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.