November 29, 2002	Friday	Ramazan 23, 1423

MANILA, Nov 28: Australia, Canada and the European Union closed their embassies in the Philippines on Thursday in response to specific terrorist threats by Islamic extremists.

Armed police secured the Australian embassy and the EU office, both occupants of an office tower in the Makati financial district of Manila, as well as the Canadian embassy three blocks away.

Members of the elite police Special Action Force unit armed with assault rifles patrolled the streets of Makati in combat uniform, as Manila police chief Reynaldo Velasco said he had ordered tighter security at all foreign embassies in the city.

No other foreign embassies were known to have closed — the US mission is closed for the Thanksgiving holiday but a spokesmen said it would reopen on Friday.

Western diplomatic missions across Southeast Asia have sporadically shut their doors since a wave of threats linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network and its regional allies around the September 11 anniversary.

Fears of new attacks have intensified since the October 12 Bali terrorist bombing, and a spate of bomb blasts in the southern Philippines and Manila last month which left 23 people dead. Many Australians were killed in the Bali attacks.

Filipino police said Thursday they saw five foreign-looking men taking photographs and video footage of the Australian embassy last Friday who ran away when accosted.

“There is a specific and credible threat towards the mission and a decision was taken to close the embassy,” Australian embassy defense attache Captain Greg Sutton told reporters.

He declined to discuss the nature and source of the threat.

Australian ambassador Ruth Pearce and Canadian envoy Robert Collette later Thursday were in a closed door meeting with Foreign Secretary Blas Ople and Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes, officials said.

“They are talking with Secretary Ople,” foreign office spokesman Victoriano Lecaros said, but stressed Manila understood the envoys’ concerns.

He said the missions’ closure did not mean “a break off of diplomatic relations” and that the the two foreign governments had “legitimate security concerns.”

“Their obligation is to their people,” he said.

In Australia, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the threat came from “Islamic extremists, fundamentalist people.”

He said his ministry also renewed a standing advisory for Australians to avoid non-essential travel anywhere in the Philippines.

“They are targeting specific nationalities, they’re not just targeting Westerners,” Downer said. “The threat is rather specific, that is the threat is against the embassy itself, the building itself.”

Canadian embassy counsellor Heather Forton told AFP the embassy had received a specific threat, while the Canadian government website carried an advisory urging Canadians to avoid the Philippines.

Australian consular personnel are set to work from a Manila hotel during the embassy’s indefinite closure.

A foreign diplomat, asking to remain anonymous, said the EU delegation office was closed because it was in the same building as the Australian embassy.

Southeast Asia has a growing reputation as a frontline in the war against terror, with much focus on the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) Islamic militant network, which has been linked to al-Qaeda.—AFP