Tsunami devastation could breed terrorism ?
4 January , 2005 18:22:23
Reporter: David Mark
This is a transcript from PM. The program is broadcast around Australia at 5:10pm on Radio National and 6:10pm on ABC Local Radio.
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That question is being posed today in light of comments made by the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell.
Mr Powell has drawn a very direct link between the provision of aid for the tsunami affected countries, and the need to combat terrorism.
As David Mark reports.
DAVID MARK: Colin Powell's comments come as Australia's Prime Minister, John Howard, prepares to unveil a aid package for the region worth several hundred million dollars.
And while the Prime Minister has never drawn an explicit link between aid and security, military analyst with the Australian Strategic Defence Institute, Aldo Borgu, believes the connection is there.
ALDO BORGU: Look, I'm sure it would be a factor, but obviously it's not going to be stated, because people obviously want to emphasise the humanitarian nature of it and people don't want to think that Australia is acting in a self-interested way, which obviously it is – all countries are in that respect. I mean that's the whole basis of our aid policy. But there is no doubt that one of our rationales is to ensure that this does not become a breeding ground for extremists in our region.
DAVID MARK: How could it become a breeding ground?
ALDO BORGU: Well certainly the terrorists or the extremists would exploit the fact that if aid wasn't coming through, you know, proving the point that the West doesn't care, it's trying to exploit Muslim people, it's trying to keep them poor, disadvantaged. This goes to the sort of so-called root causes of terrorism and extremism, not least that people have got nowhere left to go, when you've got poor, disadvantaged youth, who get attracted basically to something that they can believe in, something they're attracted to, which is Islamic extremism.
DAVID MARK: But the Director of Terrorism Studies at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the ANU, Clive Williams, doesn't believe that terrorist recruits are driven by the so-called root causes outlined by Colin Powell such as poverty or disease.
CLIVE WILLIAMS: I don't really think that's what drives most people that are involved in insurgencies or terrorism; it's usually factors like discrimination, their inability to create political change in the societies in which they live.
If you look at the groups in the region of course the most radical group is Jemaah Islamiah and they recruit people through a very small number of religious schools in Indonesia. I don't think their situation will change much. I don't think people will become more religious necessarily as a result of what has happened or be perhaps driven to join that group.
DAVID MARK: But Aldo Borgu does believe Jemaah Islamiah could exploit the situation, particularly in Aceh where more than 90,000 people have died and a million people have been displaced.
ALDO BORGU: It's the area of chief concern, not least because groups like JI can use that to motivate people from other parts of Indonesia. So you can actually say, 'Look you know the Westerners, the Christians don't really care about us, they're trying to keep Muslims in poverty.' So they can use that as a rallying cry for Indonesians across Indonesia.
TANYA NOLAN: Military analyst with the Australian Strategic Defence Institute, Aldo Borgu.
