Indonesia probing terrorism funding from overseas

By Ainur Rohmah

TUBAN, Indonesia (AA) - Indonesia is investigating the flow of funds to terrorist networks within its borders after a report claimed that a large percentage was coming from outside.

On Saturday, national police spokesperson Boy Rafli Amar told Anadolu Agency that the country's anti-terror agency would work with authorities in other countries to trace the source of the funds.

"We will cooperate with law enforcement there to complete the data and find out those who send the money," Amar said.

A report by the Centre of Reporting and Financial Transaction Analysis (PPATK) has claimed that most funding from outside Indonesia comes from individuals and groups in Australia.

The head of the center, Muhammad Yusuf, told parliament Thursday that 88.5 billion rupiah ($6.7 million) had arrived in Indonesia from Australia in the last four years.

"Since 2012, there have been 97 transactions from Australia," he said.

He listed other countries from which people are suspected of sending funds as Brunei (2.6 billion rupiah), followed by Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand.

He added that some Middle East countries were also sending money, and several local foundations had financed Indonesians to travel overseas to become "foreign terrorism fighters".

"I do not want to mention the name of the foundations. The list has been submitted to the anti-terror agency," he said.

He added that the center had also discovered the flow of funds from Indonesia to terror groups overseas, saying that the vast majority was being sent to Australia, followed by the Philippines and Hong Kong.

Yusuf said networks overseas used a variety of different ways to hide the funds from authorities, among them the marrying of a member to a local Indonesian women and then asking her to open an account through which they could receive funds.