12-18 February 2018 - 16-min

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12 - 18 February, 2018
S
T
World
ASEAN renews calls for durable solution to
Rohingya crisis
outheast Asian foreign ministers
renewed calls for a durable solution
of the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar, and
affirmed the need to enhance trust to resolve
disputes in the South China Sea.
Ministers from the 10-member Association
of Southeast Asian Nations also called for
the speedy and safe return of displaced
people to Myanmar following an agreement
signed between Yangon and Bangladesh in
November.
They also stressed the need to find a
“comprehensive and durable solution” to
address the root causes of the conflict but
acknowledged there is no quick fix, Singapore
Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said
after the informal talks, the ministers’ first
meeting under Singapore’s chairmanship.
“ASEAN is fully committed to assist the
Myanmar government in humanitarian
response but ultimately, what we need is a
long-term political solution,” he said.
The Muslim Rohingya minority has been
fleeing persecution in Buddhist-majority
Myanmar for decades. Renewed violence
last year drove hundreds of thousands of
Rohingya to seek refuge in Bangladesh.
Balakrishnan said some ASEAN ministers
voiced concerns over China’s land reclamation
Credit : Associated Press (AP)
UN experts: Islamic State militants still pose
he Islamic State extremist group still
poses “a significant and evolving threat
around the world” despite recent setbacks
in Iraq, Syria and the southern Philippines
that forced the militants to relinquish
strongholds, U.N. experts said.
Their report to the Security Council
circulated said IS “has lost its focus on
conquering and holding territory” but is
continuing “to give prominence to external
attacks.”
“In future, it will focus primarily on a smaller
and more motivated group of individuals
willing to fight or conduct attacks,” the
experts said.
According to the experts, the Islamic
State group is now organized “as a global
network, with a flat hierarchy and less
operational control over its affiliates,” with
some members willing to cooperate with al-
Qaida networks “to support one another’s
attacks.”
As a result of the changing threat, the report
said the fight against the extremist group is
entering a new phase “with more focus on
less visible networks of individuals and cells
acting with a degree of autonomy.”
The experts said in some ways, individual
countries and the international community
now face “a more difficult challenge,”
making it vital to share information on the
identity of former fighters, their location and
travel plans.
They said IS foreign fighters unable to blend
into the local population may be trying to
leave, making their identification critical.
“ISIL has collected travel and identification
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activities in the South China Sea but they
were encouraged by an agreement last year
by both sides to start formal negotiations for
a code of conduct governing behavior in the
disputed area.
Asked if talks will begin in Vietnam in
March, Balakrishnan declined to say. “The
situation in the South China Sea is calmer
now. I believe there is shared good faith and
good will from both sides to try to make a
significant advance this year. And that is
why we should be able to start negotiations
soon,” he said.
He said talks will follow a “mutually agreed
timeline,” but declined to elaborate.
“Building up trust and getting the sequence
right and doing it step by step is more
important than doing it in a hasty way
because there is an artificial deadline,” he
added. Beijing claims nearly all of the sea
and has been turning reefs in the disputed
area into islands, installing military facilities
and equipment in the area.
China, Taiwan and four ASEAN member
states — Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines
and Vietnam — have overlapping claims
in the waterway, which straddles busy
international sea lanes and potentially has
vast undersea deposits of oil and gas.
world threat
documents from incoming fighters for
potential use in future travel and has obtained
several thousand blank Syrian passports,”
the experts said. While the numbers have
been reported to INTERPOL and are in
their database, “member states highlighted
that their use by returnees or relocators is
possible.”
The experts said countries bordering Iraq
and Syria have highlighted “continued
challenges” in identifying IS foreign fighters
seeking to return home or relocate, as well
as those on the U.N. sanctions blacklist.
The report urged greater use of biometric
data, fingerprints and high-quality pictures
to identify IS fighters.
It noted that the flow of new foreign fighters
to Iraq and Syria “has almost come to a halt.”
In the past six months, the experts said,
governments and organizations at all levels
have continued to strengthen cooperation
with the private sector on sharing sensitive
information on terrorism-financing patterns
and suspect individuals.
This has enabled “law enforcement authorities
to disrupt travel by foreign terrorist fighters,
detect terrorists and individuals associated
with terrorism networks and bring terrorists
to justice,” the report said.
“Nonetheless,” it said, “financial intelligence
in the possession of entities in the private
sector remains underused in many regions of
the world.” The experts assessed the threat
from extremists from the Islamic State, also
known as ISIL, by region:
— In the Middle East, following the rout
Balakrishnan said the ministers also focused
on charting the way forward for the 51-yearold
grouping based on Singapore’s chosen
theme of “resilience and innovation.” He
said they supported Singapore’s proposal
to develop ASEAN smart cities that will
leverage technology to improve people’s
livelihood, and to boost their resilience
against terrorism and trans boundary crime.
“We want to ensure that all of us continue to
invest in our infrastructure and our people,
enhance our connectivity and ultimately to
secure peace and prosperity” in the region,
he added.
ASEAN was set up in 1967 as an anticommunist
bulwark but attention has shifted
in the last two decades toward greater
economic integration.
Credit : Associated Press (AP)
of IS from strongholds in Iraq and Syria
“clandestine terror cells remain in some
cities, and small ISIL groups are located east
of the Euphrates River, in the southwest of
the Syrian Arab Republic and in northern
Iraq.”
While the group’s ability to generate revenue
“was considerably weakened” by its losses,
falling by more than 90 percent according to
one unnamed country, IS may still be able to
profit from oil and gas sales, extortion, and
control of checkpoints. And the group is still
able to send money to its branches “despite
heavy military pressure.”
— In Africa, unnamed U.N. member states
“expressed concern at the resilience of the
two separate wings of ISIL operating in
Egypt” — in Sinai and on the mainland,
where “cells of ISIL sympathizers” have
been responsible for attacks against Coptic
Christians.
U.N. members also noted ISIL’s
determination “to rebuild its capabilities
in Libya,” where its numbers have been
reinforced by fighters from Iraq and Syria.
Some members reported “they had arrested
foreign terrorist fighters on their way to
Libya to join ISIL.” And returning or
relocating fighters are likely to use human
trafficking and smuggling networks,
including in Libya, to evade detection.
In West Africa, “the threat posed by ISILrelated
groups continued to spread into Mali
and neighboring states.”
In East Africa, despite ISIL’s expansion and
activities being curtailed last year, the group
has established underground cells in some
regions of Somalia. But the al-Qaida affiliate
NEW DELHI TIMES
Journalists flee
Venezuela over
Photo Credit : AP Photo
F
libel lawsuit
our prominent Venezuelan journalists
have fled the South American country
after being sued by a politically connected
businessman over an article alleging
irregularities in food sales to President
Nicolas Maduro’s socialist administration.
Among them is Joseph Poliszuk, co-founder
of website Armando.info.
He said that he and three colleagues were
sued by Colombian businessman Alex Saab
for libel violations that are punishable by up
to four years in prison.
Poliszuk says the journalists recently left
Venezuela at the advice of lawyers. He said
they’ll continue working from abroad.
The website has received numerous
awards and took part in the Panama Papers
investigation. Saab is disputing an article
published last year linking him to Hong
Kong-based company accused of selling
food to the government at exorbitant prices.
Al-Shabab is determined to ensure that ISIL
doesn’t eclipse it in Somalia.
— In Europe, “the region remains high on
the group’s priority list” for attacks. Foreign
fighters from IS “are increasingly using the
Internet and social media to communicate
with followers in Europe and to support
their plans to conduct attacks” including by
sending designs for improvised explosive
devices.
— As for Central and South Asia, fighters
relocated from Central Asia have been
involved in attacks in Europe, Russia and
Turkey over the past two years.
“ISIL in Afghanistan continues to mount
aggressive attacks, especially in Kabul,”
despite being weakened by military
operations, and commands between
1,000 and 4,000 fighters in the country. In
neighboring Pakistan, “terrorist attacks
claimed by ISIL are carried out mainly by
members of local groups, with cross-border
planning and support from ISIL.”
— In Southeast Asia, some members assess
ISIL’s loss of Marawi City in the southern
Philippines as “a symbolic and propaganda
victory” for the extremist group that “could
serve as an inspiration for other militants.”
The events in Marawi may also have enabled
ISIL affiliates “to generate funds through the
looting of banks.”
In Indonesia, two organizations remain
“key ISIL-linked networks,” with Jamaah
Ansharut Daulah responsible for more
attacks, but Jamaah Ansarul Khilafah is
“considered to be a growing threat.”
Credit : Associated Press (AP)
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