No trace of terrorist accounts found in Indonesia, says BI
Dadan Wijaksana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The central bank has so far found no trace of accounts in Indonesia belonging to members of a United Nations list of suspected international terrorists, a Bank Indonesia official said.
"According to the reports we received from banks in the country, none of the 300 names included on the UN list has an account in Indonesia," Yunus Husein, BI's director for legal affairs, said on Friday.
The list of suspected terrorist organizations was sent out globally by the UN's Security Council as part of the war on terror following the Sept. 11 attacks on New York's World Trade Center and Washington's Pentagon building.
The UN asked all countries to track down and freeze bank accounts belonging to the organizations so as to deny them funds for their activities.
There has been a great deal of pressure on Indonesia to follow up on the UN's request, as many countries consider Indonesia to be a safe haven for international terrorists. But Indonesia has been seen as being reluctant to take part in the war against terrorism, repeatedly claiming there were no terrorists in the country.
Indonesia only admitted to the presence of terrorists in the country after the deadly bomb attack in Bali two weeks ago, which claimed at least 190 lives.
Asked whether the central bank had received orders from the Attorney General's Office or the police to track down and freeze the accounts of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, Yunus said: "I have no knowledge of that (the orders). So far I have not received such orders."
The police have declared Surakarta-based Muslim cleric Ba'asyir, who is also chairman of the Indonesian Mujahiddin Council (MMI), a suspect in a series of bombs attacks in the country.
Ba'asyir has been also accused by neighboring countries of being the spiritual leader of Jamaah Islamiah (JI), the Southeast Asian Islamic organization suspected of being the region's arm of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
The government also plans to establish a money laundering commission to boost efforts to track down funds belonging to terrorists in the country. Yunus has been tapped to head the commission, but his appointment was only announced after the Bali bombing.
Yunus has been given six months to set up the commission, called the Financial Transaction and Report Analysis Center (PPATK), which will have the authority to analyze and investigate suspicious transactions and to report the findings to the authorities for further investigation.
Aside from terrorist funds, the commission also will deal with the practice of converting money generated from corruption, bribery, smuggling, banking-related crimes, drug-related crimes and human trafficking into legal investments.