Country Reports on Terrorism 2012

(DRC); and one defunct Ugandan rebel group as terrorist organizations. The Act has no
suspicious transaction reporting requirement, and can take up to 21 days to update.
The Bank of Uganda asks local banks to report suspicious transactions, but there is no clear
implementation mechanism for enforcing this or investigating potentially suspicious activity.
Uganda routinely distributed the UN lists of designated terrorists or terrorist entities to financial
institutions through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, and the Bank of
Uganda. Uganda has the ability to monitor NGOs, but primarily uses this capability to monitor
the activities of NGOs critical of the Ugandan government.
For further information on money laundering and financial crimes, we refer you to the 2013
International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), Volume 2, Money Laundering and
Financial Crimes: http://www.state.gov/j/inl/rls/nrcrpt/index.htm.
Regional and International Cooperation: Uganda is an active member of the AU, the Inter-
Governmental Authority on Development, the Community of Eastern and Southern Africa, the
East African Community, and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region
(ICGLR). Uganda contributed troops to the AU Mission in Somalia and continued to lead
regional efforts to end the threat presented by the LRA in coordination with the DRC and South
Sudan under the African Union Regional Task Force framework. As Chair of the ICGLR,
Uganda led efforts to mediate discussions between M23 rebels and the DRC government.
Countering Radicalization and Violent Extremism: After the July 2010 terrorist attacks,
Ugandan police increased outreach to local youth considered at risk for radicalization and
recruitment into violent extremist organizations. Uganda has offered amnesty to former LRA
combatants and members of the ADF since 2000, but announced in May that future amnesty
requests would only be considered on a case-by-case basis.
EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC
Various transnational terrorist organizations continued activities in the East Asia and Pacific
region during the year, while the nature of the terrorist threats evolved. In January, Thai
authorities arrested a Hizballah operative, who led Thai officials to a significant cache of
explosives and bomb making materials. The following month, two Iranians were arrested in
Bangkok after accidentally discharging explosives allegedly intended to target Israeli diplomats.
A third Iranian was arrested while transiting Malaysia, and two others successfully fled Thailand.
All of the Iranian operatives used Malaysia as the entry and exit points for the region as they
travelled to and from Bangkok. While still vulnerable to terrorist activity, Malaysia achieved
significant legal reforms in 2012 by repealing its Internal Security Act and moving its
counterterrorism approach away from detention without trial to a criminal prosecution-based
system.
In the Philippines, terrorist acts were generally limited to criminal activities designed to generate
revenue for self-sustainment, such as kidnapping for ransom or extortion, but members of
terrorist groups were suspected to have carried out several bombings against public and private
facilities primarily in the central and western areas of Mindanao. The Government of the
Philippines moved toward a peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) by
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