Brussels, 04/05/2004 (Agence Europe) - The US State Department published in its report on terrorist trends world-wide in 2003, on 29 April, a list of thirty-seven organisations designated by the United States as being terrorist organisations whose assets are frozen and whose members are banned from staying on US territory. Except for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam group, all are also defined as terrorist organisations by the European Union.
Al Qaida is of course described as a terrorist group on both sides of the Atlantic. Among the other groups regarded by both US and EU as being terrorist, many operate in the Middle East (the Al-Aqsa Martyr Brigade, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, etc.). There are also Latin-American groups, such as FARC in Colombia, or European groups, such as ETA, as well as the Worker Party in Kurdistan.
The United States' report for 2003 includes an additional list of forty other terrorist organisations considered active last year. Eleven of them are also considered as terrorists by the European Union: three Irish groups (Continuity Irish Republican Army, the Loyalist Volunteer Force, the Red Hand Defenders) and a far-left Spanish movement (anti-fascist resistance group of 1 October, GRAPO). Seven other groups have been designated as terrorist by the United Nations for their links with Al Qaida and the Taliban. They are: the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade (IIPB), the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM) and the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG).
Nine organisations included on the European list of terrorist organisations do not appear on the list set out in the US' 2003 report on terrorism. They are the Great East Islamic Raiders Front (IBDA-C), the International Sikh Youth Foundation (ISYF) and the Orange Volunteers (OV).
The European Union has three separate lists of terrorists and terrorist organisations. One is exclusively devoted to the Taliban, to the Al-Qaida, and to persons and organisations connected to them. It is directly based on the decisions taken by the United Nations Security Council sanctions committee, which is regularly updated. It includes 305 persons and 104 organisations. The list may be consulted on http: //http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/committees/1267/pdflist.pdf. The European Commission, responsible for ensuring that the names designated by the United Nations are taken up by the European Union, publishes any additions - or withdrawals - but not the complete list (Official Journal L104 of 8 April 2004). Inclusion on the list means a visa ban and a freeze on assets in the European Union. The list already existed before the 11 September attacks.
A second list concerns all the other terrorist organisations. It was drawn up in the wake of the attacks on 11 September 2001. The first official European list of terrorist organisations, it comprises 45 names of persons and 36 organisations. The freeze on assets is only valid for non-European organisations. The last update dates back to 2 April (Official Journal L99 of 3 April 2004).
A third list is confidential. Being an older list, it serves as a basis for cooperation between European police forces.