November 30, 2002	Saturday	Ramazan 24, 1423

SARAJEVO, Nov 29: Bosnian authorities have acted on a request by the United States and banned three Islamic charities suspected of channelling funds for “terrorism”, a government official said on Friday.

Zufer Dervisevic, head of financial police in Bosnia’s Muslim-Croat federation, told Reuters the US embassy in Sarajevo had asked for the ban.

He said both countries had earlier frozen the groups’ assets because of suspected links to terrorism and their offices in Bosnia had now also been closed.

The charities are the Saudi-based al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, the US-based Global Relief Foundation and Bosanska Idealna Futura (BIF) from Sarajevo.

They could not immediately be reached for comment on the allegations.

They are all included in a US list of about 240 “terror financiers”, which was compiled after the Sept 11 attacks. BIF was added earlier this month.

In 2000, BIF took over the operations of the US-based Benevolence International Foundation, whose head Enaam Arnaout has been indicted by US authorities for using it to support the Al Qaeda network of Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden.

Ever since the September 11 attacks, the West has been alert to possible links with Bosnia where hundreds of militant Arabs fought alongside Muslims in the 1992-95 war.

Many of the fighters married and settled in Bosnia, gaining citizenship, and some work in humanitarian agencies. Out of some 50 charities, 13 are Islamic groups.—Reuters