Experts: IS eyeing PHL, Southeast Asia as havens
AN OFFICIAL of the US State Department on Wednesday warned that the Islamic State (ISIS) is looking for “new safe havens” worldwide, including “Southeast Asia, in particular Southern Philippines.”
Then on Thursday, international services firm Aon also warned of the threat of terrorism in the Philippines and in the region.
In his telephonic press briefing, the US State Department’s Director for the Office of Countering Violent Extremism, Irfan Saeed, said, “ISIS in particular has looked at finding new safe havens in terms of land as well and in that aspect they have looked very strongly at Southeast Asia, in particular Southern Philippines.”
“And they are looking at drivers that exist across Southeast Asia, across this part of the world, even looking into the Rohingya crisis in Burma as a potential driver. So, there is a focus across Southeast Asia that terrorists are looking at these as a possible narrative, and I think we have to be aware of that, so we can counter it,” Mr. Saeed also said.
Asked about possible terror “drivers” identified by the US in Southeast Asia, Mr. Saeed said, “I think the overall response was that there needs to be more research done in the area to truly identify how one goes from Southern Philippines from Indonesia to join a terrorist group, and I think we are still not there yet in terms of Southeast Asia, and that’s what we are trying to do is increase the capacity of researchers across Southeast Asia in universities and think tanks, so that they can understand how to do the research, how to understand the drivers of violent extremism better.”
He added: “You cannot say that the driver of violent extremism in Malaysia is the same as in Indonesia, is the same as in the Philippines, is the same as in Thailand, in other parts, Australia, the United States. Every entity, every country has their own specific drivers, and we have to do our due diligence in understanding what those drivers are.”
“And to do that we can’t just rely on our capitals. We can’t just rely on a think tank to tell us the global drivers of violent extremism. We have to understand those local grievances. We have to understand what makes a particular person in disparate parts of Southeast Asia, from Marawi to Mindanao to Eastern Sabah, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta,... Tuban,... these are [some of ] the areas where we have to understand and dig down deep to figure out what are those drivers of violent extremism,” Mr. Saeed said further.
He also noted: “I think the Philippines has done a good job of trying to address a very prevalent issue that has blown up very quickly and that they’ve been able to address it and then try to think long-term right after that.”