U.S. to freeze 'terror' funds in SE Asia

U.S. to freeze 'terror' funds in SE Asia

Jane Macartney and Simon Cameron-Moore, Reuters, Singapore/Kuala Lumpur

The United States has prepared a list of individuals and companies in Southeast Asia whose funds will be frozen in the hunt for members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, diplomats and analysts said on Thursday.

The list would be the first that the U.S. Treasury has issued for the region in its campaign to track the financing behind militants blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington and other terror acts in Southeast Asia.

A total of 18 individuals and 10 companies or charities are on the list being put together in Washington, according to sources in contact with the Treasury who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"One reason it is taking so long to announce this could be resistance on the part of the governments because of the political embarrassment it might cause," said one source.

But diplomats said there should be little reason for alarm.

Most of those likely to be named are already in custody or are known suspects with alleged links to al-Qaeda or to its Southeast Asian ally, Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), the sources said.

Following the arrest of several members of JI in connection with last October's Bali bombing, Washington has designated the organization a terrorist group -- adding it to a worldwide list of 34 such organizations -- and has frozen its assets.

JI's alleged leader, Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, has been handed over to prosecutors to face trial for treason. Police say JI dreamt of forging a Muslim state spanning the southern Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and southern Thailand.

One of those named on the new list for Southeast Asia is a former Malaysian army colonel arrested last month for alleged involvement in the militant JI network, the sources said.

Abdul Manaf Kamsuri was the third former or serving member of the Malaysian military to have been arrested under the Internal Security Act, used extensively by authorities for nearly two years now to hold suspected Islamic militants without trial.

Excel Setia, a company Kamsuri ran from the Malaysian offshore haven of Labuan and which has been effectively dormant for about two years, is one of the 10 organizations whose assets are to be frozen, the sources said.

A Malaysian security source said one of Kamsuri's partners in Excel Setia was Faiz bin Abu Bakar Bafana, a 40-year-old Malaysian businessman arrested in Singapore in December 2001 after police uncovered a plot to attack the U.S. and other western embassies.

Faiz is described by Singapore as one of the leaders of JI's cell in Malaysia, and he had visited Afghanistan in 1999 to meet al-Qaeda operatives. Faiz showed them a videotape of potential targets in Singapore. U.S. forces found that videotape in the house of an al-Qaeda operative after entering Kabul in late 2001.

The other partner was Zulkepli Marzuki, a 34-year-old Malaysian accountant-cum-businessman, who is still on the run.

JI, which was founded by Indonesian preachers who fled to Malaysia in the 1980s, raised funds by demanding members give 5 percent of their income to the group.