Jihadists depending more on donations

Manila: Islamist militants across Southeast Asia have become increasingly dependent on donations, including zakat (alms), to finance bombings because governments have tightened bank controls, security experts said.

More than 50 per cent of terrorist financing in Southeast Asia now comes from individual donations, said Arabinda Acharya of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore.

"It's now the largest source of money for militants because it's difficult to detect," Acharya said at a workshop on countering the financing of terrorism in Manila this week, adding jihadists have been avoiding formal channels.

But, he believed the money passing through informal methods, such as couriers, was not as substantial as that funneled by Al Qaida support groups before the 2001 deadly attacks in the United States.

After the September 11 attacks, Acharya said militants elsewhere in the world had moved their funds out from banks and invested them in stocks, gems, real estate, insurance and other financial instruments.

Diversifying

"We learned that militants in India were speculating in stocks and those in Africa were buying diamonds and other gem stones," he said, adding that those in Southeast Asia rely more on donations from charity organisations and from zakat.

In the Philippines, Acharya said the deadliest militant group, the Abu Sayyaf, was forced to go into kidnapping and extortion because the money it was getting from foreign and local donors was not enough to finance bombings.

Links snapped: Abu Sayyaf funds stymied

The military has prevented funders from extending financial assistance to the Abu Sayyaf, a local terror group which has been engaged in kidnap-for ransom and other terror activities in the southern Philippines, Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff General Alexander Yano said.

"We have also cut off its links from foreign terrorist group, denying it financial, training and logistic support," said Yano in Manila.

"The combat operations that were conducted under Oplan Ultimatum, have degraded the Abu Sayyaf's armed capabilities," said Yano.

- By Rafael Juan, Correspondent