S’pore ‘should carefully watch situation in Iraq’

NEW YORK — Singapore should carefully watch the conflict in Iraq, a problem that will be magnified if the country becomes destabilised and lawless, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Thursday in an interview with the Singapore media to wrap up a working visit to the United States.

Sunni militants led by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have seized parts of Iraq from the Shia-dominated government, and Syria has also lent resources to fight the rebels.

Mr Lee, who was asked if he was worried that the conflict between Sunnis and Shias in Iraq would affect Singapore, where most Muslims are Sunni, said the conflict was a civil war and not a religious battle. Nonetheless, it “cannot be good news for us”, he said. “You may think it’s a long way away but things in the Middle East have a way of sending out long-distance vibrations and reverberations that can affect us in South-east Asia.”

Last month, Malaysian Ahmad Tarmimi Maliki drove a military SUV filled with explosives into Iraq’s SWAT headquarters in Al Anbar, blowing himself up and killing 25 elite soldiers.

Mr Lee cited this incident and the presence of Malaysians and Indonesians in militia groups in the Middle East. Singaporeans are exposed to the same material on the Internet and may be led astray, which is why the Republic’s Muslim authorities have explained that the conflict was not a jihad but a civil war, he said.

“These are very violent environments — people are fighting, killing one another, bombing, committing suicide bombings. If people go there and fight and after that they come back — some will come back — what happens? They bring back their passions, their ideas, skills, maybe the equipment, and that’s big trouble,” Mr Lee said.

“The Europeans are worried about it, the Americans are worried about it, I think the Indonesians have said they think a few hundred are there. That’s going to be a problem. How do you find them beforehand, stop them and, if they come back, what can you do with them … I think it’s a problem that we in Singapore should watch carefully too.” NEO CHAI CHIN IN NEW YORK