Indonesia is seen as a prime breeding ground for militants and terrorist organisations, writes Miriam Donohoe, Asia Correspondent
For the first time since the September 11th attacks in the US, Indonesia has admitted that the al-Qaeda network is alive and well in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
It took the devastating bomb blast in the idyllic island of Bali for the country to admit that there was a link between Osama bin Laden's radical Islamic group and domestic terrorists.
Indonesia has been continually warned by its neighbours over the past year that militants had gone to ground in the country, which has porous borders and weak law enforcement.
The majority of the extremist group suspected of being behind the attack, Jemaah Islamiah (JI), are believed to have fled to Indonesia after Malaysia and Singapore broke local cells.
Experts have warned that the isolated islands of the sprawling archipelago, as well as remote areas of Malaysia and the Philippines, offered a perfect breeding-ground for Islamic terrorists linked to al-Qaeda.
While Indonesia has been accused of not being firm enough, Malaysia and Singapore both use a security law to fight terrorism which allows detention without trial. Since the middle of last year they have locked up over 90 suspected members of JI.
The attack now puts intense pressure on the Indonesian government to face the terrorist threat at its back door more seriously. And there were signs yesterday that the country is finally willing to act.
The Indonesian Defence Minister, Mr Matori Abdul Djalil, said yesterday he was now "certain" that al-Qaeda was operating in Indonesia.
He was followed by the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Mr Hassan Wirajuda, who said it was time for the whole country, including its political elites, to take the threat of terrorism seriously.
This was a major turnaround. Even on Sunday, hours after the blast which killed up to 200 people, the Indonesian President, Ms Megawati Soekarnoputri, refused to draw any direct link between the attacks and al-Qaeda.
The Bali attack was a different type of terrorism from what the Bush administration has campaigned against, southeast Asia expert with the Brookings Institution in Washington Ms Catherine Dalpino said yesterday. The target, she said, was not an American embassy, a military outpost or financial institution that would represent American power of the sort that terrorists have attacked in the past. Rather, it was a nightclub whose revellers were mostly Europeans and Australians.
While the search for al-Qaeda operatives so far has been focused on Pakistan, and to a lesser degree on Yemen, the latest strike has firmly placed southeast Asia as the new front in the war on terror, Ms Dalpino told The Irish Times.
She described the Bali attack as being "very calculated", and said it was significant that the island was a stronghold of President Megawati.
Ms Dalpino said the US had to date taken only a "mid to long-term" approach to its southeast Asia foreign policy. "US policy in the region has suffered from 'attention deficit disorder'," she commented.
Terrorists, she added, would always try something new and no one or no place could be excluded from possible attack.
"We can't assume that any place is safe" she said, adding that for example Ireland could be a target since we allow refuelling for US aircraft in Shannon.
Ms Dalpino has urged Washington to balance any regional approach to counter-terrorism in southeast Asia with a regional approach to human rights protection.
She says the US should help establish a regional framework to protect rights by giving greater support to the nascent ASEAN Human Rights Working Group.
Washington should also heed ASEAN's call for greater help in developing the four newest members of the association: Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. These entrants have significant gaps with the original ASEAN states in economic and political development. Co-operation of every kind is hindered by these gaps. She warns that as counter-terrorism is sharpened in the stronger countries, extremists are likely to take refuge in the weaker ones.
Yesterday southeast Asian leaders announced they would meet later this month, ahead of an Asia-Pacific economic co-operation (APEC) summit in Mexico, to discuss combating terrorism in the troubled region.
The Thai Prime Minister, Mr Thaksin Shinawatra, said that combating terror was a key part of ASEAN's agenda and that leaders from the 10-country group would meet ahead of the summit in Mexico on October 26th - 27th.
"I think leaders who attend APEC will talk about terrorism, but ASEAN leaders will meet before that," Mr Thaksin said. "Terrorism won't end easily even with a war on Iraq, because terrorist activities have spread throughout the world."
Rohan Gunaratna, author of Inside al-Queda: Global Network of Terror, said yesterday that al-Qaeda now commanded a robust presence in southeast Asia.
"The most dangerous terrorist organisation active in southeast Asia is al-Qaeda's southeast Asian network, the JI," Mr Gunaratna said. "This organisation must be disrupted, degraded and destroyed." He described al-Qaeda as potent among southeast Asia's 240 million Muslims and able to inspire widespread support - especially amid simmering anger at a possible US war on Iraq.
"The JI is an independent Islamic network that has been infiltrated by al-Qaeda," he said. "Al-Qaeda has taken full control of the JI organisation. . .We see extensive links between the core and penultimate leadership of al-Qaeda and the JI leadership resident in Indonesia."
The archipelago of islands in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines is an ideal base for terror groups, providing excellent cover for hiding weapons and explosives and for running training camps.
Apart from JI, there are dozens of other armed militant Islamic groups operating in the region.
One is the Abu Sayaf group, which had strong links with al-Qaeda at one stage, and which operates in islands in the southern Philippines. Last January, hundreds of US soldiers ran a training mission with Filipino troops to combat the group, which has carried out dozens of kidnappings, ruthlessly murdering numbers of victims.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a Muslim rebel group, is also active on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.
In Malaysia, police have arrested at least 30 Islamic militants tied to the outlawed Malaysian Mujahideen Movement, the KMM. In Indonesia, the Laskar Jihad is another paramilitary organisation that has targeted Indonesia's Christian minority, whom they regard as "infidels" to be killed or driven out.