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.