Press Briefing by chairman of Security Council’s 1267 Sanctions committee

Cambodia could become a breeding ground for terrorists unless it received urgently needed international cooperation to strengthen its capacity to confront terrorism, Heraldo Muñoz (Chile), Chairman of the Security Council’s Committee concerning sanctions against Al-Qaida and the Taliban, said at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

Briefing journalists on the recent mission that he led to the Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand and Australia, he said that the purpose of the visits was to verify conditions on the ground and to discuss with governments any problems regarding implementation of sanctions and ways to improve the sanctions regime in the future.  The mission comprised the Permanent Representatives of China and Germany as well as members of the United Nations Secretariat.

[The Committee was established pursuant to Security Council resolution 1267 (1999) and is charged with reviewing implementation of the sanctions regime against Al-Qaida, the Taliban and associated individuals and entities.]

Noting that the countries visited varied widely in terms of compliance with the sanctions, their capacity to do so, and even their political willingness to confront the threat of Al-Qaida, Mr. Muñoz repeatedly stressed the particular threat to Cambodia.  “Let us remember that Hambali, the leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, spent some time in Cambodia”, he said, referring to a group listed as belonging to or associated with Al-Qaida.

“He was not vacationing there, clearly”, Mr. Munoz said, adding that Cambodia’s Muslim community in the south had been discriminated against, and that there had been reports of violence in that part of the country.  In such cases, the international community had a duty to step in.  Without cooperation there would be no progress in the fight against terrorism because some countries were very weak in terms of their structures and needed international cooperation.  Problems remained even in countries where governments had enacted the necessary legislation and demonstrated political will.

In the Philippines, he said, the mission had held high-level meetings with the President, Foreign Minister and Defence Minister, among others.  It had learned that there was still a problem with members of Jemaah Islamiyah in the southern part of the country, particularly on the island of Mindanao.  The mission had been briefed on the status of ongoing peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and on the strength of the Abu Sayyaf group, which was estimated to have diminished to about 200 members.

Lauro Baja, Permanent Representative of the Philippines, who attended the briefing, stressed the value of the mission’s physical presence on the ground to discharge its mandate.

Mr. Munoz also spoke about the mission’s visit to Thailand, where members met with government officials, including the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and National Security Adviser.  Thailand still had problems in three southern provinces, where the country’s Muslim minority was concentrated.  The mission had been told that there was no clear link between violence in those provinces and Jemaah Islamiyah or Al-Qaida.

Australia was clearly at the forefront of the fight against terrorism and should be commended for its “very impressive” record of cooperation on counter-terrorism efforts in the region, he said.  The Country was working closely with the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), particularly Indonesia, and with the small Pacific island States.  However, there was always room for improvement, and Australia still had not passed legislation on alternative remittance systems or on controlling charitable organizations that could be used to channel funds for purposes of terrorism.

He said the Committee was considering a proposal by Australia that the secretariat of the Pacific Islands Forum Group report regionally instead of individually because some of its constituent “mini-States” lacked capacity.

In response to a question about the number of individuals and entities currently on the Committee’s Consolidated List of Individuals and Entities Belonging to or Associated with the Taliban and Al-Qaida Organization, which currently stood at 433, Mr. Muñoz noted the addition on 18 October of Jama’at Al-Tawhid Wa’al-Jihad, a group belonging to the Al-Zarqawi network.

He emphasized that an effective fight against Al-Qaida must include the “ideological battleground”.  High-level authorities in several countries had told the mission that the extremist, fundamentalist interpretation of Islam advocated by Al-Qaida must be countered with moderate interpretations, such as an initiative proposed to the General Assembly by the Philippines, calling for an interfaith dialogue under Chapter VI of the United Nations Charter.

In that connection, he also noted ongoing discussions about the meaning of being identified as “associated with” Al-Qaida.  Increasingly, such groups worked across the globe and were inspired by that organization rather than belonging to a structure that did not exist today.  There was also discussion in light of Security Council resolution 1566 (2004), which had established a working group to consider practical measures to be imposed on “individuals, groups, or entities involved in or associated with terrorist activities other than those designated by the Al-Qaida/Taliban Sanctions Committee”.  The Committee would be working on that within the next few weeks.

He said the Committee was planning a trip to the Middle East in the next month or so.

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