New strategies keep militants a step ahead -Indonesia

JAKARTA, Mar 5 (Reuters) Militant groups are constantly adopting new strategies, including use of advanced technology, and are far from being defeated despite some progress in fighting them, Indonesia's Foreign Minister said today.

''While we have been enhancing our cooperation and enlarging our capabilities in the fight against terrorism, the terrorists are also making their own adjustments,'' Hassan Wirajuda told a ministerial security meeting in the Indonesian capital.

''As terrorists are becoming more sophisticated, we governments have to adapt ourselves,'' he told reporters at the meeting, which discussed the use of technology by militants.

Experts say terrorists have found smarter ways to cross borders, and are seeking to win popular support through charities and involvement in sectarian violence.

Indonesia and Australia, which co-chaired the two-day conference, have worked closely ever since Muslim militants bombed nightclubs on Indonesia's resort island of Bali in 2002.

Australians accounted for many of the more than 200 people killed in the bomb attacks that targetted foreign tourists.

WARNING AGAINST COMPLACENCY The 2002 bombings have been blamed on Southeast Asian militant network Jemaah Islamiah (JI). Regional authorities believe it was also behind more recent major bombings.

For the first time since 2000, Indonesia went a whole year in 2006 without a large-scale terror attack.

However, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer warned against complacency at the conference, which representatives from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines also attended.

''They continue to find support, they continue to make bombs and they continue to recruit operatives to carry out their attacks,'' he told the conference.

Downer said Muslim extremists like JI seek a world that bans ''all forms of entertainment and all trappings of modernity''.

Ansyaad Mbai, the head of the anti-terrorism division at Indonesia's security ministry, said the threat posed by Islamic militants remained high despite the arrest of more than 200 people linked to previous attacks.

Jailed militants should also be separated from others to prevent them from reorganising and commiting more attacks after they have been released, he said.

''In our jail, a convicted terrorist led prayer sessions and prison guards kissed his hand,'' he said, without elaborating.

The meeting is a follow-up to a similar 2004 conference that produced the so-called Bali Counter-Terrorism Process.

That included coordination in countering terrorist financing, investigations, prosecutions and intelligence-sharing.

The cooperation has led to the prosecution of hundreds of militants in Indonesia, the killing of JI's alleged top bombmaker and the establishment of a regional counter-terrorism training centre for law enforcement officers.

Border control, a headache for Southeast Asian governments given the region's history, shared language, and hard-to-defend sea borders, would be a key topic in the meeting, officials said.

The six nations believe JI is bent on creating an Islamic state across their territories through a campaign of violence.

Around 85 per cent of Indonesia's 220 million people follow Islam, making it the world's largest Muslim population. Most Indonesian Muslims are moderates but there is a radical fringe that has been increasingly vocal and media-savvy.

REUTERS PDM DS1605