PRESS BRIEFING ON SANCTIONS AGAINST AL-QAEDA AND TALIBAN

PRESS BRIEFING ON SANCTIONS AGAINST AL-QAEDA AND TALIBAN

Heraldo Muñoz of Chile, Chairman of the Sanctions Committee against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban established by the Security Council, briefed correspondents on his recent mission to Europe, Asia and the Middle East at a Headquarters press conference this morning. 

He explained that his committee (formally known as the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1267 (1999)) is charged with overseeing an arms embargo, travel ban, and freezing of the assets of individuals on its consolidated list of persons associated with the two groups, he explained.  The objective of the tour, he said, was to gauge and strengthen the implementation of the sanctions regime through dialogue with relevant actors in Afghanistan, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Indonesia and Germany.

He outlined increasing cooperation with the sanctions regime; he acknowledged that the threat from the Taliban was increasing in Afghanistan, and that Al-Qaeda was adapting its worldwide tactics in response to the sanctions and other obstacles to its operations.

He said that in Afghanistan the first stop on his mission, both the Taliban and Al-Qaeda remnants were linking up with drug traffickers to gain both arms and financial support.  In response to questions, he said he did not think that the administration of President Karzai was in imminent danger of being overthrown, but the Taliban attacks on construction workers and others could delay needed normalcy and delay the security conditions needed for elections.

Mr. Muñoz said that at meetings with ministers and the President himself, the Afghan officials had agreed to add the names of active Taliban commanders to the sanctions list.  He said he had emphasized to them, in addition, the importance of de-listing ex-Taliban officials, who were now cooperating with the Government, and President Karzai agreed to have that done.  The Afghan Cabinet also committed itself to producing a full report on sanctions implementation.

Mr. Muñoz said that as the United Arab Emirates was a financially open country that could be used for money-laundering, his work there focused on the freezing of assets.  He obtained detailed information of the freezing of 18 bank accounts, totalling $3 million, and a promise from the Government to make available, details on the total number of frozen accounts.  With Government officials, he had discussed methods of counteracting terrorist-related money transfers using informal, third-party transfers, called “Hawala”, to which Al-Qaeda seemed to have adapted.

In Singapore, he said he received a briefing from a wide range of officials.  There were relevant individuals who had been arrested there, but the Government preferred to hold off the submission of new names.

Indonesian officials informed him of a new drug-laundering law, a financial intelligence unit, and the arrest of 97 individuals linked to Jama Islamiyah, whose assets were automatically frozen under Indonesian law after their indictment.  He was told that Al-Qaeda continued to fund Jama Islamiyah; it had been determined that $35,000 had been transferred for the Bali bombing and $100,000 for other operations.

He said Germany was a crucial actor, partly because of its role in the expansion of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.  He discussed border policing and other issues with officials there.  In addition, German officials discussed problems with the sanctions list, which had been criticized for not including enough details to adequately identify the individuals on it.

He concluded that his mission had been extremely useful for him to see the difficulties in implementing the sanctions regime, as well as its successes.  In addition, his visits often forced countries to coordinate various sectors that until that hitherto had not been together.  The mission also helped in the effort to provide more details for the list.

In response to questions from correspondents, he said Iran had sent many names to be added to the list, but he could not discuss details because the document containing those names had to be translated, circulated among his Committee members and evaluated.  He said he also was not certain that the arrests in Indonesia had all been made public.

In response to other questions, he described the changes in Al-Qaeda.  The hierarchical structure was gone, replaced by nearly autonomous regional groups who raised money and selected targets locally.  He could not confirm that foreign fighters in Iraq were being organized by Al-Qaeda.

To questions about the effectiveness of the sanctions list, he said that the sanctions Committee was strengthening the regime.  There was a monitoring group on the ground that was acquiring more detailed information on listed individuals and working with relevant officials in many countries.  The authorities he visited were actively involved in the implementation of the sanctions.  So far, he had received 83 country reports and he hoped to receive many more before he presented his written report in December.

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