Bin Laden - the Asia connection

By BBC regional analyst Larry Jagan in Bangkok
27-09-01

They seek him here, they seek him there, they seek the elusive Osama Bin Laden everywhere. Even in east Asia, rumours abound as to his whereabouts.

First he was supposed to be in hiding in China, having fled across the Pamir mountains into China's restive Xinjiang province - a suggestion strenuously denied by the authorities in Beijing. Although few took this very seriously - intelligence experts thought it would be impossible for him to remain there undetected - the US embassy in Beijing sent its foremost resident expert on the area to see for himself.

Then there were reports that Bin Laden's supporters and followers - from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand -were meeting at the Indonesian holiday resort of Batam, not far from Singapore. Bin Laden's connection to Indonesia has long been rumoured. So the search went on.

Planning meeting

The idea that the Bin Laden group was planning further attacks in the small island resort seemed inconceivable. In the midst of the few chalets, long sandy beach and imported rocks that make up this seaside location, a group of Muslim activists would not have remained incognito for very long. The Indonesian police and army chiefs both dismissed the report as totally groundless.

A Thai military intelligence officer dealing with the Muslim movements in southern Thailand dismissed the reports as totally unfounded. While another insurgent expert said it was impossible that a series of independent cells would be meeting, let alone discuss strategy or what to do next.

Underground organisations like Bin Laden's depend on being completely separate, with independent command structures. The search for Bin Laden will go on. It will not be long before the Philippines becomes the next hiding place.

Suspicions

After all, there have long been strong suspicions that Bin Laden is involved with the shady Abu Sayyaf group, responsible for a series of kidnappings over the last year or so. What is clear is that there has been an Afghan connection throughout Asia with several Muslim groups.

Certainly arms and explosives from Afghanistan have made their way into Xinjiang and may well have involved in a series of bomb blasts that have occurred there in the past few years. And two Indonesians accused of involvement in the bombings of a Christian church in 1999, according to the police, were trained in Afghanistan and were members of the Afghan militia there in the early 1990s.

Chasing shadows

But rumours outweigh the reality by far. The Burmese army - hoping the pro-democracy groups along the Thai-Burma border might believe it - circulated their own rumour suggesting that the Taleban were training a rebel ethnic group, the Shan State Army.

No one has taken that rumour seriously - although at least one news organisation reported that the biggest Bin Laden organisation was based in Burma.

So whether predominantly Buddhist or Muslim, most countries in Asia do not seem to have dispelled the rumours that Bin Laden is taking refuge there.