Bali hosts meeting to combat terror financing

Bali hosts meeting to combat terror financing

Agence France-Presse, Jakarta

A regional conference on fighting money laundering and terrorist financing starts Tuesday in Bali, some two months after the bombing which killed more than 190 people and devastated the Indonesian island's tourist trade.

The venue for the two-day meeting was decided before the blast but keeping it unchanged is an act of defiance, Indonesian officials have said.

"The holding of the conference in Bali is all the more relevant after the Bali bombing. We want to show that we will not bow to the terrorists," foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said last month.

"Disrupting the financing of terrorist activities is a key effort in combating terrorism."

The conference will be co-hosted by Australia, 88 of whose nationals were killed in Bali.

Justice Minister Chris Ellison and Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda will deliver keynote speeches to delegates from 33 countries from Asia and the Pacific Rim, ranging from Canada to the Cook Islands.

Government officials, senior members of key international organizations and private-sector executives will take part.

The conference "represents an important opportunity to strengthen efforts in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing in the Asia-Pacific region," the Indonesian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Discussions will have little apparent relevance to the Bali blast, which according to investigators was financed with just 30,000 dollars.

Rather than discuss specific cases, the conference is expected to hear about the legal and administrative steps which participating nations have taken to combat terrorism, a foreign ministry official said.

In Indonesia's case that includes an emergency presidential anti-terror decree which allows for detention without trial of terror suspects for up to six months. Indonesia has also passed a law to combat money laundering.

"We have a high commitment to attack terrorism and fight against terrorist financing including money laundering," the official said.

Although the commitment is there, the country lacks technical expertise needed to deal with such crimes, he said.

A closing statement is expected to affirm the nations' commitment to work together, the official said.

Investigators say the cash that financed the Bali bombing came from a man called Hambali, a suspected leading member of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. He gave money to a Malaysian called Wan Min who in turn passed it on to a man called Mukhlas, they say.

Mukhlas, who is believed to have taken over from Hambali as operations chief of regional terror group Jamaah Islamiyah, is in custody in Bali while Wan Min is being held in Malaysia.

Hambali is still on the run and being hunted by five governments.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum believes that choking off funds is a valuable tool against terror. APEC finance ministers have agreed on an action plan.

This includes cutting terrorists' access to the international financial system; implementing international agreements and standards; sharing information; setting up programmed to train financial regulators; and ensuring that alternative remittance systems, such as hawala, are not misused by terrorists.

Co-host Indonesia is ironically still on a money laundering blacklist compiled by the G7 Financial Action Task Force.

Central bank official Yunus Husein said in August this reflected several loopholes in the financial system and obstacles in monitoring non-financial institutions.

He said some progress has been made with the passage of anti- money laundering legislation in April, which allows for a supervisory body to be set up.