relevant question of when, rather than if, the worldwide terrorist group best known as al-Qaeda can raise a similar action.

One of the lessons of the Tet offensive is that nations and communities sometimes face enemies willing to die in huge numbers. The attack on the US Embassy was a suicide mission, but so were hundreds of the other specific attacks on the night of Jan 30, 1968.

The Tet offensive attacked more than 40 towns and cities across Vietnam simultaneously.

''If not for the Tet offensive, there would be two Vietnams,'' an exceedingly bitter Communist Party official and Viet Cong officer told me when I was researching a book on the final Hanoi offensive of the war. ''The North Vietnamese army totally sacrificed the southern fighters, destroyed what you called the Viet Cong.''

From mid-1968, Hanoi took full and detailed control of the war, and of the victory. The next three offensives - at Easter 1972, in the final 55-day conquest of Saigon and South Vietnam in March and April of 1975, and in January 1979 to defeat the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia - were traditional military campaigns. They were planned, led and fought by the uniformed, mainstream army of North Vietnam.


As of March 1968, the Viet Cong were utterly defeated. The southern communists never played an important role in any battle again, and North Vietnam subsumed the South within months of the April 30, 1975 capture of Saigon, which was later renamed Ho Chi Minh City.

But the importance of the Tet offensive was not the military result. Even the North Vietnamese participants lost every battle of the Tet offensive and failed to spark a popular uprising. But they then went on to win the war. Vietnam's top living war veteran, Gen Vo Nguyen Giap, says the battlefield was a lot wider than Vietnam, and ''the most important [war front] was American public opinion''.

Few doubt that. The Tet offensive turned the mainstream media against the war, invigorated the so-called anti-war movement, and ultimately forced the withdrawal of all American combat forces within three years. It took another four years for the communists to achieve victory, but no journalist or historian doubts that the Tet offensive was the most significant turning point of the entire war.

The Tet offensive is history, but hugely relevant in today's world.

Arguably, civilised society is more sensitive about war casualties. But its enemies are more callous about suicide missions and mass civilian casualties than during the time of the 1968 Tet offensive. International terrorists are openly and aggressively talking about just such a campaign. Analogies are useful: Terrorism is the overall war; the attacks on the United States in 2001 were a sneaky surprise like Pearl Harbour, and the massive, coordinated strikes on separate targets is to be al-Qaeda's Tet offensive.

The highly respected US military analyst Colonel Austin Bay recently got a ripple of attention by his stark prediction: ''Sometime within the next six months or so, al-Qaeda or Saddam's terrorists will attempt a Tet offensive.''

But Col Bay wrote that the battle would be as isolated as the Tet offensive, and limited to a single country. It ''would feature simultaneous terror strikes in every major Iraqi city [which] would inflict hideous civilian casualties''.

There is strong evidence that this is a tremendously humble and unimaginative forecast about a seething, suicidal and certainly energetic enemy.

For example, in a recent, 30-day internet blitz, jihadist supporters worldwide were encouraged to ask questions of the No. 2 al-Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Egyptian doctor seemed clearly out of his league in cyberspace and current Islamist opinion. In those worlds, there is a clear desire - aching need, really - for a Tet offensive.

Why hasn't al-Qaeda begun operations in Palestine? Why isn't al-Qaeda operating in Iran? Why doesn't al-Qaeda open a front in Egypt? Why are the Jews in the world not struck, in Israel and the US? We want to act in (Syria and Lebanon) and we are ready to do so.

In one of his rambling, defensive replies, the befuddled Zawahiri tries to answer dozens of these questions at once: ''We will not abandon Andalucia, Sebta, Melilla [Spanish possessions claimed by Morocco], Bosnia, Kosovo, Cyprus, Jerusalem, Haifa, Um Rashrash [Eliat, Israel], Baghdad, Kabul, and Kashmir and Grozny.''

The public call of the new Africa-based terrorist subsidiary Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is to spread attacks across borders in northern Africa, into Spain and - especially - France.

Zawahiri's feeble response never would have been tolerated by Gen Giap. Yet, al-Qaeda arguably has displayed a new tendency. It seems clearly to be adopting the main theme of Vietnam's Tet offensive by going after public opinion by using internet propaganda. It also is reversing the Vietnamese standard of top-down planning and direction, by trying to turn Islamist terror into a true people's war, ordered and organised from the bottom up.

A current Vietnamese army analyst and professor, Lt-Gen Nguyen Dinh Uoc, wrote in the official Communist Party newspaper Nhan Dan this week that: ''The US forces were completely surprised, regardless of their large intelligence units, by three decisive factors: new forms of attack and directions, the good timing and well-organised preparations.'' A seminar in Ho Chi Minh City last week also emphasised the ''clear-sighted, independent and self-reliant military line'' of the Tet offensive.

Clearly there will be more ''Tet offensives'', and probably one by international terrorist gangs. But there should now be a difference. The first Tet offensive was a surprise; no future Tet offensive should have that advantage.

The writer covered the Tet offensive and Vietnam War from Saigon.

Cambodian-Muslim arrested in Sa Kaeo while carrying fake Thai citizenship ID, 6 others slipped back to Cambodia

SOUTHERN UNREST INSURGENT NETWORKS

Source: Int'l terrorists financing rebel groups

Wednesday January 30, 2008
WASSANA NANUAM MUHAMMAD AYUB PATHAN
Bangkok Post

Narathiwat - Southern insurgent networks probably receive funding from and share their ideology with international terrorist groups, a security source said yesterday.

The source said proof of the links lies in the militants' systemised management of their organisations and the pattern of violent attacks perpetrated by well-trained assailants.

The rebels also appear to be financed by international terror groups and share ideologies, the source added.

Army chief Anupong Paojinda said earlier he had new information about the southern insurgency that he planned to present to the new government.

He did not elaborate.

But the source said the new information pertained to the discovery of a link between the insurgent leaders and international terrorist groups.

It contradicts what then prime minister Surayud Chulanont said previously.

Gen Surayud on Jan 18 dismissed the idea of financial connections between local militant groups and the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

He said, however, that they shared ideologies.

Gen Anupong, who visited the provincial special task force headquarters in Narathiwat's Muang district yesterday, was told that the insurgents were losing strength as more and more of their sympathisers were cooperating with local authorities.

At a briefing by task force commander Maj-Gen Theerachai Nakwanich, he was also told that many core rebel members were being arrested.

In Yala, an 80-strong combined force of police, soldiers, and rangers raided a fruit orchard in Bannang Sata district after the authorities were told Ma-aea Apibanbae, a Runda Kumpulan Kecil core leader, and his underlings were hiding there and preparing an attack.

The force and the suspected insurgents clashed for 10 minutes, and a policeman and one suspected militant were killed.

The slain rebel was believed to be Mr Ma-aea's younger brother Sulaiman, aged 27.

Also in Yala, a rubber grower was shot dead in front of a mosque in Krong Pinang sub-district on Monday night while on his way to attend evening prayers at the mosque.

In Sa Kaeo, a Cambodian Muslim was captured yesterday for carrying a fake Thai citizenship card shortly after crossing into Thailand in Aranyaprathet district, according to rangers at the Burapha task force who intercepted the suspect, police said.

The suspect, Suem Sari, 28, is believed to have travelled with six other Cambodian nationals who slipped back into Cambodia through the checkpoint when they saw him being arrested.

The group was thought to be heading for the deep South as Suem Sari was carrying with him bus tickets from Bangkok to Narathiwat.

Suem Sari also had with him a passport, which was genuine, along with five ATM cards.

Political Cartoon: Xmer-Terrorist

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

FBI Trains Government Officials in Counterterrorism [-Shouldn't the US train Cambodians to fight gov't terrorism activities on its people instead?]

Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
17 September 2007

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday began training Cambodian Interior Ministry officials in counterterrorism, building on its newly opened office in Phnom Penh.

The week-long training will help Cambodia prevent terrorism and deal with it if it does occur, said, Lt. Gen. Sok Phal, who is in charge of security and intelligence for the Ministry of Interior.

"In case it eventually happens, we will have protection in place, and it is for our national defense interest," he said.

US Embassy Spokesman Jeff Daigle said the FBI and police were working together on other issues, such as forensics, drug and human trafficking and money laundering.

Opposition Urges Lao Cooperation on Terrorism, Trafficking [and an end to border dispute]

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
07 August 2007

Opposition lawmaker Son Chhay on Tuesday urged leaders of an impending Lao delegation to help Cambodia combat terrorism and drug trafficking across a shared border.

The request came one day ahead of an official visit by Lao President Choummaly Sayasone.

"First, border demarcation between Laos and Cambodia must end: meaning that Laos must end obstacles like those in the past," said Son Chhay, who is chairman of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee. "Second, we want to see effective cooperation in the field of combating drug trafficking."

Var Kim Hong, chairman of the government's border committee, told the National Assembly recently that Cambodia has planted more than 100 posts along 540 kilometers of border, finishing about 85 percent of the work.

FBI Defends Phnom Penh Office as Rights Tool

Special Agent Thomas Fuentes, who is in charge of the FBI's overseas offices, says rights advocates should be happy to see the Bureau's new office in Phnom Penh.

Lao Mong Hay and others say the FBI's new office has legitimized a sometimes brutal and exploitive police force and could therefore worsen Cambodia's rights environment.

Brian Calvert, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
15/06/2007

[Editor's note: this is the first in a two-part series examining the FBI's new office in Phnom Penh]

When the Federal Bureau of Investigation, one of the US's leading counterterrorism agencies, christened a new office in Phnom Penh, it drew pointed rebukes from groups critical of Cambodia's grim human rights record.

Security experts say there are good reasons for the office, and a top FBI official told VOA Khmer recently that advocates should be happy to see the FBI in country. But not everyone is convinced, and the FBI's office has opened a prickly debate over the protection of human rights in an expanding war on terror.

From his office in the J. Edgar Hoover building in Washington, Thomas Fuentes, Special Agent in Charge of Overseas Operations for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, manages 75 offices around the world. The newest of these opened in Cambodia in March. The FBI needs a branch in Cambodia to help with regional counterterrorism and other legal efforts, Fuentes said in a recent interview. A strengthened relationship with the national police—something rights groups have been quick to censure—has been a natural byproduct of that expansion.

"The efforts we've had in the past in various investigations have been very successful, and we know that it's a partnership that we would like to have become stronger," Fuentes said.

The FBI and the Cambodian police have conducted training and investigations together, and the FBI is willing to help the national police address human trafficking and the sex trade, pervasive problems often bemoaned by human rights groups.

None of that would be possible without close cooperation with the national police, Fuentes said.

That relationship has critics worried and is at the center of a debate over how committed the US is to the promotion of human rights abroad.

"Our police and their chief haven't had [a] good reputation at all in Cambodia. They have, I think, violated human rights quite a lot over the years," said Lao Mong Hay, a Cambodian researcher at the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong.

Lao Mong Hay and others say the FBI's new office has legitimized a sometimes brutal and exploitive police force and could therefore worsen Cambodia's rights environment.

Fuentes disagrees. With a fulltime office in Cambodia, the FBI is more likely to learn of rights abuses, which could help the United States address them, he said.

"You're going to have a much better opportunity to be told of something that may be wrong or needs to be addressed," he said. "So if individuals, if various groups have concerns about what may be going on in Cambodia, they should be more supportive of the FBI being there fulltime, instead of less."

An outspoken critic of the FBI's role in Cambodia, past and present, has been Human Rights Watch.

The international group has repeatedly called for investigations into alleged crimes by National Police Chief Hok Lundy, including involvement in the 1997 grenade attack that killed at least 16 Cambodians and injured one American, as well as extrajudicial killings and human and drug trafficking.

The FBI investigated the grenade attack but released no findings implicating Hok Lundy, and the police chief has denied any involvement in the crimes. Fuentes hosted Hok Lundy in Washington in April, instantly drawing the vitriol of Human Rights Watch and others. If the FBI now engages in a "critical relationship" with the Cambodian police, the new office would be fine, said Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch. But such a relationship is unlikely.

"It's perfectly appropriate where there are serious international criminal syndicates, whether it's human trafficking or counterterrorism or something, to work with law enforcement authorities in any country," Adams said. "But you've got to know what you're dealing with, and here you're dealing with an extremely corrupt and violent force that has never put public safety as its first order of business, or crime solving. It's all about making money and controlling the political system."

Those concerns aside, analysts say that an expanded presence in Southeast Asia will help the US fill a regional intelligence gap.

"I think one of the reasons why the FBI has opened an office in Cambodia is because that part of mainland Southeast Asia is a big black hole," said Peter Chalk, a senior policy analyst at the Rand Corporation.

Conditions in Cambodia could make it attractive to terrorists, even if they don't directly threaten Cambodians, he said.

"We haven't really seen any concerted attacks within the region, but, you know, the lawlessness of the region, a Muslim population there, porous borders, corruption, all of those factors avail a fairly conducive logistical environment" for terrorist groups, he said.

Terrorists are attracted to countries with weak rule of law, where they think they're safe, the FBI's Fuentes said. Having an office in Phnom Penh will prevent small clues to their whereabouts from slipping away.

"You know, it may be one little piece of the puzzle, but if we're getting information provided by the Cambodians, and we're getting information from the Thai and from the Indonesian national police and the Malaysians and the Australian federal police—all those little pieces may fit together to form a picture," he said.

Adams, of Human Rights Watch, said US officials must be sure they are getting true terrorists, not fall guys, from the Cambodians.

"I'm sure that [the government has] invented potential terror plots that the US is in no position to verify and wrapped them up," Adams said.

A better tactic would be bolstering Cambodia's weak judicial system and eliminating the culture of corruption that makes Cambodia so attractive to terrorists in the first place, Adams said.

"One of the reasons they say that terrorism is a threat in Cambodia is because the country is so corrupt, top to bottom, including its court system, that basically anybody can come and go in that country and buy protection and hide out there, and that's what the US was worried about," he said.