UN puts JI on al-Qaeda blacklist

Agencies, United Nations/Jakarta

The United Nations added on Friday the East Asian Islamist group Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) to its list of groups and people whose assets should be frozen due to suspected ties to Osama bin Laden or his al-Qaeda network.

Indonesian Police say the deadly Oct. 12 bombing of nightclubs in Bali bore the hallmarks of the Jamaah Islamiyah, a militant group which the United States believes operates in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and possibly the Philippines.

Washington designated the group a "foreign terrorist organization" and froze any U.S. assets earlier this week.

It also joined 12 Asian countries in asking the United Nations to do the same.

But a U.S. statement said the designation did not imply that Washington had reached a conclusion on who was responsible for the Oct. 12 bombing on the Indonesian resort island that killed more than 180 people.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's two largest Muslim organizations reiterated on Saturday that the vast majority of Muslims in the country had nothing to do with JI.

Solahuddin Wahid, leader of the 40-million-strong Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), said the Indonesian government should be cautious in responding to the UN's decision in order to prevent reactions from Muslims.

Linking Jamaah Islamiyah to al-Qaeda should not lead to branding other Islamic organizations as terrorist groups, he said.

"The government has to differentiate between the groups clearly using violence and those using peaceful means in their struggle," Solahuddin added.

Ahmad Syafii Maarif, chairman of the country's second largest Muslim organization Muhammadiyah, said any moves to generalize and label Indonesian Muslims as terrorists must be thwarted.

"Only narrow-minded people claim that Islam in Indonesia is part of Jamaah Islamiyah, whereas JI is only a small part of all the Muslim groups numbering thousands in the country," he said.

Syafii urged the government to take a firm stance in defending the country's sovereignty in handing terrorism. "The country should not continue to bow to pressure from the United States. As the leader of a Muslim group, I don't want either to do so," he said.

Putting groups and individuals on the UN list obliges the United Nations' 191 member-nations to freeze their funds and other assets and block their movements.

The goal of the UN list, which is maintained by a UN Security Council committee and currently has more than 300 names of businesses, individuals and organizations, is to deprive alleged terrorists of the money and other resources they need to carry out attacks.

It has led to the blocking of more than US$100 million in assets over the past year in various countries.

Most of the names on the UN list have come from Washington, which blames bin Laden, al-Qaeda and Afghanistan's ousted Taliban leaders for the hijack attacks on the United States that killed more than 3,000 people.

But China, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Kyrgyzstan have also contributed names.