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| Africa North |
| Terror nexus threatens Tunisia |
| 2013-06-29 |
| [MAGHAREBIA] Terrorism is a new phenomenon in Tunisia. With a notorious political liquidation, weapons caches in the desert, armed bully boyz setting up camp in the remote border forests and homemade bombs killing and maiming Tunisian troops, many wonder whether al-Qaeda has found a new home in the once-peaceful country. Magharebia met with Bassel Torjeman, a Tunis-based expert on terrorist and salafist groups in the Maghreb, to learn more about the looming crisis. Magharebia: Who is funding these terrorist groups in Tunisia and in the greater Maghreb? Bassel Torjeman: One of the complex issues preoccupying countries where terrorism has spread... is the sources of financing, especially in view of the mechanisms that have been internationally established to prevent money from reaching these groups. Although many years have elapsed since the establishment of these international restrictions, money is still coming in -- in huge amounts - to terrorist groups all over the world. As to the Maghreb, and Tunisia in particular: where do these forces of Evil and salafist jihadist groups get money? Using simple math, the cost for Ansar al-Sharia ...a Salafi Islamist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends... members from various areas of Tunisia to rent buses to get to Kairouan to hold their congress, and other costs for organising the meeting (in which 50,000 of them were expected to take part) give us an amount of more than 1 million Tunisian dinars (464,391 euros). This, by all means, is very big for any party or group that wants to hold a celebration. The sources of financing are varied. It takes place at mosques and streets, via book sales and uncontrolled donation collections, with the knowledge of state agencies, which turn a blind eye to it although this violates laws. Another means is through money transfer from one country to another, using fraudulent means. Then there is zakat and alms money, which is considered the first source of financing terrorist groups. It is difficult to list these amounts or to know their sources or where they are spent.... If we want to speak in a more serious way, according to Tunisian interior ministry sources, the number of Tunisians who joined the terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra for combat in Syria is 800. This is much different from numbers reported by media outlets, especially with the increase of Tunisian detainees held by the Syrian regime and the Tunisians who were killed, whose number is much more than one hundred. Transporting hundreds of fighters through air flights and providing pocket money for them until they reach assembly points along the Turkish-Syrian border needs hundreds of thousands of dinars. I don't think that this money comes from donations and in-kind subsidies. Without any exaggeration, money needed to transport those people is estimated at millions of dinars. Such numbers can't be generated from donations or smuggling.... Terrorist groups have what is called easy money: they don't exert much effort to secure it. This shows that they have fixed and guaranteed sources of income.... Unveiling the financing sources of terrorist groups and drying up their sources can't be done by just one country. It needs sincere international effort to make it a success, and also needs continuous monitoring to prevent such money from reaching these groups. Tunisia's efforts to monitor the financing sources of these groups are definitely weak and need a political decision that doesn't seem to be forthcoming. |
| Posted by:Fred |