Indonesian anti-terrorism squad shot dead two suspected militants in Solo; Indonesia to launch LAPAN A2 in 2013; Prominent exiled student leader of Myanmar returns home; India and ASEAN to review developments on FTA in services and investment; India to ho
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    • According to reports, an Indonesian anti-terrorism squad shot dead two suspected militants and arrested another in Solo, Indonesia. A squad member also died in the shootout, which came a day after the militants killed a police officer following the arrest of a key member of a terror cell. Reportedly, members of the group were planning more attacks on Indonesia's main island of Java. An elite anti-terrorism squad tried to capture the three suspects on August 31 at a food stall in Central Java's Solo town, the hometown of radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, but shot them when they opened fire, killing two and wounding another, who was then arrested. One of the suspects shot dead a member of the anti-terrorism squad. It would be worth noting that recent terror attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation have been by individuals or small groups, targeting local "infidels" instead of Westerners, with less deadly results. 1
    Reports noted that Indonesia’s Institute of Aeronautics and Space Agency (Lapan) successfully completed the Satellite Lapan A2 which is the successor of the Satellite Lapan Tubsat. Later, this satellite will carry out the mission earth observation, monitoring of ships and amateur radio communications in the middle of 2013. In addition to having the ability to monitor the Earth’s surface through video survailence A2 added more sensors, the advanced receiver Automatic Identification System (AIS), an amateur radio payload through Posisition Automatic Reporting System (APRS) and analog and digital video cameras are better than Satellite Lapan Tubsat. The satellite weighs 78 kilograms will be diagonally across parts of Indonesia as much as 14 times a day, with a range of 20-minute turnaround. In orbit AIS, LAPAN A2 has a detection radius of over 100 km and has the ability to receive signals from a maximum of 2000 ships in a coverage area. 2
    Reports noted that Trade ministers of India and 10-member ASEAN will review the progress of ongoing negotiations to widen the base of free trade agreement between them by including services and investments. Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma, who is on a four-day visit to Siem Reap (Cambodia), would participate in the Asean Economic Ministers (AEM) meet. The India-ASEAN trade in goods agreement was signed in August 2010 after six years of negotiations and it came into force on January 1 last year. 3
    Meanwhile, India is hosting the sixth Mekong Ganga Cooperation Meetings on September 3 and 4, 2012 in New Delhi. Senior officials would be meeting on September 3 and the Foreign Ministers would meet on September 4. The Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC) was launched on November 10, 2000 in Vientiane, Lao Peoples Democratic Republic setting out a vision for cooperation amongst India and the five Mekong region countries - Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand. 4
    In other developments, according to reports, a prominent Myanmar student leader, who was sentenced to death in his absence, has returned to the country - the latest in a series of leading exiles to do so. Moe Thee Zun headed student protests that were crushed by the military in 1988. Several dissident leaders have returned recently, after Myanmar removed 2,082 people from its blacklist. The move is the latest reformist step taken by the military-backed government. Moe Thee Zun and some of his supporters fled Rangoon in 1988. They went to the remote border regions and fought alongside ethnic rebels against the junta. The student leader later went into exile in the US. Moe Thee Zun said he decided to return to Burma to discuss national reconciliation. 5

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