International Day for the Prevention of Violent Extremism as and when Conducive to Terrorism

Introduction

The 12th of February is commemorated as the International Day for the Prevention of Violent Extremism as and When Conducive to Terrorism. Violent extremism is the notion that violent activities are required to reach ideological or political objectives. A clear indicator that shows how violent extremism can turn into terrorism is when the violence committed is used to force or intimidate a population or a government to follow their demands. An incident that occurred on 23 May, 2017 saw the emergence of a terrorist group located in Marawi, The Philippines. This was not just an ordinary terrorist group as it is the so-called ISIS of Southeast Asia led by Isnilah Hapilon and the Maute group. The group took control of the city of Marawi and fought for over 5 months against the Philippines government.

The Background

Mindanao, a region in the Philippines known as a suitable location for the gathering of radical groups, is an autonomous region located in the southern part of the Philippines where it is mostly inhabited by Muslim residents. The region is also home to many radical groups such as ISIS, Maute group, and many more. The Muslims living in Mindanao has held a grudge against the Philippine government as they were never treated equally as compared to their christian counterparts. A research conducted by the United Nations University shows that one-third of the adult population in 2010 had only received secondary level education as the Muslim ethnic groups only spend around 6 years in school. Arguably, the lack of education combined with the hatred towards the government made a conducive environment for the presence of radical groups. Unbeknownst to anyone, this led to an intense battle between the Philippine government and the extremists. ISIS, together with the Maute group were able to transport militants to Marawi in many ways, including recruitments through social media. The Maute group leader, Omar Maute, used Facebook to invite supporters to join their ‘jihad’ in Marawi. The supporters were then helped by Dr. Mahmud Ahmad, a Malaysian professor turned militant who was responsible for recruiting and funding the operation. Dr. Ahmad would gather the supporters in one place and they would together travel to the Philippines. 2 entry points were chosen as a primary route, the city of Zamboanga and General Santos, which are accessible by boat and ferry used by the militants for their main transportation.

Escalation

A raid was then conducted by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in coordination with the Philippine National Police (PNP); aimed to capture the leaders of the Maute group. The raid was done based on the information about the Marawi take over during Ramadan on 26 May 2017. Instead, the raid team spotted Isnilon Hapilon, one of ISIS leaders, and the leader of the Abu Sayyaf group. During the raid, Hapilon was in the process of consolidating with the Maute group; both the Maute brothers and Hapilon were able to escape safely from the raid and then fought in the city of Marawi. As a response to the raid, the militants began roaming around the streets of Marawi and caused chaos by kidnapping civilians, violating churches, and releasing inmates from prison.

President Duterte then decided to put Mindanao under Proclamation No. 216 of martial law, giving all the authority to the AFP to control the whole situation. The gruesome war was characterised by constant gun sounds and airstrikes resulting in the city left in ruins. Over 200,000 civilians were evacuated to the nearby safe area, whereas many other civilians were unable to evacuate and held hostage. After the deaths of  Hapilon and Omar Maute, liberation was declared by President Duterte, though this did not stop the militants from surrendering. On October 23, 2017, the battle finally ended after Delfin Lorenzana, Philippines minister of defence declared that there were no more militants in Marawi. The war caused many lives to be lost from both sides, the Philippine government lost 168 government forces during the war and more than 1.400 government forces were injured, on the other side, there were 978 ISIS militants killed.

Asean State Members Obligation to Prevent Terrorism

The ASEAN Convention on Counter Terrorism (ACCT) is a Convention agreed upon by South East Asian countries. This binds all ASEAN states  to comply with the obligation stated in the Convention, the obligation that is stated in the convention are made mainly to prevent terrorism from happening by setting out measurement, counteracts, and protocols to stop terrorism. For example, the area of cooperation between the state parties of the convention provided in Article VI are, but not limited to, exchange of intelligence or information, and effective border control to prevent terrorist movements.

Another convention that ASEAN state members ratify is the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism. This convention aims to prevent all kinds of financial support that the terrorists receive. The Convention itself is made to prevent terrorism activity from happening in the future, but the Marawi incident shows that the measures taken by ASEAN state members are insufficient.

Asean Failed Prevention

This event raises questions regarding the preparedness of ASEAN member states to face terrorist threats in their area. Article 1 of the ASEAN Charter shows that the main purposes of ASEAN are to promote and maintain regional peace, and ensure that the people of member states live in harmony. In this case, ASEAN failed to supervise and monitor the region regularly, which led to ISIS transporting militants and supporters to Marawi. ASEAN also failed to prevent financial support from ISIS supporters as Abu Sayyaf Group and Maute Group received a considerable amount of financial support from ISIS which allowed them to prepare for the siege well. It is estimated that ISIS funnelled $600,000 to Dr. Mahmud Ahmad, which was then sent directly towards the militants in the Philippines. Moreover, the AFP found around $1.5 million, or 80 million pesos in the form of cash and checks. This amount of money is a mix of funds given by the locals to support the militants. In this case, ASEAN has failed to prevent both cross border terrorist funding and  the movement of foreign terrorist fighters. Whilst, the Philippines in particular, has failed to prevent the social inequality that the Muslims living in Mindanao are facing. This was capitalised on by ISIS to brainwash the population into being radical by using social media as a means of both recruiting and fueling the hatred of the people. The hatred that has been rooted in them since the Spanish invasion in the 1500s.

Conclusion and Solution

The amount of time it took and the damage the militants caused shows that the ASEAN member states are not prepared to handle this kind of situation. The war left a lot of opportunity for development, and solutions that need to be found. These solutions are very significant in preventing another terrorist attack from happening in the future. The siege of Marawi portrays the AFP’s and ASEAN state member’s lack of experience and preparation in handling terrorism, since the siege, the ASEAN member states have taken counterterrorism seriously in the form of militarization. Frameworks regarding counterterrorism are made by the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting (“ADMM”), the ADMM aims to improve stability, transparency, and openness among ASEAN members, and it also acts as the highest defense consultative in ASEAN. In February 2018 the ASEAN defense officials signed the Our Eyes Initiative, it is a result of the ADMM meeting in the form of a framework. The main goal of Our Eyes Initiative is to counter terrorism in the form of information exchange and cooperation among countries. Another framework that was implemented by the ADMM is the 3R framework which stands for Resilience, Respond, and Recovery. Announced by the defense minister of Singapore, the framework aims to build a strong resilience against radicalism, prevent future terrorist attacks, coordinate counterterrorism attacks, and recover from terrorist attacks. ASEAN states members should train their forces more, especially when it comes to a real terrorism attack. The 5 months it took for the government to shut the militants down is a very long time causing more losses. ASEAN member states may need to train their forces more on active counter-terrorism, active counter-terrorism includes the tracking of terrorist financing, gathering intelligence on suspects, enhancement of law enforcement and border security.

In addition, discrimination is also one of the things that can lead to terrorism as it creates a feeling of segregation on two sides, the ones who got discriminated felt that they are being treated differently, this can cause unfair disadvantages, humiliation, and the feeling of being excluded. Those who got discriminated against would take matters into their own hands and make changes, one of the acts being terrorism. The implementation of an Anti-Discrimination policy is needed to raise public awareness about discrimination, people need to be aware of how they behave towards others that are different from them, this is followed by educating the people about discrimination so that the public would be more tolerant to others different from them.