The Hindu : National : Choking charity route to terror financing

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Thursday, Apr 16, 2009
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Choking charity route to terror financing

Sandeep Dikshit

NEW DELHI: An international conference on countering terrorist financing of charity organisations quietly got under way here on Monday, with a strong representation from India and its neighbours.

Quarterbacked by the United States, the conference is being held against the backdrop of increasing international realisation that charities are being used for financing terrorist activities.

Officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Maldives, apart from the U.S and India, are attending the event.

Hosted by the U.S. Embassy and the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering, it aims at promoting government action to prevent terrorist outfits from exploiting humanitarian or religious charities as a way of concealing the illegal international movement of funds.

At the conference, technical experts, under the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering, are exploring best practices and a wide range of options for cooperation to protect the charitable sector from this regional and global threat. The U.S. is aware of the need to strike the right balance. Charities complicit in terrorist groups must be shut down and adequate oversight is required to promote transparency, but the world must ensure safe alternative channels to provide charity in critical areas such as humanitarian services.

International financial flows came under scrutiny after the financial system in the 1990s provided for seamless movement of funds across the world.

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