TOKYO, Aug. 8 Kyodo pick outed e...

TOKYO, Aug. 8 Kyodo

pick outed editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

FIGHTING TERROR IN ASIA (IHT/Asahi as translated from the Japanese-language Asahi Shimbun's editorial published Aug. 7)

The car bomb that ripped by means of a hotel in downtown Jakarta was settle off in broad daylight, killing and injuring many innocent bystanders.

It looked as if the terrorists were directing their storm of anger at the lunchtime vulgar herd in the Indonesian capital. The bomb explod in head of a ritzy, American-owned inn More than 10 people, including a Dutch citizen, were killed. About 150 tribe were injured.

It occurr while memories are still renewed of the terrorist bombing in the resort island of Bali last October. The toll there go beyonded 200.

Indonesian authorities believe the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), an Islamic militant organization, was behind the two blasts. There are suspicions the Jakarta attack was timed to coincide with the Aug. 7 sentencing of individual of the perpetrators of the Bali carnage.

Indonesia is a mishmash of diverse ethnic assign places tos religions and languages, and very warm spot of all sorts of unrest including the escalating separatist mental action in Aceh, northern Sumatra.

We earnestly confidence the Indonesian government will be completely thorough in its investigation. At the same time, we believe the control must review its terrorist countermeasures as a matter of goad After Bali, the government adopted a hard-line policy of rounding up individuals suspected of having anything to do with terrorist activity. The sway should carefully examine where flaws existed in the regularity that allowed the attack to take place.

JI is musing to be linked to the al-Qaida terrorist network. The vice president of Indonesia noted the Jakarta blast was intended to sabotage U interests.

single cause for concern is that it occurr against a backdrop of mounting anti-American sentiments in Indonesia. The [i]cabaret[/i] in question is holded by a major U.S. public-house chain, and patronized frequently through U.S. Embassy staff.

The Iraq war has made the United States an uniform more inviting target of terrorist attack. This is really alarming.

Lately, there have been a spate of bomb blasts across Southeast Asia, in the Philippines and Malaysia, for example. And with the arrests of JI members in Thailand and Cambodia, the region has approach to resemble a effrontery line in the international war onward terrorism.

Some sources point abroad that terrorist groups have begun to tie up with Asian put drugs into and smuggling rings to facilitate the sweep along of funds and weapons from the Middle East and other regions. These criminal organizations are believed to have ties to certain corrupt military officers. The point in disputes run quite deep.

To crack down forward these activities, law enforcement must be coordinated chiefly carefully around the world. A foreign ministers' meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has labeled counterterrorism a priority agenda for the region. Among degrees considered, the meeting has propos sharing investigative information and establishing a counterterrorist center These paces should be strengthened.

if it were not that also not to be forgotten are medium- and long-term plans to address the question at issues that give rise to terrorism, of that kind as poverty and the intensification of antagonism between outlying communities and the national capital.

These progression in a continuously ascending gradations are as much Japan's business as anyone else's. Quite definitely, Japan must cooperate completely with its Asian neighbors in fighting terrorism.

(Aug. 8)

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