Groups added to EU's terror list

The Kurdish rebel group PKK and Peru’s Shining Path were among 18 people and groups added to the EU’s terrorist list, which was made public today.

Fri, 03 May, 2002 - 15:46

The Kurdish rebel group PKK and Peru’s Shining Path were among 18 people and groups added to the EU’s terrorist list, which was made public today.

First drafted last December, the EU list was widened to bring it closer in line with US terrorist blacklists drawn up after the September 11 attacks, officials said.

Of the 11 groups added to the EU list, two are based in Turkey: the PKK, or the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, and the far-left DHKP-C, or Revolutionary People’s Liberation Army/Front which has been leading a hunger strike in Turkey to protest prison conditions.

The PKK has waged a 15 year war against Turkey. It changed its name to the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress, or Kadek, last month, but EU governments, by placing the PKK on its list, signalled they do not recognise Kadek.

Kadek has said it was ending its armed struggle to campaign peacefully for greater rights for Kurds in southeastern Turkey, but without disbanding its armed wing. The Turkish government has termed the name-change meaningless.

Other additions to the EU list included the Iranian People’s Mujahadeen Organisation, Spanish Basque separatist group Aska Tasuna and Shining Path, the Peruvian left wing group, responsible for numerous bombings and kidnappings during the early 1990s.

Seven individuals were added to the EU list, all linked to the Spanish separatist group Eta.

Under EU rules, the 15 EU governments must freeze assets of individuals and groups on the list that now numbers over 50 individuals and groups. In case of prosecutions, they must also help one another investigate the activities of those accused of terrorism.

The EU blacklist is to be reviewed every six months to take account of new groups.

The latest newcomers join groups such as Afghanistan’s Taliban, Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network, and other radical Islamic organizations.

The EU list first released in December also included Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas Izzedine al-Qassam, which the Union called the ‘‘terrorist wing of Hamas’’ and home grown groups from Northern Ireland, Spain’s Basque country and Greece.

A meeting of diplomats from the 15 EU nations agreed on additions on Monday. The list was finalised yesterday.

Absent from the updated list were the Syria-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Colombian group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), on which no agreement was reached between EU governments.

The Syrian-based group has been accused of killing Israel’s tourism minister last October. Four members, wanted by Israel, were transferred from Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat’s compound this week to a Jericho prison under the supervision of the United States and Britain.

Groups designated by the European Union as terrorist organizations:

:: Al-Qaida, Muslim-Arab

:: AntiFascist Resistance Groups First of October (Grapo), Spain

:: Aska Tasuna, Basque separatist group, Spain

:: Aum Shinrikyo, Japan

:: Babbar Khalsa, Sikh separatist group, India

:: Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA), Spain

:: Continuity Irish Republican Army (CIRA), Northern Ireland

:: Gama’a al-Islamiyya,(Islamic group), Egypt

:: Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement), Palestinian

:: International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), India

:: Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Turkey