Banks ordered to block Indonesians' assets

Banks ordered to block Indonesians' assets

USA: The government ordered U.S. banks to block any financial
assets in the United States of three Indonesians who are alleged
to be leaders of the al-Qaeda-lined Southeast Asian terrorist
group Jamaah Islamiyah (JI).

The Treasury Department added on Thursday Zulkarnaen, Abu
Rusdan and Joko Pitono to its blocking list, which names
terrorist suspects and seeks to freeze their assets.

Zulkarnaen, whose real name is Aris Sumarsono, is believed by
regional security officials to have stepped in as Jamaah
Islamiyah's operations chief in 2003 after the group's main
contact with al-Qaeda, an Indonesian called Hambali, was
arrested.

Abu Rusdan was imprisoned last year for helping hide one of
the suspects in the 2002 nightclub blasts on Indonesia's Bali
island that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.

Washington believes Rusdan replaced cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir
as Jemaah Islamiyah's spiritual leader after Ba'asyir was
arrested in 2002.

Regional security officials say Pitono, also known as
Dulmatin, is a top bombmaker for the group and is a suspect in
several Jamaah Islamiyah bomb plots, including Bali. He is
believed to be hiding in the Philippines. --AP