U.S. asks Indonesia to freeze bin Laden assets

Bernie K. Mustafa The Jakarta Post in Jakarta

In its global campaign against terrorism, the U.S. government has asked Indonesia to freeze assets belonging to Osama bin Laden, although Bank Indonesia said it needed evidence against bin Laden to back up the request.

Bank Indonesia director for International Affairs Veronica Sulistyo said on Thursday the central bank was discussing the U.S. government's call to freeze terrorists' assets.

"We haven't come to a decision yet on what to do," Veronica told The Jakarta Post.

Earlier, a Bank Indonesia official, who requested anonymity, said the bank received a copy of a letter from the local U.S. embassy to the Indonesian government requesting the asset freeze.

"We have asked the Indonesian government to implement U.N. Security Council resolution 1333 dated Dec. 19, 2000, and call upon all U.N. member nations to freeze assets of Osama bin Laden without delay," a source at the U.S. embassy confirmed with the Post.

"This is a high priority of the U.S. government, as seen by the president's executive order on Sept. 24," he added, but declined to say more.

Following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the U.S. government has begun preparations for a war against terrorism.

U.S. President George W. Bush called on countries around the world to cut off terrorists from their funding sources by freezing assets belonging to them.

The U.S. government issued a list of 26 terrorist-related organizations to which Bush's executive order applies.

Included on the list are Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda, Abu Sayyaf's group in the Philippines and the Salafist Group for Call and Combat in Algeria.

Organizations whom the Bush administration suspects are linked to terrorist groups include the Wafa Humanitarian Organization in Saudi Arabia, the Al Rashid Trust in Pakistan and the Mamoun Darkazanli Import-Export Co..

President Bush has threatened to take action against financial authorities should they fail to seek out and freeze assets of the suspected terrorists.

Bank Indonesia director Veronica said banks here could only freeze someone's account if ordered by the Attorney General's Office.

"We have our own regulations and we must follow them," she said, adding that the situation would probably be similar in many other countries.

She also said the Attorney General's Office would be unlikely to issue an asset freeze order without proof to support the U.S. claims.

"The best we have now is our 'know your customer' ruling," Veronica said.

She was referring to a Bank Indonesia ruling stipulating that banks must report suspicious transactions to help, among other things, curb money laundering.

Analysts said it was difficult to detect terrorist-linked assets here with the absence of laws against money laundering.

In June, Indonesia was added to an international money laundering blacklist on the grounds that it lacked measures to detect illegal transactions that could be linked to terrorist groups.

The House of Representatives is deliberating a money laundering bill that could get Indonesia off the blacklist.

Regional bank analyst Lin Che Wei at SG Securities said Indonesia's weak legal infrastructure hampered efforts to track down terrorists' assets.

"We can't even get our hands on the assets of our own corrupt officials, let alone from sophisticated terrorist groups," Che Wei said.

Even if banks know of certain individuals or organizations with links to terrorist activities, obtaining evidence is a whole different story, he said.

Osama bin Laden's family owns a business empire ranging from construction, telecommunications to soft drinks, with annual revenues amounting to billions of U.S. dollars.

Thus far, Saudi Arabian authorities have found no evidence proving that Osama bin Laden derives funding from his family business.

Che Wei did not rule out the possibility that terrorist groups might have stashed their assets in Indonesian banks.

"It's only natural that countries with weak law enforcement attract such groups," he said.

But he added that the U.S. government must also understand the constraints Indonesia faced in cracking down on them.