Countries Urged to Beef Up Terror List

By Edith M. Lederer
January 20, 2006
The Washington Post
Original Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/20/AR2006012001224.html

UNITED NATIONS -- There are not enough names on a list of individuals and companies subject to U.N. sanctions because of associations with al-Qaida and the Taliban, the committee monitoring sanctions said Friday.
In a report on its activities in 2005, the committee urged all countries to submit more names to step up the fight against terrorism.
In July, the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution expanding sanctions against al-Qaida and the Taliban to their affiliates and splinter groups and clamping down on terrorist financing.
Sanctions require all 191 U.N. member states to impose a travel ban and arms embargo against Afghanistan's former Taliban leaders, Osama bin Laden, al-Qaida members and those associated with them, and to freeze their financial assets.
The list currently names 204 individuals associated with al-Qaida.
This is far too few, the committee said. The effectiveness of the sanctions does not only depend on state implementation, but also by ensuring that all individuals and entities who should be on the list are in fact on it.
During the past three years, the committee received the names of 137 individuals and one entity to be added to the list, but decisions were still pending, in many cases because of insufficient identifying information or a clear statement of the connection to al-Qaida or the Taliban.
In the international effort to fight al-Qaida and the Taliban and their associates it is of the greatest importance that there is a consensus among states about the gravity of the threat, the committee said.
It said states increasingly see the importance of making the sanctions effective, and more countries had submitted new names or improved information about those on the list.
Nonetheless, the report said, the sanctions had not achieved their full potential.