Diplomat warns of terror's far reach
The Australian ^ | 7th October 2006 | Cameron Stewart
theaustralian.news.com.au
ISLAMIC terrorism has become a deeply interconnected global phenomenon, with terrorists having killed more Australian civilians than American or British civilians in the past five years, Australia's ambassador to the US, Dennis Richardson, warned yesterday.
Mr Richardson said it was a mistake to "compartmentalise" terrorist attacks in Bali, London and elsewhere, without recognising the growing common global ideological links between them.
"It is all part of the one story ... unless you understand that then you are not seeing what is happening globally and how it's connected," Mr Richardson told an audience at Washington's Georgetown University.
Mr Richardson used a strongly worded speech in the US capital to dispel the perception among many Americans that Australia was somehow remote from the threat of terrorism.
"You mention to an American audience that more Australian civilians have been killed in absolute numbers in terrorist attacks since 9/11 and people are surprised," he said.
"People say, 'Oh, there's been a lot more British people killed that Australians'. Well, wrong."
Mr Richardson said this perception was fuelled by widespread media coverage in the US given to the London bombings last year relative to the second Bali bombing several months later.
But in reality, more Australian civilians had been killed by terrorists since September 11, 2001, than have Americans, British, French or Germans.
Almost 100 Australians have been killed in terrorist attacks in the past five years, including 88 in the first Bali bombings of October 2002.
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