Speech
(Check against delivery)
to the Foreign Correspondents' Association
The Challenge of International Terrorism in the Asia-Pacific
Region
Sydney, 26 November 2002
Ladies and gentlemen, it's a great pleasure to have the opportunity
to talk to you yet again. I've spoken to the Foreign Correspondents
Association on a number of occasions. My department advises me now
- I have to be advised by the Department - that the first time was
in April 1996. So I've done it quite often.
As Philip said in his introduction, I want to say a little bit to
you today about the Australian Government's perspective on the issue
of terrorism and then I'm happy to answer questions and you can ask
questions of me on any subject you like and I can give you any answer
I like, as they say.
I think all of you would understand, living in this country, that
the Bali bombings have sharpened very much Australian security outlook. After
all there are 75 Australians now confirmed dead in Bali; another
12 whom as we say we hold serious concerns. So we are looking at
somewhere between 80 and 90 Australians who were killed. There are
scores of Indonesian casualties; there were casualties from a number
of countries that would be represented in this room here tonight.
Now, we talked quite a lot about the issue of terrorism in South-east
Asia well before Bali. I remember being in Kuala Lumpur myself just
- must have been one week before Bali - at the World Economic Forum
and while I was at the World Economic Forum giving a talk on concerns
we had in Australia of the activities of Jemaah Islamiah and I note
that Abu Bakar Bashir, in response to my remarks in Kuala Lumpur,
had some rather deep and dark things to say about me; and then, not
because of that, of course, but then a matter of days later we had
the Bali bombing. And I just tell you that because we had already
been fairly concerned or seriously concerned about the issue of terrorism
in the region well before the 12th of October.
Indeed, for us, the issue was brought into stark relief by the interception
by the Singaporean authorities in December of last year, so just
about a year ago, of a plot, as the Singaporeans put it, by Jemaah
Islamiah to attack the Australian British and American embassies
in Singapore and it was fortuitous that the Singaporean authorities
managed to intercept that particular plot. But I suppose what we
weren't aware of was the breadth and depth of Jemaah Islamiah and
terrorist organisations in South-east Asia. I don't think until
during the course of this year it could truly be said that we understood
the links between a fairly long-standing organisation like Jemaah
Islamiah and al-Qa'ida in the Middle East and the nature of those
links and how those organisations operated.
But, during the course of this year, we, and a number of our partner
countries who have been examining these issues, have become increasingly
aware of the activities of, not of course just Jemaah Islamiah but
including Jemaah Islamiah, other associated organisations in the
region, and particularly in the case of Philippines, organisations
like Abu Sayyaf and the links between those organisations and the
terrorist groups in the Middle East and, again, especially al-Qa'ida.
I think the important thing for us all to understand is what the
goals of these organisations really are. What is it that brings
together al-Qa'ida, Jemaah Islamiah or Abu Sayyaf and one or two
other groups more than one or two, four or five other groups in the
region. Our answer to that is what brings them together is the commitment
to what we would call a perverted interpretation of Islam, which
is an interpretation of Islam that we saw manifested through the
Taliban regime in Afghanistan, of course, working with al-Qa'ida.
But the vision of these terrorist organisations is the establishment
throughout the Islamic world, including in the Islamic part of South-East
Asia of Taliban-style regimes; of that kind of extremist, worrying,
intolerant interpretation of Islam.
Now, I think one of the important points that must always be made
is that for us in Australia - this is not to say that we, for a minute,
believe that we are now confronted with a so-called clash of civilizations,
with a confrontation between the Islamic world and the non-Islamic
world. There, of course, are many non-Islamic organisations that
have been involved in terrorism: ETA in Spain, the IRA in Northern
Ireland, the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. These are not Islamic organisations:
these are organisations which in some cases do have a religious provenance,
I mean, particularly the IRA, but that that is not to reflect on
those religions; it is just that there are those who have an extremist
interpretation and that's what we are seeing with Islamic terrorism.
But it is very important to emphasise this point: that this extremist
Islamic terrorism is an assault on civilisation, an assault by extremists
on the values of tolerance and progress.
The Bali bombings were as much an attack on moderate forces in the
world's most populist Muslim country, Indonesia, as the Bali bombings
were an attack on westerners or Australians.
Since September the 11th, last year the Australian Government has
warned the region, and indeed Australia, that we are not immune from
this particular phenomenon and I have explained that to you already. Anyone
is fair game, be they office workers in New York, be they German
tourists in Tunisia, be it a French oil tanker, be they Australian
and other foreign tourists in Bali or Balinese workers in the hospitality
sector.
And it's interesting to note, and sad to note, that journalism hasn't
been spared from terrorism. Ten foreign correspondents have been
killed in the campaign against terrorism over the last year or so.
We, as you now know, have a heightened focus in this country on
the possibility of a terrorist attack taking place within Australia. I
have to say to you that it's hard to get the balance right here. We
don't want to give people an alarmist impression. We don't want
people to refuse to leave their houses, to think that if they were
to go to a shopping centre that it was almost inevitable there would
be a terrorist attack. That's not what we are saying.
What we are saying to people is that we have had general and generic
information about possible terrorist actions against a number of
targets, including Australia. That's all we have. And when people
say that the information we provide is very general, we say the reason
we provide general information is because the only information we
have is general.
If it were specific you could rest assured that we would pass that
on. But the fact that it's general and undefined is unsettling,
but I think it's important to make this point: it's our view that
whilst we should be on a greater degree of alert in Australia, we
musn't allow the terrorists to have a win by altering our way of
life. We must maintain our own way of life. We do need to take
security precautions and security precautions which in many parts
of Europe, for example, are regarded as perfectly normal: have been
in place for many years.
In this country we haven't really had that higher sense of security
or concern and we have now to adopt that slightly higher response
to the information that we have available to us.
We obviously, being where we are in the world, focus very much on
the regional response to terrorism, not just the global response. Countries
of our region, after all, face real challenges in developing the
capacity to confront and defeat terrorism. Our sovereign states
have to win this campaign against terrorism. It is very important
to understand that sometimes I use the phrase “campaign against terrorism' rather
than “war on terrorism” because if you use the word “war” it rather
implies to win it is with battalions or tanks or military aircraft
and the like, and seen in Afghanistan these kinds of military forces
have a role, but in the main the campaign against terrorism is going
to be won by sovereign states, including the sovereign states of
our region taking specific action to cut off the capacity of terrorists
to operate.
Countries in the region - that includes us, not excludes us, it
includes us - need to make sure we have an effective legislative
framework in place in order to address these problems. It's true
to say that before the week after the Bali bombing, Indonesia had
very little legislative capacity to address the problem of terrorism. The
two decrees signed by the President six days, I think, after the
Bali bombing gave the President and, therefore, the administration
a much greater capacity to investigate and deal with possible terrorist
organisations in Indonesia; and we appreciate the strong action being
taken by the Indonesian Government.
It's also important that countries review and endeavour to ensure
that their police forces, their intelligence agencies, their immigration
and customs agencies are up to the job of monitoring very effectively
movement in and out of their countries, populations and groups within
their countries - not in an intrusive way that undermines civil liberties
but recognising there has to be a balance found between civil liberties
and law and order, to ensure that they have the appropriate capacity
to counter terrorism internally.
I often make a lot of the issue of dealing with the financing of
terrorism and the financing of organisations associated with terrorism. A
good deal of work has been done on that: UN conventions drawn up
and signed, and various organisations put on the United Nations Security
Council list and therefore proscribed in most countries around the
world, their assets frozen where their assets can be found. All
those things are being done but it's probably true to say that financial
flows are still taking place to terrorist organisations: sometimes
directly, sometimes indirectly; sometimes money paid to charitable
organisations deliberately abused and diverted into terrorist activities
because you found that over the years, with the number of terrorist
organisations. And we just need to be assiduous in continuing to
strengthen our capacity to try to deal with the financing of terrorism.
Here in this country, we have strengthened our counter-terrorism
legislation and, as you know, we make no apologies at all for the
recent action by ASIO and the Australian Federal Police to act quickly
and decisively on any intelligence we have on Jemaah Islamiah or
other terrorist connections of people here in Australia. We have
an obligation first and foremost to the Australian people to make
sure that we leave no stone unturned, in making sure we at least
investigate information that we have available to us. But, obviously,
again, it is important to get an appropriate balance between providing
for the great Australian tradition of civil liberties - and I don't
think there is any country on earth that has a better record than
Australia on civil liberties over the last century. On the one hand
making sure we are able to keep our country secure; on the other
- and I think the vast majority of people in Australia understand
that difficult balance.
There's been some controversy, I know and you all know, in South-East
Asia about these raids. It is borne more out of the way they've
been reported in particular countries for one reason or another,
and the sort of political momentum that that reporting has given
to the issue than the substance of the case. I mean, I acknowledge
that countries in our region have been taking quite decisive action
against terrorist organisations and terrorists. For example, I just
use Malaysia as one example that immediately comes to mind. Malaysia
has arrested and detained 51 Muslims since September the 11th of
last year because of concerns in Malaysia of the connections those
people have with terrorists, terrorism and terrorist organisations
and, you know, we wouldn't comment on the minutiae of the Internal
Security Act, or whatever it may be, but simply make the point that
we understand why the Malaysian Government sees it necessary to arrest
Muslims, people who are Muslims - not all Muslims, it is a very big
percentage of the population - but people who are Muslims in those
circumstances.
And obviously, in this country, we have not been arresting but have
been investigating people who may, on the basis of our information,
have links with Jemaah Islamiah, an organisation listed by the United
Nations and we appreciate the co-sponsoring of that listing by countries
like Indonesia, Malaysia and so on, countries in the region, and
which, as a result of that listing, is a proscribed organisation
here in Australia.
We think co-operation within though this part of the world within
the region, as we often say, is particularly important at this time. I
want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the Indonesians for
the quality of the investigation in Indonesia, into the bombing in
Bali and also to say that there has been extraordinary co-operation
between the Indonesian police and Indonesian authorities and the
Australian Federal Police, and we very much appreciate, from President
Megawati downwards, the level of commitment that has been demonstrated
in Indonesia to doing the right thing.
Now, this co-operation was made possible because back in - no doubt
it wasn't a front-page story at the time - but back in February of
this year, we signed, with Indonesia, a memorandum of understanding
on counterterrorism and all that we've done since October the 12th
with Indonesia has been under the auspices of that memorandum of
understanding.
We've also signed memoranda of understanding on counter-terrorism
with Malaysia and Thailand and we are in the process of negotiating
a life agreement with the Philippines. Those negotiations seem to
be proceeding very smoothly.
We are working with countries in the region to enhance our respective
capacities in areas like law enforcement, intelligence and border
control. We co-hosted a Pacific Islands regional counter-terrorism
Workshop not very long ago but before October the 12th and we're
going to co-host - and this was arranged quite some time ago – we're
going to co-host a regional conference on terrorism financing and
money laundering with Indonesia next month and it's an officials-level
regional conference. It was going to be jointly opened by me and
the Indonesian Foreign Minister but he's had to move the date of
it back a week and I'll be in the South Pacific addressing the question
of the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu that week. I thought if I could
get another minister to fill in for me that would be a good way of
proceeding and so Chris Ellison our Minister for Justice is going
to jointly open this conference with Hessian Piragua, the Indonesia
Foreign Minister.
It's a good example of the level of co-operation that is taking
place between us. I know there's been some static in the Indonesian
media and extravagant statements made here and there by members of
the Indonesian Parliament but one lets most of that sort of static
pass through. We have an expression here that those of you who are
British might particularly focus on this expression, that you know
when there's a bad ball you let it fly through to the keeper. That
means anyone here who is English you don't play out the bad ball
because then you get out. So we just let it go. That won't mean
much to the rest of you.
So my point here is that working together as a region is a very
important component of how we're going to deal with this whole issue
of terrorism, working together for us, working together with East
Asia, with South-East Asia, with the South-West Pacific and let me
finally say with North Asia.
I was in Japan recently about two weeks ago. I met, while I was
in Japan with Prime Minister Koizumi, and with the defense and foreign
ministers, a Chief Cabinet Secretary and other officials, and in
all of my talks, not surprisingly, we spent a good deal of time discussing
terrorism, though a lot of the discussion was also about North Korea
and weapons of mass destruction, and we agreed in Japan that countries
like Australia and Japan should look to see how we can enhance our
efforts to assist countries to - developing countries in the region
- deal with this whole question of terrorism. And with the Chinese
when I was in Shanghai my discussions with them, on the same trip,
my discussions with them focused significantly on the issue of terrorism;
the challenge that China faces out in the west with terrorist organisations;
a commonality of views that we have and how to deal with that problem.
Finally, let me make two points. First of all, all of you will
be aware that there was a tape, believed to be a genuine tape, shown
on al-Jazeera recently of Osaka bin Laden, making blood curdling
calls for further action against infidels and all that sort of language
which I thought had died out hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Blood
curdling it may be but Australia's response to the kind of threats
that we get from people like Osaka bin Laden and al-Qui'da are that
history shows we are not easily cowed into surrender, defeat and
abandonment of the things we believe in and we, as a country, will
stalwartly stand by the things we believe in and the kinds of threats
we get from these extremist organisations, organisations which are
blood-thirsty in their commitment to killing innocent people.
Our response to that is just to double our determination to deal
with them and to finish them off as organisations to ensure that
they are no longer effective and to make sure that the world can
live with a degree of tolerance, which is unimaginable to Osama bin
Laden and organisations like al-Quida and Jemaah Islamiah. None
of us are on this earth alone. All of us have to learn that others
have different views and different perspectives and to demonstrate
a high degree of tolerance and understanding of those different views
and different perspectives or humanity won't be able to co-exist. And
if Osama bin Laden and his stalwarts in al-Qaida and their brothers
in Jemaah Islamiah and Abu Sayyaf and so on could only understand
that simple point they would understand that their chances of living
in peace and the world's chances of living in peace would be substantially
enhanced.
The last point I would make is that we are one of many countries
which is concerned about the ultimate horror which is that these
extremist organisations might one day get hold of weapons of mass
destruction. Some people say that they could get hold of a nuclear
device. I suppose that's conceivable. It's one of the reasons why
nuclear non-proliferation is such an important issue. It's why our
present Australian Government took to the United Nations General
Assembly, and had pushed through the General Assembly at our own
initiative, the comprehensive test ban treaty. So many countries
have signed it; very few countries haven't signed the comprehensive
test ban treaty because we, for a very long time, have been deeply
concerned about the question of nuclear proliferation.
I come from the state of South Australia. My own state, around
the time I was born, was subject to nuclear testing. Nuclear weapons
were being detonated in my own state when I was a little child. Some
who come from Japan: I mean Japan is a country – well, I won't get
into the rights and wrongs of all this - but Japan is a country which
was subjected to a nuclear attack and I think we kind of feel we
don't want this to be repeated; and nuclear non-proliferation is
a very important component of Australian foreign policy. So too
is non-proliferation of chemical and biological weapons.
We have been - my predecessor, Garth Evans played a very important
role in bringing into life the Chemical Weapons Convention and we,
as a government and the previous Australian Government, have been
very committed to the Biological Weapons Convention all because we
have lived in great fear here for many, many years of the spread
of weapons of mass destruction.
So when we see governments like the Iraqi government playing with
these weapons, using these weapons as the Iraqi administration has
done and then defying the United Nations, that actually is a matter
of enormous concern to us and we think the principal issue at stake
here is the elimination of weapons of mass destruction, and we regret
it when others think that there are other issues at stake. That
is the central issue for us. That is the issue that we focus on
and that, for the United Nations, the United States and for the bulk
of the international communities indeed, the central issue at stake
here and we hope that – we hope, we are not sure that it will happen,
but we hope through resolution 14.41 finally Iraq will abandon all
of its weapons of mass destruction and the sanctions against Iraq
can be lifted. The People of Iraq can see their living standards
rise rather rapidly as a consequence of that and the world will breathe
a sigh of relief.
We hope Saddam Hussein understands the weight that is now upon his
shoulders now to behave responsibly and consistent with international
law.
And like-wise in North Korea, the agreed framework had, we thought,
been moderately successful in taming the nuclear ambitions of North
Korea since 1994. We are concerned now with the uranium enrichment
program that the Koreans have admitted to the Americans that they
have. We're concerned that that is in - is a direct breach of the
agreed framework and that Korea, North Korea, could indeed be developing
the capacity to build further weapons of mass destruction and we
think it's again important that the international community be determined
to try to persuade the Koreans, North Koreans, that is not the path
to follow and I hope that the measures that have already been put
in place will be effective.
In conclusion, let me again repeat what a pleasure it is to come
along and speak to the Foreign Correspondents Association. I've
found when I've been here before you've given me a very rugged time
in the question and answer sessions; all sorts of ideas whir through
your heads and that's fair enough in this country. We are one of
the most liberal of liberal democracies and you are absolutely welcome
to say what you like. If it's defamatory then we can make money
but I've I have never myself sued anyone, have threatened to a couple
of times but have never actually done it but in the main we put up
with the robustness of the way our political and our social system
works and it's a great pleasure to have the opportunity to speak
to you.
Thank you.
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