Fresh Names Added to Albania "Terror Watch" List

Tirana | 08 September 2010 |

Camp X-Ray Guantanamo

Scores of people and companies associated with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban have been added to a list of suspected financiers of terrorism, the Albanian government has said.

Officials in Tirana said Albania had updated its "terror watch" list with new additions supplied by the UN, including a key associate of the Taliban and 62 associates and nine entities and companies associated with Al-Qaeda.

Sanctions are to be applied to people and associations connected to Sirajuddin Haqqani, an Afghan warlord associated with the Taliban who, along with his father Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani, are alleged to head the Haqqni network.

Sirajuddin Haqqani, based on documents recently leaked into the public domain by website Wikileaks, is on the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan "kill-or-capture" list.

New additions also include the groups Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Islamic Jihad and Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The Albanian government has been supportive of the US-led, so-called "war on terror", through the arrest and deportation of foreign terrorism suspects in its territory.

It has also frozen the assets of organisations suspected of being linked to Al-Qaeda, such as the El-Haramain Foundation.

Based on UN Security Council resolution 1267, all member states are obliged to prevent individuals and organisations associated with the Taliban, Osama Bin Laden and the Al-Qaeda from entering or passing through their countries, as well as freeze their assets and prevent arms sales to them.

Albania sent 44 combat troops to take part in operations in the Kandahar province of Afghanistan on 29 July.

It now has 245 troops stationed in Afghanistan, engaged in securing military bases for other troops, mainly in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.

Since 2006, Albania has also accepted 11 former prisoners of the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay Cuba, all deemed innocent, who could not be repatriated to their home countries for fear of persecution.