Jakarta terror attack funds not from Australia, says Ambassador

Alana Christensen

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Jakarta terror attack funds not from Australia, says Ambassador

EPA

Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Paul Grigson says there is no link between the recent terror attacks and Australia

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Australian ambassador to Indonesia Paul Grigson denied there was a financial link between the recent Jakarta attacks and Australia on Wednesday, February 1.

Grigson was reacting to a previous statement from the Indonesian Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (INTRAC) which said there were suspicious transactions between terrorism networks in Indonesia and Australia.

In March 2015, INTRAC said they traced US $500,000 (Rp 6.4 billion) from an ISIS-linked account in Australia, to an Indonesian terrorist.

But Grigson said the money was not used in the Jakarta attacks on January 14.

“The evidence that we have seen so far suggests that there is no link between the most recent incidence and Australia,” he told Rappler.

He added, Indonesian authorities and Australian authorities are working very closely together and are continuing to look for possible links, but at this stage I’ve seen no evidence that suggests there’s a link [to the Jakarta attacks].”

The attacks downtown were the latest in a number of terrorist attacks across the world, fueling fears of more terrorist activity across the South East Asia region.

The attacks killed a total of 8 people – 4 terrorists and 4 civilians – after suicide bombers blew themselves up and gunmen opened fire.

The Islamic State (ISIS) later claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Working together

The Australian Government has warned Australians to be cautious when traveling to and around Indonesia in light of the attacks and the increased terror threat.

Despite this, Grigson said that Australians were not discouraged from travelling to Indonesia, with more than 1 million tourists visiting the country in the past year.

“We’re Bali’s number one supplier of tourists, something that Australia is very proud of, and I expect that this year Australians will continue to visit Indonesia,” he said.

Grigson said that Australia and Indonesia were committed to continuing to work together to combat terrorism.

“Australia and Indonesia have a very long history of working together on counter terrorism, both in exchanging information, working together in investigations and learning from each other,” he said.

Grigson said the Indonesian government should be congratulated for its recent counter-terrorism work.

“The Indonesian government and it’s security forces have made great improvements in recent years in terms of dealing with terrorism issues and they should be very proud of that,” he said.

However, he explained that there was still a way for both countries to go, with each able to work together and learn from each other.

“I think over the next few years it will be a matter of learning from each other, exchanging information and expanding our technical capacities together.” – Rappler.com

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