Malaysia calls on Philippines to brief Asean on Marawi siege

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia yesterday urged the Philippines to hold a special meeting for South-east Asia’s defence ministers, to brief them on the latest developments in the southern Philippine city of Marawi. Militants linked to the Islamic State have been battling government troops there for the past two months.

Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein urged members from the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) to attend the meeting, at a date that has yet to be decided, as any fallout from the ongoing siege will affect the region.

“I have suggested to Philippines Secretary of Defence Delfin Lorenzana that maybe it is a suitable time for them — as the current chair of Asean — to brief defence ministers from all 10 member countries on what is happening in Marawi,” The Star Online quoted him as saying. “This needs to be shared, because perhaps there are member states which do not realise that the IS threat can affect their own positions.”

Mr Hishammuddin said there is a need to take proactive measures to ensure the ongoing siege does not spill through the region, citing an Asean declaration signed in 2015 where member states pledged to work together to fight the threat from the IS.

Militants aligned to the IS seized the town of Marawi, considered the Muslim capital of the largely Catholic Philippines, on May 23 in a bid to create an IS province. The region of 22 million people, which has a history of separatist and Marxist rebellion, was subsequently placed under military rule after rebels from the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups took over parts of the city, plunging the Philippines into its biggest security crisis in years.

Insurgents have put up fierce resistance, with scores of mostly young fighters still holed up in central Marawi through weeks of ground offensives, air strikes and artillery bombardments, prolonging a battle the authorities say has killed hundreds of militants, security forces and civilians.

The crisis in Marawi has unnerved governments across South-east Asia, worried the region could potentially become the next base for the IS, especially with fighters returning home from Iraq after the fall of the group’s Mosul stronghold. Malaysia and Indonesia are working with the Philippines to conduct air and maritime patrols along their shared borders in the Sulu Sea.

Besides conducting joint patrols, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia have also agreed to pool intelligence and tackle militant financing.

Mr Hishammuddin yesterday also said he has received a request from his Indonesian counterpart to intensify the sharing of information between Thailand, Brunei and Singapore.

Last week, Singapore offered to help the Philippines with counter-terrorism and humanitarian efforts in the country’s restive south.

Following a meeting with his Philippine counterpart in Manila last Tuesday, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen offered Singapore’s help to improve the Philippine army’s surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities via the use of a detachment of unmanned aerial vehicles. He also offered to allow Philippine troops to train in the Singapore Armed Forces’ urban training facilities, and to send a Republic of Singapore Air Force C-130 transport aircraft to deliver humanitarian supplies to evacuees from Marawi. AGENCIES