Australia and Indonesia Stress Co-operation
Jakarta, 04 Jumadil Awwal 1438/01 Februry 2017 (MINA) – Australian Justice Minister Michael Keenan has again highlighted the importance of co-operating with Indonesia on counter-terrorism on the heels of a complaint over military training material in Perth.
According to AAP, Mr Keenan and Indonesia’s security minister Wiranto, along with the countries’ financial intelligence agencies, met in Jakarta on Wednesday morning, to re-affirm their commitment to target terrorism funding and money laundering.
The visit comes almost a month after the shock announcement by Indonesia’s Chief of military General Gatot Nurmantyo that military co-operation between the two countries was suspended following the discovery of “offensive” material at a language training course at a Perth base late last year.
Initially, it was reported the suspension would apply to all military ties, however, the government later said it was only in relation to language training.
Wiranto and Mr Keenan were both keen to emphasise that the countries were committed to continued co-operation.
“It’s better when the two countries started taking steps to show other countries that co-operation between countries, especially neighbouring countries, is very important,” Wiranto told reporters.
Mr Keenan said evolving technology meant “we will see more change in the next decade than we have in the past 40 years when it comes to combating terrorism financing”.
A report released in August last year by the two countries financial intelligence agencies – AUSTRAC and PPTAK, estimated that foreign sources funnelled more than IDR10 billion (A$1 million) into funding terrorism locally between 2014 and 2015.
Self-funded terrorism, it found, poses the highest risk for raising militant funds in Southeast Asia as they are notoriously difficult to track.
Australian banks in particular, were frequently used to send funds to individuals engaged in foreign conflicts. (T/RS05/RS01)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
