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2 'Triborder sea' is SE Asian danger
zone By Ian Storey
Since the al-Qaeda attacks of September
11, maritime security analysts in the Asia-Pacific
region have focused their attention on the Strait
of Malacca and the potential for a major terrorist
strike in this vital artery of world trade.
Preoccupation with the Strait of Malacca has
meant, however, that another, perhaps equally
serious, maritime black spot has been neglected,
namely the Sulu and Celebes seas, a porous
triborder sea area between the
Philippines, Malaysia and
Indonesia.
Decades of poor governance,
economic and political marginalization, lack of
state capacity, and separatist conflict have
turned this area into an "ungoverned space" and
hence a haven for transnational criminals,
including terrorists. Addressing transnational
threats in this area not only requires greater
security cooperation among the three countries,
but also increased assistance from external powers
who have much to offer in terms of capacity
building.
The focus on the Strait of
Malacca during the past six years is
understandable given its importance to the global
economy. The 550-mile strait, located between the
Indonesian island of Sumatra and peninsular
Malaysia, is the shortest route between the
Pacific and Indian Oceans, and it is estimated
that 25-30% of world trade and 50% of global
energy supplies pass through it each year.
Post-September 11, security analysts
conflated piracy and terrorism, and posited
several scenarios in which transnational terrorist
groups such as al-Qaeda or its Southeast Asian
affiliate Jemaah Islamiya (JI) link up with
pirates to perpetrate a major attack in the Strait
of Malacca with the goal of disrupting the global
economy.
While these concerns were almost
certainly overplayed, the international pressure
generated galvanized the three littoral states
(Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore) into
tightening sea lane security. In 2004-2005, the
three countries launched the Malacca Straits
Patrols (MSP), a cooperative security measure that
comprises year-round coordinated naval patrols and
combined air patrols.
In addition,
Indonesia - the locus of maritime crime in
Southeast Asia - mustered the political will and
resources to increase naval patrols in its
territorial waters. As a result of these and other
initiatives, cases of reported piratical attacks
in Southeast Asia dropped 53% from 2003 to 2006.
Security situation in triborder area
deteriorates
While international attention
was focused on the Strait of Malacca, however, the
security situation in the sea lanes linking the
Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia were allowed
to deteriorate. This area - known as the triborder
sea area - comprises two main sectors.
The
first is the Sulu Sea in the southwestern
Philippines, a 100,000 square-mile body of water
bounded to the northwest by Palawan Island, to the
southeast by the Sulu Archipelago, and in the
southwest by the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah.
The second sector is the Celebes Sea (also known
as the Sulawesi Sea), 110,000 square miles of
water bordered by the Sulu Archipelago and
Mindanao to the north, Sabah and the Indonesian
province of Kalimantan to the west, and
Indonesia's Sulawesi Island to the south. The
Celebes Sea opens southwest through the Makassar
Strait, which is increasingly used by large crude
oil tankers unable to use the shallower Strait of
Malacca.
The Sulu Archipelago (comprising
the islands of Basilan, Jolo and Tawi-Tawi),
Mindanao and Sulawesi have all been neglected by
the central governments in Manila and Jakarta for
decades, resulting in poor governance, corruption
and high levels of poverty and unemployment.
In addition, Mindanao has been wracked by
over three decades of insurgency and separatist
conflict. As a result, the Sulu and Celebes Seas
have become notorious for illegal maritime
activities such as smuggling, piracy, and
trafficking in illegal narcotics, guns and people;
in short, it is an ungoverned space. What most
concerns security analysts is the utilization of
the maritime domain in this area by terrorist
organizations as a base of operations.
The
locus of the problem is the southern Philippines,
home to the terrorist organization the Abu Sayyaf
Group (ASG) and the separatist group the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The ASG has been
based on the islands of Basilan and Jolo since its
foundation in the early 1990s, and is very
familiar with the surrounding maritime area.
It was from these islands that the ASG
launched raids against tourist resorts in Malaysia
and Palawan Island in 2000 and 2001, receiving
large ransoms in return. The ASG was also
responsible for the world's deadliest act of
maritime terrorism to date, the sinking of the MV
Superferry 14 in February 2004 in Manila Bay,
which killed 116 people and injured 300.
Both the ASG and MILF have been accused of
conducting piratical attacks in the Sulu and
Celebes Seas as a means of generating income for
their causes. The full extent of this problem,
however, remains unclear as accurate statistics
are not available. Piracy in the southern
Philippines has been a perennial problem—indeed a
way of life—for many centuries.
Ships'
masters are often unwilling or unable to report
attacks to the International Maritime Bureau's
(IMB) Piracy Reporting Center in Kuala Lumpur
because it only receives reports in English via
high frequency radio or fax, and language skills
and equipment are often lacking in the rich
fishing grounds of the triborder sea area. As a
result, the vast majority of maritime depredations
in this area go unreported to the IMB.
For
instance, in early January 2007, the Philippine
authorities rescued dozens of fishermen who had
been held for ransom off Tawi-Tawi, and in March
suspected MILF operatives held 20
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