The United States Treasury issued a statement yesterday advising that the United Nations has added the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) to its list of terrorists and terrorist supporters associated with Usama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network. Treasury said, *”We welcome this designation, which comes at the requests of the governments of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, the United States, and China. This is an important step toward greater cooperation in Central Asia against common terrorist threats and the instability and horror that they sow.”*
Yesterday’s action follows a series of joint actions between the U.S. and its allies in the war on terrorist financing. To date this has included actions with the EU, the G-7 countries, Italy, Saudi Arabia, and now Central Asia.
With the addition of this entity, the United Nation’s list of terrorists and their supporters who are linked to the al-Qaida network now comprises 162 individuals and entities. The organisation is also among the 236 individuals and entities designated under President Bush’s Executive Order 13224 aimed at freezing the assets and prohibiting financial transactions with terrorists and their supporters.
The Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement is an organisation that includes components in Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, and the Xinjiang Province of China.
For additional information, visit the web site of the U.S. Treasury.