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Experts: Bioterrorism should worry Asia
More articles on this topic: BioterrorismSINGAPORE (AP) — Hot weather. Crowded communities. Weak public health systems. Conditions like these have turned Southeast Asia into a breeding ground for SARS and bird flu. Now experts warn that the region’s vulnerability to infectious disease could prove devastating in the event of a bioterror attack.
The threat cannot be ruled out: Some of the region’s Islamic militants are believed to be interested in acquiring disease-causing agents or toxins, and any nation allied with the United States is said to be a potential target.
That is why Interpol is hosting a workshop on the threat of bioterrorism in Singapore next week, gathering senior police and government officials from 37 countries around Asia. A similar conference was held in South Africa in November, and another will be held in Chile later this year.
Starting Monday, the delegates in Singapore will discuss lab security, forensic work and laws to prevent bioterrorism, as well as how to respond to a simulated bioterrorist attack.
The United States, which adopted the Bioterrorism Act in 2002 after anthrax sent through the mail killed five people, wants Asian nations to craft similar laws that mandate tighter controls on access to biological agents and toxins.
So far, militants in Southeast Asia have used conventional terror weapons. Jemaah Islamiyah, a group linked to al-Qaida, is accused of deadly bombings, including blasts on the Indonesian resort island of Bali in 2002. The Abu Sayyaf group has carried out bomb attacks and kidnappings in the Philippines.
But detained suspects include Yazid Sufaat, a former Malaysian army captain and a U.S.-trained biochemist linked to al-Qaida’s attempts to produce chemical and biological arms. Yazid was arrested in late 2001 as he returned to Malaysia from Afghanistan.
A Jemaah Islamiyah manual discovered in the Philippines in 2003 indicates interest in acquiring chemical and biological agents for use in a terrorist attack, said Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert based in Singapore.
“It demonstrates serious intent, but not capability,” Gunaratna said.
Terrorists need expertise to acquire pathogens from nature and transform them into a potent weapon. Japan’s Aum Shinrikyo cult, whose homemade sarin chemical agent killed 12 people in 1995, was unable to isolate a virulent strain of anthrax.
But more Asian countries are pursuing biomedical research, which can lead to new treatments, and concern is growing that laboratory materials could fall into the wrong hands.
“The central problem of preventing bioterrorism is, how do police do what they have to do without getting in the way of legitimate bioscience? If somebody’s working with anthrax, are they a good guy or a bad guy?” said Barry Kellman, a weapons control expert at the DePaul University College of Law in Chicago.
Kellman said Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam are among countries that need to reinforce laws to cope with the threat of bioterrorism.
A weak regulatory environment in China has raised U.S. concerns about proliferation of technologies that could be used to make biological weapons. Washington says North Korea has a biological weapons program, though concern about proliferation by the communist country has focused on nuclear activities.
Southeast Asia would be vulnerable to an attack because many countries are prone to the fast spread of infections and epidemics, according to health officials. Anthrax is not contagious, but smallpox is. Agents can be spread by food contamination, or infected mosquitoes and rats.
An outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain has hit Southeast Asia the hardest, killing more than 80 people in Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia and Thailand since 2003.
Singapore, a close U.S. ally, views its 2003 fight against SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, as preparation for a bioterrorist attack. Experts used computers to track people who might have had contact with patients of the disease, which spread from Asia across the world, killing nearly 800 people.
Last year, Singapore passed a law that imposes life in prison on anyone who uses biological agents and toxins for a “non-peaceful purpose.”
Part of the problem is that some industrial technology available on the market could also be used to attempt to make biological weapons, said Manjunath K.S. of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies in New Delhi, India. For example, he said, a machine that ferments molasses to produce beer could also be used to make deadly toxins.
“You can have industries that unintentionally give it out to customers, who may have other designs,” he said.
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