Why Did it Take the UN Two Years to Designate Al Akhtar Trust as an Al Qaeda Supporting Organization?
On October 14, 2003 the US Treasury Department designated Al Akhtar Trust as a terrorist support organization linked with Al Qaeda. Treasury Secretary Snow indicated that the US would immediately request that Al Akhtar Trust be designated also by the UN Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee and added to the UN consolidated list which obligates all countries to freeze their assets and deny their access to economic resources. And now, almost two years later, the UN Committee has finally granted the US request. Al Akhtar Trust was added to the UN list on August 17, 2005. What happened? And why did it take the UN so long to act?
The charges against Al Akhtar Trust were certainly serious. According to the Treasury Department designation, “Al Akhtar Trust is a Pakistani based charity known to have provided support to al-Qaida fighters in Afghanistan. Al Akhtar is carrying on the activities of the previously designated Al Rashid Trust. The organization is also suspected of raising money for jihad in Iraq and is connected to an individual with ties to the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal Reporter Daniel Pearl." The Al Qaeda Committee’s own Monitoring Group, in its December 2, 2003 report warned the Security Council that Al Akhtar Trust was continuing the operations of Al-Rashid Trust, which had already been identified as supporting al Qaeda. That report also indicated that “It has continued to be active in funding Al Qaida related activities…”
Despite having directed that the State Bank of Pakistan freeze Al-Akhtar Trust's assets, Islamabad blocked Washington's move at the UN to declare the charity an organisation supporting and financing terrorism. The UN Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee, like all Security Council Committees works on a consensus basis. Any member of the committee can hold up the designation of an individual or entity associated with al Qaeda, and prevent having them added to the UN Consolidated List. And the Committee’s deliberations concerning additions to the UN list are held behind closed doors. In other words, such actions are not open to public scrutiny and remain unknown until and unless another member country feels strong enough about the hold to complain about it in other channels.
We now know that it was Pakistan that put the hold on listing Al Akhtar Trust. Pakistan was then a member of the Security Council and therefore also a member of the Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee Sanctions. And they took this action despite ostensibly acting in unison with the United States to freeze Al Akhtar’s bank accounts. That freezing action never amounted to much. A few small value accounts were frozen by the State Bank of Pakistan. But, forewarned Al Akhtar had already transferred most of its funds elsewhere. They reportedly continue to maintain more substantial accounts at the Habib Bank Limited, Habib Bank AG Zurich and the Muslim Commercial Bank. And they continue, up to the present, to finance various projects and to solicit, transfer and distribute funds. They are still actively soliciting financial and other support over the internet.
Pakistan’s tenure on the Security Council ended in January 2005. And it is customary for the UN Secretariat to re-circulate issues and entities that were previously on hold by a departed Security Council member. But, with nobody in Washington pushing, it took a few more months than usual for the Secretariat to get around to re-circulating Al Akhtar Trust to the new Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee membership. This time no one objected. And Al Akhtar Trust was formally designed and added to the UN list on August 17, 2005.
Its not clear whether this new UN action will actually have an impact on Al Akhtar trust’s activities. They have again challenged the designation in Karachi courts and continue to conduct their activities as normal.
