Government searching for assets of terrorists

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.