- (AFP) - The September 11 terror attacks on the United
States were a warning of worse atrocities to come, US Deputy Defence Secretary
Paul Wolfowitz said.
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- There were warning signs that "as terrorists continue
to murder innocents, their methods will only grow more deadly", he
told a conference here of Asia-Pacific, North American and European defence
ministers and policymakers.
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- "It would be a mistake to think that we have seen
either the last or the worst of such attacks. It would be a mistake to
think that, in the future, they will strike only in the United States."
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- The conference on Asian security has locked on to the
issues of global terrorism and the immediate neighbourhood threat of a
war between India and Pakistan.
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- Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes, who is involved
in a series of bilateral meetings on the margins of the conference, has
played down the threat of war, describing the situation along the tense
border with Pakistan as "stable".
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- But his assurances have done little to dispel fears among
several countries, including the United States, New Zealand, Britain and
Canada which are among the more than 20 countries at the Singapore meeting
and which have begun recalling their New Delhi-based diplomats.
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- The United Nations joined them on Saturday in advising
relatives of staff to leave India and Pakistan.
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- Fernandes has been given a clear message that "there
is a general concern in the international community about the horrific
consequences" of a full-scale war between the nuclear-armed rivals,
Singapore Defence Minister Tony Tan said.
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- "I'm sure the Indian minister will have carried
away his impressions of the views of the ministers represented at this
conference."
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- Pakistan is not represented at the meeting, as its geographical
location did not fit the accepted definition of Asia-Pacific, said conference
organisers from the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies.
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- Wolfowitz, in his keynote speech, extended warnings from
US Vice President Dick Cheney earlier this month that "there is no
doubt" further attacks were being planned in the United States.
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- The deputy defence secretary said the threat was global
and "threatens hundreds of millions of moderate Muslims in East Asia
who are among the principal targets of the terrorists".
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- Intelligence analysts have reported increased communications
among al-Qaeda cells, held responsible for the September 11 carnage, which
they said could be an indication that preparations for a new terrorist
attack were under way.
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- In a speech opening the conference on Friday, Singapore
Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew said al-Qaeda militants linked to Osama bin
Laden were plotting to overthrow governments in Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines and Singapore to set up an Islamic state.
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- Malaysian Defence Minister Najib Razak appealed for "international
solidarity" in the war against terror, and said countries should look
within for possible causes of extremism.
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- "We may well find under-development, inquality,
oppression, injustice, poverty and deprivation ... to be the ingredients
that have fed into the propaganda machine of extremists," Najib said,
calling on Washington to also take a lead in a global war against "injustice,
poverty and underdevelopment".
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