February 16, 2003	Sunday	Zul Hijjah 14, 1423

PARIS: The Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) has confirmed that international terrorist groups misuse non-profit organisations to raise and recycle funds to finance their activities.

“In our previous typologies and monitoring exercises on money laundering, we have found out that some non-profit organisations (NPOs) had played a role in financing international terrorism,” the FATF president Jochen Sanio, said on Friday.

“Material from our monitoring this year appears to confirm this finding,” he added.

Sanio was speaking at the conclusion of the general assembly of the FATF at headquarters of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. The meeting Feb 11- 14 focussed on new methods of money laundering and terrorist financing.

Sanio declined to name NPOs suspected of being involved in money laundering for terrorist purposes. He also refused to single out countries or regions in the world participating in such illegal fundraising for terrorist organisations.

“Money laundering is a tricky affair, and the more so, if it’s aimed at financing terrorism,” Sanio said explained argued to explain his refusal to provide names.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.