Hidayat's LP2SI cleard of terror link
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The U.S. government admitted on Thursday it had made a blunder -- listing the address of Hidayat Nur Wahid's Al-Haramain educational foundation as the headquarters of an alleged terror group.
Despite the mistake, no apology was forthcoming from the U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia, Ralph Boyce, who met with the Prosperous and Justice Party leader and presidential aspirant here on Thursday.
The U.S. filed a petition to the United Nations early this year accusing an organization with a similar name to Hidayat's group -- the Al-Haramain -- institution, as one that funded terrorist groups. While the name of the organization was correct, the U.S. had erroneously listed the Hidayat group's address for the headquarters of the Jakarta branch.
The Institution of Pesantren Services and Islamic Studies (LP2SI) Al Haramain, which is lead by Hidayat, is located in Jatipadang, South Jakarta while the Indonesian branch of the Saudi group Al-Haramain is in Duren Sawit, East Jakarta.
"After our further review, which included a consultation with the government of Indonesia and clarifying information provided by officials of LP2SI, the US government has decided to request the UN to make an appropriate technical change and remove the address of LP2SI from the UN's consolidated 1267 list," said Stanley Harsha, the press attache of the US embassy in Jakarta who represented the ambassador.
The UN's consolidated list contains the names of all organizations alleged to be linked with terrorism. Once on the list, an entity is subject to international sanctions such as having their accounts frozen and loans denied.
Harsha said the Indonesian branch of the Saudi-based Al- Haramain organization -- also known as Al-Manahil -- would remain on the UN consolidated list.
Boyce, who spoke with Hidayat for about half an hour, released a written statement. The release made no explicit apology to Hidayat.
According to the statement, on Jan. 22, 2004, the U.S. government and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia jointly requested that the UN 1267 Sanction Committee designate the Indonesian branch of Saudi-based Al-Haramain group as a terrorist group.
"This action was taken after consultations and coordination between the U.S. and Saudi Governments," Harsha said while reading the State Department press release.
The joint U.S-Saudi designation requested that the Indonesian branch be included on the list. The designation also listed the address of LP2SI as an address for the Saudi-based Al-Haramain.
"The ambassador said in our meeting the correction would be made within a few days. However, we will wait until one week and take legal action if no correction is done. We will bring all parties to court if they still continue to accuse us of being a terrorist group," said Hidayat.
The U.S. government has made many claims associating organizations and countries with terrorism, but on many occasions, they have failed to prove the accusations.
In October last year, the U.S. proposed the British Charity Commission, which oversees the operations of all U.K. charity foundations, freeze all accounts belonging to Interpal, a Muslim charity, because it was believed it channeled money to terrorist groups.
A month later, the Charity Commission dropped its investigations because the U.S. could not provide sufficient evidence linking Interpal with terrorism.