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Singapore
PM says not sure how alleged militant escaped
Koh
Gui Qing
Reuters
10 Mar
08
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSSIN26727320080310
The
prison escape of an alleged top Islamic militant in Singapore is
a blow for the city-state, although it is still not clear how the
breakout occured, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said.
The
Straits Times newspaper quoted Lee as saying on Monday that the
Feb 27 escape of Mas Selamat bin Kastari, the alleged leader of
the Singapore wing of Islamic militant network Jemaah Islamiah
(JI), was due to complacency among security officials.
"The
escape is undoubtedly a setback and it should never have
happened," Lee said in his first public comments of the
breakout that has sparked an apology from the government, a
manhunt involving thousands of policemen, and an urgent global
security alert from world police group Interpol.
"It's
the danger of complacency, of thinking that everything is all
right," he said. "How did it happen? We're not
absolutely sure yet."
The government has not
explained how Kastari, who is thought to have escaped unarmed and
walks with a limp, broke out of the detention centre apart from
saying that a security lapse led to him slipping away from a
toilet.
The JI has been blamed for several deadly bombing
attacks in Southeast Asia, including the 2002 bombings that
killed more than 200 people on Indonesia's resort island of
Bali.
Lee said the government has no reason to think
Kastari has left Singapore, and that there is a "good
chance" of arresting him if he is still in the
country.
Experts said the escape is seen as an
embarrassment for Singapore which prides itself on having a
sophisticated security system.
They say Kastari may head
to Indonesia where he can find support from local JI
networks.
Lee Kuan Yew, the first prime minister of modern
Singapore and father of the prime minister, was quoted as saying
in the Straits Times on Saturday that Singapore could be dealt
with a "return hit sometime" if Kastari slips into
Indonesia.
However, Indonesia's Foreign Ministry was
quoted earlier by the Straits Times as saying that Kastari will
not be sent back to Singapore if he was caught in Indonesia
because the two countries do not have an extradition
agreement.
Calling the escape a "very severe lesson
of complacency", the elder Lee said authorities were
"confident that they had their prisoner sized up, but he had
sized up his custodians in turn".
Singapore,
a strong U.S. ally and a major base for Western businesses, sees
itself as a prime terrorist target in the region after it foiled
JI plots in 2001 to attack its airport and other targets,
including the U.S. embassy.
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