Asia Heightens Security Following Paris Attacks

Countries across Asia are stepping up security after terror attacks in Paris over the weekend, with officials calling for strengthened intelligence-gathering and greater vigilance in thwarting potential future attacks.

Authorities through the region have tightened security around embassies and places where large crowds gather and have increased border-monitoring operations.

Police in Manila, which is hosting an annual economic summit with leaders from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, have tightened security around potential targets, particularly seaports, airports and rail systems, Police Chief Superintendent Wilben Mayor, spokesman of APEC’s security task force, said during a press briefing Monday. He said police have detected no specific threat but were working to boost deterrence against unforeseen events.

Around 30,000 security personnel have been deployed to guard the four days of meetings, according to the armed forces. More than 10,000 people, including U.S. President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, are expected to attend.

Security issues will likely overshadow talks typically focused on enhancing trade and investment, said Ernie Bower, Southeast Asia specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Even more so because many of the APEC countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei have real and immediate concerns about citizens who have left to fight in Syria and Iraq and will be returning.

A hugely diverse mix of religions and ethnicities, Asia has seen occasional violence from Islamic separatist movements and extremist groups in Muslim-dominated parts of the Philippines and Thailand. Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, saw several terror bombings carried out by al Qaeda-trained militants starting with a nightclub blast on the resort island of Bali in 2002 that killed 202 people.

Authorities and security analysts estimate that hundreds of Indonesians and Malaysians, including women and children, have gone to join Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, heightening fears that militants trained to fight overseas could stage attacks upon returning home. Authorities in Jakarta say support for Islamic State is growing.

The level of competency required to pull off a Paris-style attack is still low in Indonesia, said Sidney Jones, head of the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict and a longtime researcher of extremist movements in the region. But that may not always be the case. Recent global events could also see the targets shift from domestic, such as the police, toward foreigners, she said.

Referring to the attack in Paris, Indonesia’s coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, Luhut Pandjaitan, said this kind of attack, we don’t know when this is going to happen, that is why we have to stay alert.

Indonesian police said they were working with the military to increase patrols in major cities and around airports and seaports.

Indonesia doesn’t have the legal tools to effectively curb support for ISIS, officials say. Supporters can’t be arrested or detained under law, and it isn’t illegal for Indonesians to travel overseas for military training. Some officials are pushing for stronger regulations.

Malaysia, meanwhile, recently reintroduced tougher antiterror measures including indefinite detention of up to two years without trial. More than 120 people linked to jihadist activities in Iraq and Syria have been arrested under existing law in Malaysia. Last week Malaysian authorities arrested five men—four Malaysians and one Indonesian—alleged to be involved with terrorist groups including Islamic State.

In Japan, authorities are putting more-secure border patrols in place and working to gather information domestically on terrorism, said chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga. No Japanese are known to have gone to fight in Syria but two Japanese citizens were murdered by Islamic State in Syria earlier this year.

Japanese are being targeted so the danger is rising, said Takuji Norikane, deputy director of the security planning division at the National Police Agency.

Thailand, where a bomb blast in Bangkok killed 20 people in August, has also ordered immigration checkpoints to stay alert and tightened screenings of people moving in and out of the country.It is asking citizens to report suspicious activity and says authorities are monitoring social media. Police spokesman Pol Gen Dechnarong Sutticharnbancha said so far there have been no indications of threat.

China’s Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun urged nationwide efforts to “strengthen security readiness, intelligence and early warning” against terrorism and called for strict supervision of firearms, explosives and courier services, according to an account of a meeting between police and counterterrorism officials published Sunday on the Ministry of Public Security’s website.

Photo Caption: Malaysian police ride their motorcycles during a rehearsal outside the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. Security is being stepped up around Asia in wake of the deadly terror attacks in Paris. 

PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES