22 January 2004 Media Statement

Listing of terrorist entities

Prime Minister Helen Clark has designated the following individuals as terrorist entities pursuant to the provisions of the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002:

Mohamad Nasir ABAS
Zulkifli ABDUL HIR
Fathur Rohman AL-GHOZHI
Agus DWIKARNA
Huda bin Abdul HAQ
Azahari HUSIN
Salim Y Salamuddin JULKIPLI
Abdul Manaf KASMURI
Amran MANSOR
Zulkifli MARZUKI
Aris MUNANDAR
Abdul Hakim MURAD
Imam SAMUDRA
Parlindungan SIREGAR
Yazld SUFAAT
Yassin SYWAL
Nordin Mohd. TOP
Wan Min WAN MAT
Mukhlis YUNOS
Zaini ZAKARIA

Prime Minister Clark said that the designations follow a decision by the United Nations Security Council to list these individuals as terrorist entities. The designations take effect immediately for a period of three years, unless extended.

The decision to proceed with these designations was taken in consultation with the Attorney General, pursuant to the Terrorism Suppression Act.

All of the individuals in question are members and associates of Jemaah Islamiyah (more commonly known by its acronym “JI”).

JI has well-established links to al-Qaeda based on a shared ideology and co-operation in relation to terrorist activities. It has cells operating in several countries in Southeast Asia. Its stated goal is “to create an Islamic state comprising Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the southern Philippines”. JI is held responsible for the Bali Bombings in October 2002 that killed 202 people and the J.W. Marriott Hotel Bombing in Jakarta in August 2003 in which 12 people were killed.

Jemaah Islamiyah is currently designated within New Zealand as a terrorist entity.

A number of the designated individuals, SAMUDRA and HAQ in particular, are known to have been involved in the October 2002 Bali bombings in which three New Zealanders died, and many more received physical injuries, with a wider group sustaining various levels of psychological effects.

None of the designated individuals is known to have any current links to New Zealand.

“Nevertheless designating these entities as terrorists will serve to deter New Zealanders from becoming inadvertently involved in their activities. It obliges all UN member-countries to freeze bank deposits and other assets owned by them, and to deny them entry or transit visas. The financing of international terrorism is a matter of grave concern to the international community as a whole, and one that New Zealand recognises the need to effectively address. These designations assist in that process,” Helen Clark said.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>