Indonesia Agrees to Help Myanmar in Dealing with Terrorism

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister for Security, Law and Political Affairs Wiranto said Indonesia will help Myanmar in coping with possible emergence of terrorism in that country.

Myanmar has been worried that groups of radicals of the Iraq and Syria Islamic States (ISIS) night slip into that country using the opportunity with the return of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh, Wiranto said.

"We want to help by sharing knowledge and experience to prevent terrorist from establishing new base in the region," he said on Wednesday.

He said with the ISIS getting weaker and losing ground in the Philippines, it is very much possible they would look for other places as new base in this region and using the opportunity that might be open with the return of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.

That possibility has prompted the government of Myanmar to take precautionary steps to be more on guard against ISIS, he said.

Myanmar, therefore, wants to learn from the experience of Indonesia, which has several times succeeded in coordinating with other countries to cope with terrorism, he added.

It is impossible for a country alone to overcome terrorism, he said, adding, countries have to cooperate in dealing with terrorism as terrorism has no state borders and is not bound by regulations and choose no targets," he said.

"Perhaps this month they (Myanmar) would send a military team to Indonesia to discuss ways of overcoming possible terrorism," Wiranto said.

Yangon has agreed on the return of thousands of Rohingya refugees who were earlier forced to leave their villages Rakhine in Myanmar following communal conflict between the Buddhist majority and the mostly Muslim Rohingya minority there.

ANTARA