WASHINGTON: A US-funded assessment of Afghanistan’s central bank found that it lacks independence from the Taliban administration and adequate safeguards against money laundering and terrorism financing, a US watchdog told Congress on Tuesday.
Reuters last month reported that the assessment, whose conclusions had not been made public at the time, failed to win Washington’s backing for a return of central bank assets held in a $3.5 billion Swiss-based trust fund.
The US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), in a quarterly report to Congress, disclosed that the assessment found flaws with the management of the central bank, known as Da Afghanistan Bank, or DAB.
The DAB “lacked independence from the Taliban regime and had deficiencies in anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism,” SIGAR said the assessment showed.
The US Agency for International Development funded the review by an outside contractor.
The finding that DAB lacks independence from the Taliban, which returned to power after the August 2021 US troop pullout, apparently referred to the three Taliban officials who oversee the bank and are under US and UN sanctions.
Concerns in Washington and other capitals about the bank’s leadership and anti-money laundering safeguards are at the heart of a standoff over the Taliban’s demand for the return of DAB cash frozen in other countries since their takeover.
Half of about $7 billion frozen in the US Federal Reserve Bank of New York was placed in the Swiss-based trust fund. The rest is being sought in lawsuits against the Taliban brought by families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The Taliban harbored Al-Qaeda militants who plotted the attacks.
A US Treasury official told Reuters last month on condition of anonymity that Washington will not support a return to DAB of Swiss-based trust fund assets until the bank shows it is free “from political influence and interference.”
It also must demonstrate “adequate” controls against money laundering and terrorism financing, the official said.
Review found Afghan central bank lacks independence from Taliban — US watchdog
https://arab.news/48b3d
Review found Afghan central bank lacks independence from Taliban — US watchdog
- The assessment failed to win Washington’s backing for a return of central bank assets held in a $3.5 billion Swiss-based trust fund
- The US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction disclosed that the assessment found flaws with the management of the central bank
Philippines to tighten guard at locations in South China Sea
- Philippine Coast Guard deploys ship to Sabina Shoal on the Spratly archipelago, where it accused China of building an artificial island
The Philippine Coast Guard said on Saturday it had deployed a ship to Sabina Shoal on the Spratly archipelago, where it accused China of building an artificial island, having documented what it said were piles of dead and crushed coral on the sandbars.
Jonathan Malaya, spokesperson of the National Security Council (NSC), said NSC chief Eduardo Ano had ordered a tighter guard at locations within Manila’s 200-nautical mile economic zone, as a long-standing diplomatic row with Beijing intensifies.
“No one will guard (these locations) except us. It is our responsibility under international law to guard (them) and ensure that the environment there would not be damaged and that there won’t be reclamation activities,” Malaya told a regular television program.
China claims almost all the South China Sea, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam, and has carried out extensive land reclamation on some islands, building military facilities, causing concern in Washington and the region.
China’s foreign ministry on Monday dismissed Manila’s latest accusation as “groundless and pure rumor.”
“Recently, the Philippine side has repeatedly spread rumors, deliberately smeared China and attempted to mislead the international community, which is futile,” spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing.
He urged Manila to “return to the right track of properly settling maritime disputes through negotiation and consultation.”
Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela said its presence at the Escoda shoal had deterred China from doing small-scale reclamation, but that scientists would have to determine whether the piles of coral were natural or man-made.
He said the coast guard was committed to maintaining a presence at the shoal, just over 120 nautical miles from the Philippine province of Palawan.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in 2016 that Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea, a vital waterway, had no basis under international law, a decision that China rejects.
The Sabina Shoal, known locally as Escoda, is the rendezvous point for vessels resupplying Filipino troops stationed on a grounded warship at the Second Thomas Shoal, where Manila and China have had frequent run-ins.
Ano has called for Chinese diplomats to be expelled over the alleged leak of a phone conversation with a Filipino admiral about the maritime dispute.
On Monday, the Philippine foreign ministry said it would look into reports of “illegal and unlawful activities” by diplomatic officials, but did not name China.
3 men charged in the UK with assisting the Hong Kong intelligence service
- The men will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court charged under the National Security Act
LONDON: Three men have been charged with allegedly assisting Hong Kong intelligence services and with foreign interference, London’s Metropolitan Police said Monday.
The men will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court charged under the National Security Act.
Chi Leung (Peter) Wai, 38, Matthew Trickett, 37, and Chung Biu Yuen, 63, have each been charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service.
“While these offenses are concerning, I want to reassure the public that we do not believe there to be any wider threat to them,” said Commander Dominic Murphy, Head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command.
“This investigation remains ongoing, but now that charges have been brought, I urge people not to speculate or comment further in relation to this case.”
Hong Kong’s security bureau, Hong Kong police and the office of China’s foreign ministry in Hong Kong did immediately respond to requests for comment.
Floods kill 43 in Indonesia’s West Sumatra, 15 missing
- Torrential rain on Saturday evening triggered flash floods, landslides, and cold lava flow in three districts in West Sumatra province
- Around 400 personnel, including rescuers, police, and military, were deployed to search for the missing people on Monday
TANAH DATAR: Flash floods and mud slides in Indonesia’s West Sumatra province killed at least 43 people over the weekend while a search for 15 missing people continued, authorities said on Monday.
Torrential rain on Saturday evening triggered flash floods, landslides, and cold lava flow — a mud-like mixture of volcanic ash, rock debris and water — in three districts in West Sumatra province, Abdul Malik, chief of the provincial rescue team, said.
The cold lava flow, known in Indonesia as a lahar, came from Mount Marapi, one of Sumatra’s most active volcanoes.
In December, more than 20 people were killed after Marapi erupted. A series of eruptions has followed since.
“The heavy rain swept materials such as ash and large rocks from the Marapi volcano,” said Abdul Malik, who later added in a statement that 43 people had died and 15 remained missing.
“Cold lava flow and flash floods have always been threats to us recently. But the problem is, it always happens late at night until dawn,” he said.
Abdul said around 400 personnel, including rescuers, police, and military, were deployed to search for the missing people on Monday, helped by at least eight excavators and drones.
The national disaster and management agency BNPB said in a statement almost 200 houses were damaged and 72 hectares (178 acres) of lands, including rice fields, were affected. At least 159 people from Agam district were evacuated to nearby schools.
Footage shared by BNPB showed roads and rice fields covered by mud. Video also showed the wreckage of damaged homes and buildings, while the floods brought logs and large rocks into settlements.
Eko Widodo, a 43-year-old survivor, said: “The flooding was sudden and the river became blocked which resulted in the flow of water everywhere and it was out of control.”
German court backs intelligence agency’s designation of far-right party as suspected extremist case
- The party could still seek to appeal the verdict at a federal court
BERLIN: Germany’s domestic intelligence agency was justified in designating the far-right Alternative for Germany as a suspected case of extremism, a court ruled Monday, rejecting an appeal from the opposition party.
The administrative court in Muenster ruled in favor of the BfV intelligence agency, upholding a 2022 decision by a lower court in Cologne, German news agency dpa reported. Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has rejected the designation strongly.
The party could still seek to appeal the verdict at a federal court.
AfD was formed in 2013 and has moved steadily to the right over the years. Its platform initially centered on opposition to bailouts for struggling eurozone members, but its vehement opposition to then-Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to allow in large numbers of refugees and other migrants in 2015 established the party as a significant political force.
AfD has been polling strongly in Germany in recent months as discontent is high with center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition government.
However, its support declined somewhat following a media report in January that extremists met to discuss the deportation of millions of immigrants, including some with German citizenship, and that some figures from the party attended. The report triggered mass protests in the country against the rise of the far-right.
Two Americans, one Russian citizen among 20 detained in Georgia, Russia’s TASS reports
- 20 people detained at protests in Tbilisi while Georgian lawmakers were debating a “foreign agents” bill
Tbilisi: Some 1,000 protesters stood firm outside parliament in Georgia on Monday, vowing not to back down in their fight against a Russia-styled “foreign agent” bill, a day before it’s due to be adopted.
Protests have gripped the small Caucasus nation for weeks over the bill, which critics say will erode democracy and derail the ex-Soviet republic’s long-held ambition of joining the European Union.
Critics say the measure, which resembles one Russia has used to crack down on dissent, will steer Tbilisi back under Moscow’s influence.
The ruling Georgian Dream party has portrayed it as necessary for Georgia’s sovereignty, saying it will boost transparency of civil groups’ funding.
The bill is due to go for a third and final reading in parliament on Tuesday.
On Monday, it passed a committee vote, a final step before it goes for a vote in parliament.
The bill targets NGOs that receive foreign funding, with Georgian Dream’s billionaire backer Bidzina Ivanishvili accusing them of working on foreign orders and plotting a revolution.
Part of Tbilisi’s main Rustaveli Avenue was closed off around parliament on Monday.
Hundreds of riot police officers lined a street behind parliament, and some scuffles broke out between them and protesters.
Authorities a day earlier warned that they would arrest people who blocked parliament, but thousands defied the warning and came to the parliament’s gates anyway.
“We are planning to stay here for as long as it takes,” 22-year-old Mariam Kalandadze told AFP.
“This law means not joining Europe,” she said, adding that “this is something that I have wanted my whole life.”
