Confusion reigns in EU war on terror

Date: 15/04/04

WITH the images of passenger jets crashing into the Twin Towers still fresh in their minds, EU leaders agreed on 21 September 2001 that the necessary steps required to deprive terrorists of their financial support should be taken.

Two-and-a-half years later, some Û40 million in assets has been frozen by EU member states as part of a clampdown against terrorists - roughly half the amount frozen in the US.

However, Union officials admit the Û40 million sum is a crude estimate and that the level of information- sharing between member states on the surrounding topics has not been at all satisfactory.

This is despite a requirement in the EU's 2001 regulation on cutting off the finances of terrorists, that the European Commission be kept abreast of measures taken by authorities in all member states.

"We don't have the entire picture," said a justice official in the Commission. "The situation is confused."

The confusion appears to be illustrated by a European Parliament question answered by Chris Patten on the funding of Palestinian militants Hamas.

The external relations commissioner states in his reply that the Commission has "not received any report that an account belonging to Hamas has been found in the [European] Community".

While it may be strictly true that no account has been opened in the name of Hamas, a report submitted to the Parliament by police agency Europol in December 2003 seems to conflict with Patten's statement.

Offering a series of snapshots on the terrorist threat in Europe, the paper stated that the assets of the Al Aqsa Foundation had been seized in the Netherlands.

"The reason for this measure was the fact that the foundation provided funds to Hamas-affiliated organizations in the Middle East, which commit or support terrorist activities."

Europol stated too that the Al Aqsa Foundation was under investigation by Denmark's public prosecutor for serious economic crime.

Meanwhile, in June 2003, the United States named the Austrian Palestinian Association as a sponsor of terrorism.

Yet the Austrian authorities believe the organization's focus is on providing humanitarian aid to victims of Israeli aggression. "No circumstantial evidence has been identified from previous investigations indicating that any money was used for financing terrorist organizations, such as Hamas, and no further information has been obtained by which the suspicion raised by the US could be corroborated," the Europol report states.

The question of the most appropriate EU approach to Hamas and its alleged supporters in Europe proved contentious for much of last year.

When the US announced in August that it was freezing the assets of five pro-Palestinian charities, the EU declined to follow suit. According to Washington, these organizations, most of which are based in Europe, collect millions of euro for Hamas each year.

At the time, the EU was taking a more nuanced approach to Hamas, by recognizing it as a movement with different components: one involved in social work for deprived Palestinians, another in violent opposition to Israel.

Furthermore, a number of EU countries, including Belgium, France and Ireland, argued that declaring the political wing of Hamas a terrorist group would hamper efforts to bring about a ceasefire.

The following month, however, the EU responded to ongoing suicide bombings by Hamas by placing it on its list of proscribed organizations.

Until then, only Hamas' military wing Izz al-Din al-Qassem was on the blacklist.

Last month, the UK appeared to harden its stance against Hamas. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown announced he was freezing the bank accounts of five high-ranking members of the organization, including Abdel Aziz Rantissi, who has taken over from the slain Ahmed Yassin as its leader.

The question of curbing the flow of funds to al-Qaeda has been less controversial, given that no mainstream political leader in Europe has advocated involving Osama bin Laden's network in a process of political dialogue.

Nevertheless, a UN report from last year stated that businesses linked to al-Qaeda continue to operate freely. Among those cited were the al-Taqwa financial group, whose directors Youssef Nada and Idris Nasreddin were said to have commercial interests and property in Italy and Switzerland.

Meanwhile, Germany's federal parliament (Bundestag) has recently been given data stating that Europol had opened files on almost 10,000 people suspected of involvement in Islamic terrorism by the end of last year.

According to this information, the police agency has a separate file, called Dolphin, for details of those on the EU's list of terrorist organizations - which currently ranges from Basque separatist group ETA and splinter groups from the main paramilitaries involved in the Northern Ireland conflict to guerrillas in Turkey and Colombia.

Dolphin was opened by Europol in the middle of last year, but no data had been entered into it by December.

The data provided indicates that Europol now has records on almost 150,000 individuals, some 69,000 of whom are held in a money-laundering file (for non-terrorist offences, it appears).

The concentration of so much information in one dossier has prompted German civil liberties watchdog Bürgerrechte und Polizei to query whether Europol is taking a sufficiently focused approach.

As the group's spokesman Heiner Busch remarked: "If a file reaches the size of a small- or medium-sized city, it will hardly prove useful for efficient crime investigation."

A lack of information-sharing in Member States is hampering efforts to tackle the financing of terrorist organisations.