Singapore Launch Terrorism Research Centre (21 Feb 2004)

Singapore launched a terrorism research centre that will collate information regarding the motives and methods of terrorists yesterday. The centre is manned by 16 international researchers speaking 12 languages whom are aged between 20 to 30 years old. These researchers are from the United States, Europe, Sudan, Morocco and Asia. They range from military officials to religious scholars.

The purpose of the centre, called the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, is to build and maintain a regional database of terror incidents and terrorist profiles together with a library of video, posters, photographs, training manuals and other documents collected from terror camps in South-East Asia and Afghanistan.

The centre has so far amassed more than 250 videos recovered from the Al-Qaeda registry in Afghanistan and has translated the Pupji, the Jemaah Islamiah's constitution into English.

Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng stressed the importance of the centre yesterday. He said that It is only when we have a fuller or better knowledge of the terrorist's intentions, capabilities, targets, modus operandi, ideology, strengths and weakness, then we have a firmer foundation to arrive at realistic and effective solutions to the terrorist threat.