WSJ: Asean nations forge "watershed" convention against terrorism

The Wall Street Journal heralds what it describes as the "watershed" pact the The Association of Southeast Asian Nations forged over the weekend to counter terrorism at their conference in the Philippines.

As the WSJ points out, the Asean convention provides a "stark reality check" in affirming that "terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations, committed wherever, whenever, and by whomsoever, is a profound threat to international peace and security and a direct challenge to the attainment of peace, progress and prosperity for Asean."

Signatories are compelled to implement measures that will cut off the flow of terrorist funding, prosecute terrorism suspects as efficiently as possible, and establish a regional database to track their activities and movements.

As the WSJ points out, while some of the Asean nations were swift to strengthen their counterterrorism laws after 9/11, other members of the group - namely, Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam - have done very little, and so this pact is a welcome measure that should finally force them to act.

"Why now?" the WSJ asks and then posits: "Perhaps the Asean nations finally understand that terrorism is a threat to every kind of government -- democratic, autocratic, Communist. Perhaps they feel pressured to show that Asean is a meaningful group in the face of other, overlapping regional alphabet-soup clubs, such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the East Asia Summit."