Govt approval awaited to freeze accounts

Govt approval awaited to freeze accounts

Nugroho and Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya/Medan

The Bank of Indonesia (BI) is still waiting for an official
letter from the government to freeze the accounts of seven
Indonesian terrorist suspects, BI deputy governor Hartadi Sarwono
said Wednesday.

The seven Indonesians -- Imam Samudra, Yasin Syawal,
Parlindungan Siregar, Aris Munandar, Agus Dwikarna, Mukhlas and
Fatur Rochman Al-Ghozi -- are among 10 terrorist suspects
proposed by the United States over the weekend to be listed with
the United Nations (UN) Counter Terrorism Committee (CTC).

The proposal automatically became a United Nations (UN)
resolution should there be no objections to the proposal from
member countries.

The United Nations Security Council is expected to announce
officially the resolution Thursday Indonesian time.

Washington froze the accounts of the same terrorist suspects
and submitted their names to the UN. Should there be no objection
within 72 hours, all member countries should follow suit.

The U.S. said that the suspects were linked with the Jamaah
Islamiyah (JI) terrorist network, which was listed at the CTC in
November last year.

JI has been accused of responsibility for the Oct. 12 Bali
bombings last year and the recent JW Marriott Hotel bombing in
Jakarta.

Hartadi said only after BI received the official letter would
it issue letters ordering banks to freeze the accounts of the
seven suspects.

"Only if a request had been made by the authoritative
institutes, both police and the Attorney General's Office, then
we will freeze their accounts."

Hartadi said the regulation on the account freezing was
already available.

On Tuesday, Minister for Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirajuda said
that police and BI authorities had started monitoring the
accounts of the seven suspects and were ready to freeze them if
they located them.

Separately, Chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly
(MPR) Amien Rais suggested the government not hesitate to freeze
the accounts of the suspects, particularly before their
involvement were proved in court.

He said Indonesia should not worry about all the pressures
from foreign countries on solving the terrorism acts.

"I agree with the policy to freeze the terrorists' accounts,
but again it should be proven. We should rely on our law, our
very own capabilities to solve this issue," he said.

Chairman of the House of Representative (DPR) Akbar Tandjung
expressed similar views, saying that allegations that the seven
Indonesian nationals had links with terrorist groups should be
proven.

He underlined what should be revealed was more on the use of
the accounts.

Akbar also said that assets that belonged to the terrorist
suspects but were not used for terrorist interests should not be
frozen.