ABU DHABI Ñ A Saudi charity linked to Al Qaida has been allowed to
resume operations.
The Al Haramein Foundation, which appears on a U.S. list as a financier
of terrorism, has renewed its operations in Bosnia and Herzgovina. The
foundation said Bosnian authorities have lifted a suspension of the group's
assets and renewed its license, Middle East Newsline reported.
Al Haramein's assets were unfrozen after pressure from Saudi Arabia,
Arab diplomatic sources said. The sources said the charity is supported by
leading Saudi princes, including Prince Salman Bin Abdul Aziz, governor of
Riyad.
Last month, a Senate subcommittee was told that Riyad has avoided a
genuine crackdown on Islamic charities accused of funding terrorists because
this could reveal donations by high-ranking Saudi princes. The subcommittee
was told of several Saudi-based charities determined to finance Al Qaida.
They include the International Islamic Relief Organization, its parent
Muslim World League and the Saudi High Commission for Aid to Bosnia.
On Monday, State Department deputy spokesman said the United States has
been "very pleased with the level of Saudi cooperation in the international
campaign against terrorism. U.S.-Saudi counterterrorism cooperation has been
very solid, and we have every expectation to believe that that will
continue."
On March 11, U.S. President George Bush ordered the freezing of Al
Haramein assets. The group goes under a range of names that employ the words
Al Haramein.
Russia has accused Al Haramein of financing Chechen separatists in the
war with Russia. The Russian Federal Security Service said Riyad established
Al Haramein in the 1980s to fund and supply Islamic fighters resisting the
Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Later, the movement was presented as a
charity to support Muslim activities abroad.
Hussein Al Jefri, a senior executive at Al Haramein, told the
London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat daily on Tuesday that the Bosnian government
lifted the freeze on the foundation's assets. Al Jefri identified the
charity as the Al Haramein and Al Aqsa Mosque Foundation, which operates an
orphanage and school and is valued at nearly $10 million.
Al Jefri said the government in Sarajevo had reviewed all of Al
Haramein's bank accounts since 1996. He said the freeze on Al Haramein
assets Ñ which totalled 60,000 German marks Ñ had prevented the operation
of the school, which contained 600 students.
"All our dealings were through bank," Al Jefri said. "So they did not
find anything suspicious."
Twelve Islamic charities operate in Bosnia, most of them are run by Arab
nationals from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
Many of the Arab executives and staffers left Bosnia in the wake of the
Sept. 11 Al Qaida attacks on New York and Washington.
Today, Saudi nationals require a visa to enter Bosnia. Islamic sources
said this has hurt Arab charities in the Balkan republic.
"I feel the atmosphere is not at all conducive to charity works by
Arabs," Al Jefri said. "The government is looking for an excuse to close
down Islamic organizations working in Bosnia because of external pressure."
The United States has not responded publicly to the unfreezing of Al
Haramein assets. But U.S. officials have acknowledged that Saudi Arabia has
not enforced many of the regulations against charities deemed as having
financed Al Qaida.
The officials said an investigation by Sarajevo in March failed to turn
up any Al Haramein records since 1994. They said the organization is
suspected of having destroyed the records.
