Combating Terrorism in Southeast Asia

 Introduction:

Terrorism in Southeast Asia doesn’t only affect citizens in that region but also affects the world. Over 15,000 foreigners from over 80 different countries have gone and fought in Iraq making them also possible victims of terrorism. Groups such as the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), United Liberation Organization (PULO), and Gerakan Mujahideen Islam Pattani (GIMP) located in Southeast Asia have been known to illegally trade weapons; raising concern for the security of the region.

Terrorism in Southeast Asia has occurred in alarming rates with 9 major attacks happening in the last 14 years with some as recent as 2016.

Recent technological advancements such as encrypted messaging have made it difficult for anti terrorism organizations to detect attacks which has already resulted in the death of 6 people and 30 injured in the Westminster terrorist attack in 2017. Initially most of these terrorist groups in Southeast Asia had different agendas as they were formed with different goals but as time went on the aforementioned terrorist groups had similar religious beliefs and spoke similar languages allowing them to trade good such as weapons and training guides with each other.

This trading of information between groups is raising a serious concern for safety as information on how to make Improvised Explosive Devices(IEDs) which can be made from a variety of household materials are spreading. This has lead to several Vehicle Borne IEDs(VBIED) which were used in attacks in Indonesia and the Australian Embassy in South Jakarta killing 9 and injuring over 150 people. The use of these devices by terrorist organizations has resulted in over 1,690 deaths internationally in the year 2016 alone.

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These violent attacks don’t stop just on land. Many of the aforementioned terrorist organizations such as MILF has maritime capabilities.

This alongside the fact that one third of global shipping goes through the south china seas poses a serious economic threat to companies alongside the security of their workers. To gain money and power these terrorist organizations also participate in drug smuggling, weapons smuggling, stealing and other illegal businesses to fund their destructive desires.

On September 8, 2006 the TN General Assembly adopted the United Nations Global Counter Terrorism Strategy in hopes to increase effects of Counter Terrorism. Countries in Southeast Asia have drastically different counter terrorism strategies as they have different infrastructure. Organizations such as the United Nations Counter Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) have been set in place to try and create international cooperation between law enforcement agencies and to try an increase the resources present to the countries of Southeast Asia.

Country Policy:

Bulgaria although not being a target to most terrorist organizations is still taking steps to improve its counter terrorism programs. Bulgaria is part of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and is in the process of and is updating their five year plan on National Strategy for Countering Radicalization and Terrorism. In 2016 the Bulgarian National Assembly passed a new counter terrorism bill allowing for more control in suspicion of terrorism. The bill defines three levels of terrorism and gave the military the power to search people, private property and arrest people in the act of counter terrorism. Bulgaria also belongs to the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism, which was set in place to toughen the funding of terrorism.

Bulgaria’s national bank are also under supervision to check and find money laundering that could be being used to fund terrorism. All banks must report transactions of US $17,000 or over as a precaution and are also required to report suspicious transactions or they’ll receive a fine. At the end of 2015 the Council of ministers approved a new plan to counter violent extremism which was later updated in 2017 to add providing tools to aid teachers and law enforcement in prevention violent extremists. Bulgaria has also worked with the United States to increase its biometrics and infrastructure. Bulgaria is one of the biggest advocates for the UN counter terrorism initiative it has even co sponsored the council’s resolution on returning an relocation oright terrorist fighters.

Possible Actions and Solutions in regards to Combating Terrorism in Southeast Asia:

On September 15th, 2015 the UN adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) a 15 year agenda to sustainable development consisting of 17 sustainable development goals, one of which is SDG 16 seeks to “promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.”

Therefore Bulgaria promises to do all it can to help counter terrorism in Southeast Asia. This can be accomplished through partnerships in security and administration. Borders control should also be greatly improved. We would recommend a partnership with the United States in improving the contrieres biometric recognition and border security. Countries should create one system to log and report terrorist activities. This would be further benefited if law enforcement could work internationally with the missions to stop terrorists. This could be accomplished by a counter terrorism task force that is funded equally by all participating countries in South Asia. This could also grow to be part of the UN with all UN nations funding an organisation with the goal.