Topic: Countering the Threat Posed by Improvised Explosive Devices
Country: Philippines
Delegate Name: Abby Vander Vliet
School: Forest Hills Eastern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Philippines position papers GLIMUN 2017 committees
Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) pose an imminent threat to our world. In 2013 alone 26,887 people were injured by IEDs, 85% were civilians. While IEDs have been used since the first world war, they are becoming widely used by non-state terrorists groups. Remaining in locations after war is over, IEDs put innocent lives at risk. In 1996, the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) banned IEDs by categorizing them as “other devices” for the 115 nations that ratified the CWC. It is impossible to fully quantify the harm caused by IEDs because there is not reliable, comprehensive data, but the damage that has been done is already too much.
Targeting regional governments in the Philippines, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a Southeast Asian militant extremist Islamist terrorist group with links to al-Qaida and the Abu Sayyaf Group, aims to establish an Islamic state (Daulah Islamiyah Nusantara) in Southeast Asia. JI are using IEDs in Marawi, on the island of Mindanao, and have caused the displaced 400,000 people. During the attack on July 22, 2017, one of the IEDs was wrapped in a towel and it is believed that it could be remotely detonated. IEDs were set to target military troops, however, civilians were injured and/or killed. The four stages that the Philippine government has been taking to counter this threat are: clearing the area of presence of terrorists, IEDs, dead bodies, and disease-causing viruses. More non-state terrorist groups are being trained on how to use IEDs by expert bomb maker Zulkifli Abdhir, more popularly known as “Marwan.” Abdhir is now dead but he spawned hundreds of bomb makers when he was still alive. Over the past two years, Marwan was able to train around 300 bomb makers in Central Mindanao. The Philippines have already allotted around $55,900 US dollars for 45 explosive detection dogs to be used by Philippine National Police’s (PNP) Aviation Security Group. Furthermore, we have enhanced intelligence and information-sharing with other agencies and foreign counterparts on terrorists and their activities in the region. We have increased Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and PNP training on explosive incident countermeasures, post-blast investigation, advanced computer forensics, and cell phone forensics support from US (JSOTF-P). We have established the Anti-Terrorism Council, Philippine Bomb Data Center, Rewards System, Coast Watch South, and the Inter-Agency Protocol for Explosives-Related Incidents Investigation. The Philippines would like to strongly reduce the use and accessibility of IEDs, along with increasing education for civilians.
To increase public awareness and education efforts, the Philippines proposes adding public education on recognition of IEDs to avoid civilian deaths. The Philippines would like to see an increased control of the sale of commercially available IED materials and components to reduce non-state terrorists gaining access to IED elements. Another change we propose is increasing equipment and manpower resources to perform bomb detection. Furthermore, we urge the UN to increase bomb investigation techniques and forensic capacity We would like to enhance port security, border management and patrol to protect state borders from non-state terrorists entering the nation. The Philippines have signed and ratified the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty along with the Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), we urge nations who have not yet signed to do so. Finally, we urge nations to join the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) and other related humanitarian disarmament advocacies.
