Malaysia says US approach to terrorism is failing

With Indonesia reeling from yet another bombing blamed on Muslim extremists, top officials in neighboring Malaysia said current measures against international terrorism were fueling the very activity they were meant to stamp out.

Malaysian Minister Mahathir Mohamad and his deputy Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yesterday both warned that terrorist attacks would continue until the political issues underlying them are addressed -- and said the US-led approach had failed so far.

"I don't want to say that we blame them, but we believe the approach of the US will not reduce the threats of terrorists, and this will persist for years as long as the problem of the roots of terrorism [are] not handled," Mahathir told reporters.

Abdullah the Israeli-Palestinian crisis and US support for Israel comprised "the single most important factor driving international terrorism."

"The illegal invasion of Iraq has only aggravated matters further," he said in an opening speech at a conference of academics from Asia-Pacific countries.

US George W. Bush and his allies say they waged war to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein because he was pursuing weapons of mass destruction and might supply them to terrorists.

Abdullah the current fight against terrorism was focused on "punitive and military measures" -- and that such an approach was causing hardship and humiliation for civilian populations, alienating and antagonizing them.

"We play into terrorist hands. We feed their ranks," Abdullah said.

Malaysia, a mostly Muslim country, is a key US ally in the fight against terrorism. Officials have detained without trial scores of alleged members of the extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah, including one who allegedly hosted an al-Qaeda operatives' meeting in 2000.

Jemaah Islamiyah is blamed for last year's nightclub bombings that killed 202 people on Indonesia's Bali island, and is accused of plotting bomb attacks on the US Embassy and other Western targets in Singapore. Officials say Tuesday's hotel bombing that killed at least 10 people in Jakarta bore hallmarks of a Jemaah Islamiyah attack.

Top Malaysian officials yesterday renewed calls for Southeast Asian countries to strengthen intelligence-sharing and other joint measures to limit the possibility of attacks.

"No single country can handle terrorism effectively without the assistance of other countries," Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said.

Abdullah warned that no place was safe.

"This time it was Jakarta," he said. "Before that, it was Bali. Tomorrow, or a month after, or a year, it could be another place. No city, no island, no country is safe."