Police geared to freeze up JI bank accounts

Police geared to freeze up JI bank accounts

The Jakarta Post
Muninggar Sri Saraswati
and Syaiful Amin
Jakarta/Yogyakarta

The National Police is waiting for an order from the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs to freeze the financial assets of Indonesian
nationals included on the list of 20 alleged members of the al-
Qaeda-linked Jamaah Islamiyah terror group.

"Officially, we have yet to receive the order from the foreign
ministry. But, we can confirm that some of the people on the list
are Indonesian nationals," a top officer at National Police
Headquarters told The Jakarta Post on Saturday, on condition of
anonymity.

He said as soon as the foreign ministry's notification
arrived, the police would issue a request to Bank Indonesia to
freeze the JI members' financial assets.

"Their names were mentioned by Hambali," the source said,
referring to the alleged top leader of JI, who is currently under
U.S. custody at an undisclosed location.

The police are still waiting for the U.S.' permission to
question Hambali, born Encep Nurjaman, in the West Java rice belt
of Cianjur.

The Indonesian foreign minister has been in Dili from Friday
to Saturday for high-level talks with East Timor leaders to
strengthen cooperation between the two countries.

Reuters reported the United States late on Friday posted the
names of 20 suspected members of JI, 10 of them were Malaysian
nationals, seven Indonesians, two Filipinos and one Pakistani.

On the list are: Imam Samudra, Fathur Rochman Al-Ghozi, Agus
Dwikarna, Parlindungan Siregar, Aris Munandar, Yasin Syawal, Huda
bin Abdul Haq alias Mukhlas, Mukhlis Yunos, Julkipli Salim Y.
Salamuddin, Abdul Hakim Murad, Azahari Husin, Marzuki Zulkifli,
Sulaiman bin Abas, Yazid Sufaat, Wan Min Wan Mat, Zaini Zakaria,
Amran bin Mansour, Noordin Mohamed Top, Zulkifli bin Abdul Hir
and Abdul Manaf Kasmuri.

U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow had said that after 72 hours
since the submission of the list to the UN on Friday, provided
that there were no objections, all UN member countries will have
to freeze the assets.

JI is blamed for a series of bomb attacks in Indonesia since
2000, including the Bali blasts last October and the JW Marriott
bombing in Jakarta last month.

Both Imam and Mukhlas are currently standing trial for their
alleged role in the Bali bombings. Fathur, also an Indonesian,
escaped the Philippines prison where he was to have served a 17-
year sentence for terrorist attacks, while Agus is an Indonesian
currently serving his 15-year sentence in the Philippines over
the illegal possession of explosives.

The National Police source said Siregar was an Indonesian
engineer named a suspect by Spanish police in connection with al-
Qaeda activities in that European country.

He also said Aris was also a member of the Indonesian
Mujahidin Council (MMI) led by cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who was
sentenced on Tuesday to four years in jail for immigration
violations and involvement in treason.

The source also said Yasin was the son-in-law of JI founder
Abdullah Sungkar and was "most likely" an Indonesian and a member
of MMI.

But MMI executive chairman Irfan S. Awwas, while admitting
that Aris was part of the organization, said Yasin was not.

Irfan said Aris chaired the internal affairs department of the
organization and had been involved in humanitarian missions to
Poso, Central Sulawesi, and Ambon, Maluku, when religious
conflicts tore the towns apart between 1999 and 2001, killing
around 8,000 people.

"I wonder why Aris Munandar is put on the (U.S.') list. He
should have been awarded for his work instead.

"I know he has nothing to do with JI and I think this is part
of the U.S.' plan to corner Muslims here after they failed to get
ustadz (teacher) Abu Bakar (Ba'asyir) convicted of acts of
terror," he told the Post.

Irfan said he last met Aris during the MMI congress in August
in Surakarta, Central Java, when Ba'asyir was reelected as the
head of the organization.

The National Police source said that Aris, Yasin and Siregar
had not been named suspects in any terror cases in the past few
years, because of a lack of hard evidence.

He said the police had obtained the results of Hambali's
interrogation by the U.S., but needed to cross-check the
information when Indonesian police were given access to the
terrorist suspect.

"According to the U.S. investigation, Hambali admitted to his
involvement in a series of bombings in Southeast Asia and his
link to al-Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden," the source
said.

The report said Hambali also told U.S. investigators that JI
obtained its explosives from Afghanistan, which were later
transported to Indonesia through Malaysia and the Philippines.

The police source said Hambali also admitted to having
recruited some 1,000 people across the region and establishing JI
bases in several Indonesian provinces, including Maluku, Central
Sulawesi, West Nusa Tenggara and Lampung, North Sumatra.

West Nusa Tenggara Governor Lalu Serinata strongly refuted
Hambali' statement.

"I've never heard of such an organization existing here. His
statement needs proof," he was quoted by Antara as saying on
Saturday.