OFFICES OF TWO ISLAMIC RELIEF AGENCIES IN BOSNIA CLOSED

SARAJEVO, Nov 2 (Hina) - The Bosnian federal finance police inspectors have sealed the offices and banned the further work of two Islamic humanitarian agencies, believed to be linked to the terrorist organisation "Al-Quaida". #L# The Sarajevo-based daily "Dnevni Avaz" on Saturday reported that financial police officers of the Croat-Muslim Bosnian entity sealed the offices of organisations - "Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation" and "Global Relief Foundation" (GRF) - with the explanation that they had done illicit financial transactions and that their staff had no work permits. Although the daily did not mention this information, the closing of the organisations was directly connected with the demand which Washington forwarded to Bosnia's Foreign Ministry in October. According to the "Slobodna Bosna" weekly, the State Department warned Sarajevo that only Bosnia and Somalia remained the two countries which had not yet forbidden the activities of the "Al- Haramain Islamic Foundation" and GRF. The warning ensued after on 18 October US President George Bush signed a decree asking the United Nations to ensure that UN member states strictly obeyed provisions of conventions on the fight against terrorism, adopted after last year's attacks on New York and Washington. The conventions bind UN member-countries to freeze financial transactions aimed at the financing of terrorism. Last summer, Bosnian security services' members searched the premises of the above-mentioned two organisations in Sarajevo and confiscated documents which helped the US authorities to block the financial operations of "Al-Quaida" and other Islamic terrorist organisations from the financial centres in Europe and Asia. According to the "Slobodna Bosna" weekly, agents of the Federal Intelligence Security Service (FOSS), found aerial photographs of 70 different objects in the United States and Europe, believed to be potential targets of terrorist attacks. (hina) ms