‘Mr Terrorism’ to target sluggish EU states

Date: 25/11/04

By David Cronin

A REPORT to be presented to the Union's government leaders at the 16-17 December summit in Brussels will rebuke those member states that have failed to ratify the international convention on terrorism financing.

The report, by Gijs de Vries, the EU's anti-terrorism coordinator, will express concern about the sluggish rate at which EU countries are implementing the 1999 convention. This obliges states to prove the raising of funds for terrorists, freeze the assets of terrorists or seize their finances. Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland and Slovenia have not yet ratified it.

De Vries has warned that “we can only have credibility if we have our own house in order” and is set to urge member states to ratify the convention without further delay.

The report will come as a gulf opens up between the EU and US approaches towards cutting off terrorist funds.

Stuart Levey, head of America's Office on Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, berated EU states last week for not clamping down on charities which allegedly raise money for Palestinian militants Hamas. These organizations, he said, “are funding Hamas and therefore funding terrorism”.

Although EU governments agreed to place Hamas on the Union's list of proscribed terrorist organizations in 2002, tackling charities accused of links to it has proven tricky.

Evidence to substantiate American claims has proven elusive in several investigations. For example, the US authorities last year identified organizations in the UK, Austria and France which it claimed were raising millions of euro for Hamas.

In response, the UK decided to freeze bank accounts opened by the Palestinian Relief and Development Fund (Interpal). But the accounts were unfrozen around six weeks later after a probe by the Charity Commission, the regulatory body for the non-profit sector, found the accusations groundless.

“The allegations are ridiculous,” said an Interpal spokesman, who insisted that his group's activities - providing aid for Palestinians in the occupied territories and refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan - are peaceful.

Claude Moniquet, of the European Strategic Intelligence Services, says that there is too much focus on the financing of terrorism. Surveillance of extremists may prove a more valuable tool in averting atrocities, he says.

“You cannot stop terrorism by freezing the money. The attacks in Madrid, in which 200 died, did not cost a lot of money. It was just a question of a few thousand dollars. So you can ban charities but it is not a big deal to get this kind of money.”

• In a separate development, a Filipino whose name appears on the EU's list of terrorist organizations is mounting a legal challenge at his inclusion.

The European Court of First Instance held an initial hearing on the case being taken by José María Sison last week (17 November).

He is contesting a refusal by the Council of Ministers to grant him access to the documents on which it decided to dub him a terrorist. The Council says that the papers cannot be released for security reasons.

Sison is the chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the political wing of guerrilla movement the New People's Army.

Also a university professor, Sison has been living in the Netherlands since 1988.

Roger Smith, director of civil liberties group JUSTICE, is calling for the EU's terrorism list to be subject to greater safeguards. “As a minimum, there ought to be some form of review by an independent adjudicator,” he said.

Article refers to a report to be presented to the Union's government leaders at the Brussels summit on 16-17 December 2004 by Gijs de Vries, the EU's anti-terrorism coordinator. De Vries is expected to criticise some Member States for the slow implementation of the 1999 convention that obliges states to prove the raising of funds for terrorists, freeze the assets of terrorists or seize their finances. Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland and Slovenia have not yet ratified it. In a separate development, a Filipino whose name appears on the EU's list of terrorist organisations is mounting a legal challenge to his inclusion.

Council of the EU: Policies: Fight against Terrorism: EU Counter-terrorism Co-ordinator http://consilium.europa.eu/cms3_fo/showPage.asp?id=772&lang=en

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