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Combating terrorism high on AA agenda
Terrorism-related issues received serious attention from Asian-African foreign ministers during their meeting on Monday as they agreed to step up efforts to combat terrorism, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said on Monday
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errorism-related issues received serious attention from Asian-African foreign ministers during their meeting on Monday as they agreed to step up efforts to combat terrorism, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said on Monday.
'The ministers see the importance of peace and stability and the need to strengthen and combat transnational crime including terrorism and drug trafficking,' she said after the closing of the Asian-African Ministerial Meeting at the Jakarta Convention Center.
The meeting was part of the commemoration of the Asian African Conference's 60th anniversary being held in Jakarta and Bandung from April 19 to 24.
A number of ministers stressed the importance of stepping up efforts to combat terrorism.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ebrahim Rahimpour, for example, said that 'terrorism and violent extremism' continued to affect the world.
'Violent extremism, enshrined in dangerous ideologies and manifested in abhorrent brutalities, is chief among the threats to peace and security,' he said.
'While we utterly reject stereotypes that attach the sublime name of Islam to such bloody acts, we need the engagement of all to put an end to moral and financial support for extremists,' the Iranian diplomat said.
Somali Foreign Minister Khalid Omar Ali, meanwhile, suggested that poverty and poor education had contributed to the rise of violent extremism.
'Many Somali youth are fighting for the terrorist organization al-Shabaab. Studies have revealed that youths who have no jobs and education are more likely to engage in violence,' he said.
Previously, Iraqi Foreign Minister Al-Jafari reiterated the importance of nations uniting to fight the Islamic State (IS, or ISIS) movement. 'We see that citizens from 62 countries are involved in ISIS. Of course these individuals do not represent their countries,' he said after meeting with Retno on Sunday.
He said the fight against IS was not a sectarian conflict. 'They commit inhumane and barbaric acts. In Iraq ISIS acts don't have anything to do with Sunni or Shia. All of us are affected by their acts,' he said.
The minister said that Iraq needed military, intelligence and humanitarian support to assist 2 million refugees in the country. 'We need military [assistance] because they use violence. But the media also has a crucial role, so the media should also be utilized to fight ISIS,' Al-Jafari said.
In a separate event, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said deploying troops to fight IS was not the answer to eradicating the extremist group.
'IS is an extreme ideology that easily develops in a country that has weak conditions [in terms of governance and society],' Kalla told The Jakarta Post in an interview on Monday. 'Therefore, we cannot solve this problem through war, but those countries [where IS and other radical groups are growing] need to become strong.'
'Such an ideology could become a virus in a weak country. We should prevent together such an ideology entering our countries,' Kalla added.
' Tama Salim and Ina Parlina contributed to this story.
