Government searching for assets of terrorists

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Amidst doubt over the Indonesian government's willingness to fight terrorism, high-ranking security officials contended that they were taking measures to fulfill the United Nations Security Council resolution on freezing assets that allegedly belong to terrorist groups.

National Police Chief Gen. Surojo Bimantoro said on Sunday that his office is coordinating with the International Police (Interpol) concerning possible terrorist assets in the country.

"We are coordinating with Interpol. We are also processing matters with related agencies in the country," Bimantoro said, after seeing President Megawati Soekarnoputri off to attend the ASEAN summit in Brunei Darussalam.

The four-star general added that the police would ask the central bank to freeze terrorists' accounts or assets should the organization violate Indonesian law or ignore information from Interpol.

"We are waiting for coordination with Interpol on such matters," he said, adding that so far he had yet to receive any information of terrorist groups in the country.

Indonesia is considered reluctant to deal with terrorist issues and is a country in which extremists have organizational links with global terrorist groups.

Earlier, the Governor of the Central Bank Syahril Sabirin was reported to have said that he could not freeze any assets allegedly belonging to terrorist groups without a request from the national police.

Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono contended that the government would fulfill the UN Security Council resolution on freezing terrorist assets.

"We are still working on the issue and we will fulfill the resolution because Indonesia is a member country of the United Nations," he remarked.

The minister also said that the Attorney General's Office had sent a letter to the central bank to pave ways for coordination on the issue, while the national police was working with Interpol.