FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Member of FARC Terrorist Organization Pleads Guilty to Hostage-Taking Charges in 2003 Capture of U.S. Citizens
Hostages Were Held in Colombia for More Than Five Years
Alexander Beltran Herrera, 37, a commander of the FARC terrorist organization, pleaded guilty today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to hostage-taking charges stemming from the 2003 kidnappings of three U.S. citizens in Colombia.
The guilty plea was announced by John P. Carlin, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s National Security Division; Ronald C. Machen Jr., U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia; and George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Miami Division.
Beltran Herrera pleaded guilty to three counts of hostage-taking. He is to be sentenced July 25, 2014, by the Honorable Royce C. Lamberth. The offense of hostage taking carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, although as part of the extradition process from Colombia, the United States agreed not to seek a sentence exceeding 60 years.
According to a statement of facts submitted as part of the plea hearing, t he FARC is an armed, violent organization in Colombia, which since its inception in 1964, has engaged in an armed conflict to overthrow the Republic of Colombia, South America’s longest-standing democracy. The FARC has consistently used hostage taking as a primary technique in extorting demands from the Republic of Colombia, and hostage taking has been endorsed and commanded by FARC senior leadership. The FARC has characterized American citizens as “military targets” and has engaged in violent acts against Americans in Colombia, including murders and hostage taking. The FARC was designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. Secretary of State in 1997 and remains so designated.
Beltran Herrera, a commander in the FARC, was involved in the hostage taking of three United States citizens: Marc D. Gonsalves, Thomas R. Howes, and Keith Stansell. These three, along with Thomas Janis, a United States citizen, and Sergeant Luis Alcides Cruz, a Colombian citizen, were seized on Feb. 13, 2003, by the FARC, after their single-engine aircraft made a crash landing in the Colombian jungle.
Members of the FARC murdered Mr. Janis and Sgt. Cruz at the crash site. Mr. Gonsalves, Mr. Howes, and Mr. Stansell were held by the FARC at gunpoint and were advised by FARC leadership that they would be used as hostages to increase pressure on the government of Colombia to agree to the FARC’s demands. At various times, the FARC marched the hostages from one site to another, placing them in the actual custody of various FARC fronts.
At the conclusion of one 40-day long march, in or about November 2004, the hostages were delivered to members of the FARC’s 27th Front, who imprisoned the hostages for nearly two years. During part of this period, Beltran Herrera was responsible for moving the hostages and keeping them imprisoned. Throughout the captivity of these three hostages, FARC jailors and guards used choke harnesses, chains, padlocks and wires to restrain the hostages, and used force and threats to continue their detention and prevent their escape. In July 2008, the Colombian military conducted a daring operation which resulted in the rescue of the hostages.
All told, members of the FARC held the Americans hostage for 1,967 days.
“This case underscores our resolve to hold accountable those who target our citizens with violence anywhere in the world,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Carlin. “With this guilty plea, Alexander Beltran Herrera has admitted his participation in the hostage taking and captivity of three Americans by the FARC, a Colombian terrorist organization. I want to thank all of the prosecutors, agents, and analysts who made this result possible.”
“Alexander Beltran Herrera was a terrorist and commander in the FARC organization who held three Americans hostage in the Colombian jungle,” said U.S. Attorney Machen. “With today's guilty plea, he admitted to his role in terrorizing these Americans, who were held in captivity for more than five years. His extradition and prosecution reflect our determination to bring to justice anyone who sets out to harm our fellow citizens overseas.”
“Alexander Beltran Herrera was a commander within FARC, a foreign terrorist organization based in Colombia that considered U.S. citizens to be targets for murder and hostage taking,” said Special Agent in Charge Piro. “First captured, then extradited to the United States, Herrera has now admitted to his role in moving and keeping hostage three American citizens, Marc D. Gonsalves, Thomas R. Howes and Keith Stansell. Once again, the excellent, longstanding cooperation between the Colombian National Police and U.S. law enforcement has ended another terrorist’s career of violence and thuggery.”
This case was investigated by the FBI’s Miami Division. The prosecution is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Anthony Asuncion and Fernando Campoamor-Sanchez from the National Security Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, and Trial Attorney David Cora, from the Counterterrorism Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. The case was indicted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Kohl, of the National Security Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The FBI’s Miami Division partnered in the investigation with the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, the Department’s Judicial Attachés in Colombia, and the FBI’s Office of the Legal Attaché in Bogota, Colombia. The Directorate of Intelligence (DIPOL) and the Anti-Kidnapping Unit (GAULA) of the Colombian National Police also provided valuable support during the investigation.
Showing posts with label INTERNATIONAL CRIME. Show all posts
Showing posts with label INTERNATIONAL CRIME. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Saturday, March 15, 2014
UKRAINIAN ARRESTED ON INTERNATIONAL CORRUPTION CONSPIRACY CHARGES
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Friday, March 14, 2014
Ukrainian Businessman Arrested in Austria on U.S. International Corruption Conspiracy Charges
Dmitry Firtash, 48, a Ukrainian businessman, was arrested Wednesday by Austrian authorities in Vienna on a provisional arrest request based on charges filed in the Northern District of Illinois, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Zachary T. Fardon of the Northern District of Illinois.
The charges result from an investigation, which the FBI has conducted for several years, of an alleged international corruption conspiracy. Firtash’s arrest is not related to recent events in Ukraine.
Firtash, who controls Group DF, an international conglomerate of companies, remains in Austrian custody unless he meets the bail condition of posting a €125 million bond, which was set today in a Vienna court. The U.S. government will seek his extradition.
The charges are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
The department has worked closely with and has received significant assistance from its law enforcement counterparts in Austria and greatly appreciates their assistance in this matter. Significant assistance was also provided by the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs. The Chicago Office of the FBI conducted the investigation.
Friday, March 14, 2014
Ukrainian Businessman Arrested in Austria on U.S. International Corruption Conspiracy Charges
Dmitry Firtash, 48, a Ukrainian businessman, was arrested Wednesday by Austrian authorities in Vienna on a provisional arrest request based on charges filed in the Northern District of Illinois, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Zachary T. Fardon of the Northern District of Illinois.
The charges result from an investigation, which the FBI has conducted for several years, of an alleged international corruption conspiracy. Firtash’s arrest is not related to recent events in Ukraine.
Firtash, who controls Group DF, an international conglomerate of companies, remains in Austrian custody unless he meets the bail condition of posting a €125 million bond, which was set today in a Vienna court. The U.S. government will seek his extradition.
The charges are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
The department has worked closely with and has received significant assistance from its law enforcement counterparts in Austria and greatly appreciates their assistance in this matter. Significant assistance was also provided by the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs. The Chicago Office of the FBI conducted the investigation.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
U.S. OFFICIAL'S REMARKS ON ILLICIT TRAFFICKING ALONG CRIME-TERROR CONTINUUM
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Trans-African Security: Combating Illicit Trafficking Along the Crime-Terror Continuum
David M. Luna
Director for Anticrime Programs, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
Director for Anticrime Programs, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
AFSEC 14
Casablanca, Morocco
February 26, 2014
Good morning.
Your Excellencies, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is an honor to join you today at this important security conference.
I would like to thank IQPC, DefenseIQ, and the conference organizers for their kind invitation to discuss the U.S. government’s diplomatic efforts to confront the major security threats affecting West Africa, the Sahel, and the Maghreb.
I would especially like to thank the Government of Morocco and the Royal Moroccan Navy for their hospitality and for their leadership in working with the international community to combat the security challenges faced by many countries in this part of the world.
Let me also thank all of the representatives from governments, international organizations, and the private sector who are here in Casablanca today.
The United States applauds your continued commitment to defend your collective homeland security and safeguard communities against the threats posed by illicit trafficking networks.
Triple Threat: Corruption, Crime, and Terrorism Pave Illicit Trafficking Corridor
Today’s reality is one in which we live in a world where there is no region, no country and no people who remain untouched by the destabilizing effects and corruptive influence of transnational organized crime and violent terrorism.
Their impact is truly global and their real threat centers in some cases in their convergence. In particular, we must recognize that trans-regional illicit trafficking of drugs, arms, humans, and other illicit trade goods and services, are fuelling greater insecurity and instability across Africa, and in other parts of the world.
In December, the United Nations Security Council expressed concern over the increasing links between cross-border narcotics trafficking and other forms of transnational organized crime in West Africa and the Sahel. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said:
On the governance front, the proceeds of drug trafficking and illicit trade are fueling a dramatic increase in corruption among the very institutions responsible for fighting crime. The collusion and complicity of some government officials have helped carve out a corridor of illicit trafficking that stretches from the West African coast to the Horn of Africa, from North Africa south to the Gulf of Guinea.
Illicit networks continue to move people and products along these routes. From the coca and opium poppy fields of Colombia and Southeast Asia to the coasts of West Africa and its hashish plantations, drug cartels and other criminal networks navigate an illicit superhighway that serves illicit markets across the continent and around the globe. They use commercial jets, fishing vessels, and container ships to move drugs, people, small arms, crude oil, cigarettes, counterfeit medicine, and toxic waste through the region, generating massive profits.
At a time when many are heralding the rise of some of the world’s fastest-growing economies in sub-Saharan Africa, these criminal entrepreneurs are undermining that growth by financing booming illicit markets, turning many vulnerable communities into a corridor of insecurity and instability. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that terrorist financing, trafficking in arms, drugs, and people, and other transnational forms of organized crime generate approximately $3.34 billion per year.
Cocaine trafficking is among the most lucrative illicit activities. UNODC estimates that approximately 13 percent of the global cocaine traffic moves through West Africa. In the past several years, West Africa has become a key transit route for drug trafficking from the Americas. Large seizures of drugs have been made in and along the coasts of Ghana, Sierra Leone, Cape Verde, Togo, Liberia, Benin, Senegal, and Nigeria. Smugglers and traffickers then transport these drugs through caravans, couriers, and maritime routes to destination markets in Europe and elsewhere.
West Africa is a transit point for heroin destined for the United States. In recent years, the United States disrupted and prosecuted an international cartel that moved heroin from Ghana to Dulles International Airport.
Illicit markets are growing across Africa to meet global demand for arms, counterfeits, cigarettes, diamonds and other precious minerals, wildlife, stolen luxury cars, and other illegal goods. Terrorists also engage in criminal activities, principally kidnapping for ransom and other crimes to fund their violent campaigns such as those that we are witnessing today by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Boko Haram, and others.
The finances of at least one terrorist networks that is engaged in or linked to illicit trafficking in the region are sometimes wired or transferred from West Africa to financial safe havens such as banks in Lebanon.
For example, the Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB) case suggested that the terrorist organization Hizballah is actively engaged in money laundering operations in West Africa involving narcotics trafficking and used and stolen car sales.
Maritime crime has also captured the attention of the regional states and international community. The reported number of incidents in the Gulf of Guinea and the level of violence associated with those acts remain a concern. The Economic Communities of West and Central African States, the Gulf of Guinea Commission, and their member states should be commended for the outcomes of the June 2013 Yaoundé Summit. The signed Gulf of Guinea Code of Conduct (GGC) covers not only armed robbery at sea and piracy, but also other illicit maritime activity such as illegal fishing, maritime pollution, and human and drug trafficking.
Artificial Boundaries: Spillover Effects Across the Sahel and Maghreb
Unfortunately, what happens in West Africa no longer stays in West Africa. Illicit trade is feeding destabilization across West Africa, the Sahel, and the Maghreb. Communities here face a complex set of challenges that threaten the security of all nations in the region and beyond.
As the Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper noted a few weeks ago in a statement to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence:
Director Clapper also stressed that limited resources, corruption, illicit markets, smuggling, and poor governance “undercut development and the [Sahel] region’s ability to absorb international assistance and improve stability and security, which would impede terrorists’ freedom of movement.”
Such convergence of actors is further paving the corridor of illicit trafficking and crime-terror continuum across Africa as criminal insurgencies are becoming players themselves in illicit markets and using the proceeds to finance their terror campaigns, secure their training camps, establish safe havens.
We only have to look at some of the current hot spots to clearly comprehend how certain crime-terror dynamics continue to contribute to insecurity and instability.
Mali
The acute crises in Mali and trans-Africa must be understood in the broader context of a deeply strained region, particularly relating to governance, as converging threat vectors come together from all four sides to create regional security hot spots.
Though Mali’s current predicament arises largely from specific internal factors, the country’s challenges are reinforced and exacerbated by a range of transnational dynamics such as region-wide afflictions, adverse ecological changes, underdevelopment, disaffected local populations, and organized criminal networks.
The rise of violent extremism and organized crime across the region is aggravating the situation in Mali. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, and other terrorist groups have launched attacks, fanned suicide bombers, and kidnappings for ransom from northern Mali into neighboring countries. AQIM’s game-plan in the region is to build an Islamic radical caliphate. According to West Point's Combating Terrorism Center, AQIM's objectives include ridding North Africa of Western influence; overthrowing governments deemed apostate, including those of Algeria, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia; and installing fundamentalist regimes based on sharia.
So as illicit goods are trafficked through Mali, the Sahel, and Maghreb, AQIM and its sympathizers are manipulating socio-economic conditions to further advance an illegal economy, and finance their aspirations for a caliphate. For example, prior to losing territorial control after the French intervention in 2013, AQIM was reported to tax drugs passing through their territory.
Despite the transnational impacts, long-term solutions must directly address the internal factors that have made these countries so vulnerable. For example, during the 2012 rebellion, extremists were able to maintain control over cities in the north in part because they provided some semblance of security.
Mali’s civilian security services must develop the capability to provide visible, relevant, and accountable citizen security. Improving citizen participation, trust, and ownership of the national government is a key ingredient to ending the cycle of instability.
Libya
Libya also continues to be challenged with the threat of violence and insecurity.
Libya’s transitional government has been struggling to stabilize the country since a revolution led to dictator Muammar Ghaddafi’s ouster in October 2011. As in other parts of this continent in ungoverned spaces and pockets of insecurity, a proliferation of threat actors and networks including extremists and violent groups are further destabilizing Libya.
AQIM continues to forge alliances with violent extremist networks in Libya and across the Maghreb, Sahel, and West Africa.
After 42 years of dictatorship, Libya suffers from instability and poor governance due to weak institutions, wide, porous borders, huge stockpiles of loose conventional weapons, and the presence of militias, some of whom have extremist ties.
Without capable police and national security forces that work with communities, security and justice sector institutions struggle to fulfill their mandate, and rule of law is undermined, enabling criminality, illicit trade, and frustration to grow.
Border security is also a critical U.S. and international concern in Libya. Libya’s uncontrolled borders permit the flow not only of destabilizing Qadhafi-era conventional weapons, but also violent extremists throughout North Africa, the Middle East, and the Sahel.
As noted earlier, the flow of these foreign fighters has increased since the fall of Qadhafi and was highlighted by the January 2013 attack near In Amenas, Algeria.
The United States is in the process of beginning to implement a Global Security Contingency Fund (GSCF) border security program to provide technical expertise, training, and limited equipment to build Libya’s inter-ministerial border security capacity to address security along its southern land border.
This program includes training and equipment programming for Libya’s neighbors – Chad, Niger, and Algeria – to improve border security cooperation with Libya. In addition, we have a GSCF training and equipment program to build special operations forces capacity.
Nigeria
Nigerian organized criminal networks remain a major factor in moving cocaine and heroin worldwide, and have begun to produce and traffic methamphetamine to and around Southeast Asia.
In addition to drug trafficking, some of these criminal organizations also engage in other forms of trafficking and fraud targeting citizens of the United States, Europe, and globally.
Widespread corruption in Nigeria further facilitates criminal activity, and, combined with Nigeria’s central location along major trafficking routes, enables criminal groups to flourish and make Nigeria an important trafficking hub.
Nigeria is also having to confront the Boko Haram insurgency in the country’s northeast and has suffered a spate of significant terrorist attacks in recent years.
These terrorist acts are the primary reason that the United States formally designated Boko Haram and Ansaru as foreign terrorist organizations, blocking financial transactions in the United States and making it a crime for U.S. persons to provide them with material support.
The close proximity of terrorist and criminal networks in Nigeria raise the potential for illicit collaboration that will negatively influence the current state of affairs across Africa, and the spigot that is financing insecurity and instability.
Impacts on Morocco and Beyond
But the narrative is not all dire and doom. Take Morocco for example.
While Morocco remains a leading source country for cannabis, trailing only Afghanistan in hashish (cannabis resin) production, its relative importance as a source country may be waning, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), with Afghanistan and India gaining prominence as suppliers for the that market.
And while it also continues to serve as a transshipment zone for cocaine originating in Latin America that is smuggled via West Africa to Europe, international cooperation is being strengthened with our partners.
For example, the United States has good cooperation with the Moroccan Navy, the Gendarmerie, and Moroccan Customs as they continue to maintain an aggressive maritime interdiction effort against smugglers and traffickers.
On our overall bilateral relationship, we continue to enjoy a very strong partnership with Morocco, focused on promoting regional stability, supporting democratic reform efforts, countering violent extremism, and strengthening trade and cultural ties.
Sustainable Security: Climate Change and Illicit Networks
But terrorism, crime, and corruption are not the only threats we need to consider when we look at the African context.
Threats to the environment from climate change and other factors add a layer of complexity. Whether through the slaughter of wildlife, theft of natural resources, illegal logging and fishing, or other environmental challenges, Africa is losing its biodiversity and cultural heritage.
On top of all this, the changing climate in the Sahel and West Africa, and throughout Africa, can have profound security implications for the region, in the context of other destabilizing factors and existing vulnerabilities. As climate change contributes to hotter temperatures, rising coastal sea levels, desertification, natural disasters, rapid urbanization, and deforestation, greater pressure will be placed on food supplies, water levels, fisheries, and other critical resources. We must continue to work together to address global climate change, reducing our emissions and building resilience to its impacts.
The United States has committed more than a billion dollars since 2009 to humanitarian assistance for drought-affected and conflict-displaced communities in the Sahel, but we face a long road ahead that must include stemming the terrorist threat, uprooting safe havens and sanctuaries, fighting organized crime, and controlling the proliferation of weapons.
Above all, we must work with Africans to protect children from being exploited, trafficked, or recruited to become child soldiers.
U.S. Diplomatic Efforts and International Cooperation
The United States strongly supports the great strides many African countries have made to improve security, good governance, rule of law, and sustainable economic development.
As President Barack Obama highlighted in the U.S. Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime, the United States will continue to assist our partners to strengthen their security footprint and capabilities to combat today’s threat networks.
A key pillar of the Strategy is to enhance international cooperation with key partners to combat threats posed by organized crime, narco-trafficking, and terrorism, and to protect our communities from the violence, harm, and exploitation wrought by transnational threat networks.
The Strategy also challenges the U.S. government and our international partners to work together to combat transnational illicit networks and converging threats, and take that fight to the next level by breaking their corruptive power, attacking their financial underpinnings, stripping them of their illicit wealth, and severing their access to the financial system.
Throughout this conference, you will have heard presentations about the breadth of U.S. technical assistance from my colleagues from the U.S. Department of Defense, AFRICOM, U.S. law enforcement, and other agencies.
I would like to outline what the Department of State is doing, and in particular to outline some of the programs of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). In May 2011, my boss, Ambassador William Brownfield, led a delegation of senior U.S. officials to West Africa to begin formulating a strategic approach to undermine transnational criminal networks in West Africa and to reduce their ability to operate illicit criminal enterprises.
Through consultations with partners in the region, our U.S. government team developed a plan called the West Africa Cooperative Security Initiative, or WACSI. WACSI is built around five objectives designed to respond to the underlying factors that allow transnational crime to flourish in West Africa.
Drawing on lessons learned from the law enforcement, development, and military perspectives, as well as the conditions on the ground unique to West Africa, WACSI offers the first comprehensive U.S. government approach to drug trafficking in West Africa.
The U.S. government has identified existing and new U.S. assistance to support this initiative and it is anticipated that additional U.S. government resources will be dedicated to support it in the future. Programming under WACSI will be aligned with the five pillars to focus on efforts such as:
Within the WACSI framework, INL is revamping our assistance programs to create a regional effect, maximize our impact, and coordinate with international partners, including West Africans, other donors, and international organizations.
In 2011 and 2012, the U.S. government provided approximately $95 million for WACSI programs. With this funding, we have undertaken several new projects that help Africans build skills and abilities to fight transnational crime, including maritime crime.
For example, we opened the West Africa Regional Training Center (RTC) in Accra, Ghana, in January 2013. The RTC brings together law enforcement, security, and judicial officials from multiple countries, creating relationships across the region, and building knowledge and skills on topics ranging from investigative analysis to anti-corruption to counternarcotics. In 2013, we conducted 19 courses and trained more than 675 officials from 17 countries.
To address maritime security, we supported a series of three regional workshops focused on maritime criminal justice for ECOWAS member states.
We continue to explore future areas of assistance to include strengthening capabilities to preserve crime scenes for complex investigations, create strong case packages, and build more effective, evidence-based trials.
Trans-Saharan Counter-Terrorism Partnership
The Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership (TSCTP) is a multi-faceted U.S. strategy aimed at disrupting terrorist organizations by strengthening regional counterterrorism capabilities, and enhancing and institutionalizing cooperation among the region’s security forces. This effort has taken an increasingly holistic view of counter-terrorism, focusing on the drivers of extremism, and the importance of effective, resilient, and accountable security and justice institutions.
In 2014, INL will be working with governments in the Maghreb and Sahel to improve the responsiveness of their security institutions to their citizens. In particular, INL will provide mentorship and training to law enforcement and corrections services to help them proactively and accountably provide the valuable citizen security their citizens expect and need. INL is also looking to engage with communities to help them more proactively advocate for their interests and work with law enforcement to find practical solutions to their security concerns.
We are also exploring how regional networks can help improve the sustainability and effectiveness of key security sector reforms, both within the Sahel and the Maghreb.
Conclusion: Partnerships for Sustainable Security
I applaud the organizers of the AFSEC14 conference for focusing on the importance of strengthening international cooperation on sea and on land to effectively disrupt and dismantle transnational organized crime, illicit flows, and terrorism across Africa.
I want to again extend my appreciation on behalf of the United States to our partners in attendance for their commitment to work across borders, improve coordination and information-sharing, and leverage our respective capabilities and capacities to defeat our common adversaries.
Many of our partners, including the European Union, NATO, the African Union, and others, are undertaking multi-dimensional, trans-African strategies, and we must continue to coordinate closely to ensure a common and complementary approach.
The United States will be an active partner in this endeavor and will continue to support the ongoing efforts of the UN Special Envoy for the Sahel, Romano Prodi, to develop an integrated UN strategy for tackling the multiple crises trans Africa. We must continue our efforts to approach the Sahel and the Maghreb’s interconnected problems with a comprehensive inter-regional and international effort.
The United States, China, France, and other countries must work more closely with the international community to better coordinate efforts and resources, build Africa’s sustainable future and work together to combat the threats that undermine the capital and investments that are necessary to sustain economic prosperity throughout Africa.
We must continue to leverage all national economic, intelligence, and diplomatic powers to make it riskier, harder, and costlier for threat networks to do business within Africa.
Illicit trafficking remains the lifeblood of the numerous bad actors and networks, creating vulnerabilities for nations. We must crackdown on corruption at all levels and cut off the ability of kleptocrats, criminals, and terrorists to enjoy the fruits of illicit enterprise and that enable the financial capacity to execute their operations.
By combating the triple threat of corruption, organized crime, and terrorism, we can also shut the door and keep criminals and extremists alike from exploiting vulnerable and corrupt nodes or their grievances to wage jihad. We must prevent narco-corruption from destroying countries like Guinea and Guinea-Bissau.
Finally, just as Al-Qaeda, al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, and other violent extremist groups are determined to spread insecurity and despair, the international community must support governments in the region to offer the better alternative—the option of hope, economic freedom, and sustainable futures that are real investments in peoples’ lives.
To do this, we must support pragmatic partnerships and creative incentives that deter the recruitment of Africa’s marginalized youth and peoples, unemployed, and disenfranchised and invest in developing economic opportunities that help finance their education, health, and on agricultural technologies and other micro-business that augment market growth and investment strategies. Reducing demand for increasingly available illicit drugs is a key part of this puzzle, if we are to give Africa’s youth a fighting chance at stopping the cycle of crime and corruption.
We need to address underlying causes that are contributing to today’s conflicts in Africa: food and water security, poverty, economic integration and development, and other socio-economic areas that empower communities and nurture growth markets, investment frontiers, and resiliency.
With careful, targeted assistance, and smart diplomatic engagement, together we can advance our common objectives and strategic interests.
If we do not act decisively, the region will remain an exporter of terror and a provider of safe havens where terrorists from other conflicts all over the world find refuge, illicit trafficking will continue to expand, arms and weapons will dangerously proliferate, women, men, and children will be trafficked, and drugs and illicit enterprise will corrode the rule of law and the gains of globalization.
The tragic attacks in Abuja, In Amenas, Bamako, Benghazi, Nairobi, and other cities across West Africa, the Sahel, East Africa, and Maghreb are not reasons to retreat. Neither are the greedy and illicit ventures by criminal entrepreneurs that are destroying communities.
An effective response will require more local and regional partners, more cooperation with allies, more resources, and most of all a willingness to accept risk and political courage and commitment to stay the course.
We can only tackle these threats effectively if we work together and synchronize our capabilities and capacities.
If we do this, we can create hope, stability, opportunity, and an enduring peace.
And we must not fail to safeguard all of our security and to protect the blessings for our children to enjoy—a global village that is safer, more secure, prosperous, and at peace.
Thank you.
Your Excellencies, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is an honor to join you today at this important security conference.
I would like to thank IQPC, DefenseIQ, and the conference organizers for their kind invitation to discuss the U.S. government’s diplomatic efforts to confront the major security threats affecting West Africa, the Sahel, and the Maghreb.
I would especially like to thank the Government of Morocco and the Royal Moroccan Navy for their hospitality and for their leadership in working with the international community to combat the security challenges faced by many countries in this part of the world.
Let me also thank all of the representatives from governments, international organizations, and the private sector who are here in Casablanca today.
The United States applauds your continued commitment to defend your collective homeland security and safeguard communities against the threats posed by illicit trafficking networks.
Triple Threat: Corruption, Crime, and Terrorism Pave Illicit Trafficking Corridor
Today’s reality is one in which we live in a world where there is no region, no country and no people who remain untouched by the destabilizing effects and corruptive influence of transnational organized crime and violent terrorism.
Their impact is truly global and their real threat centers in some cases in their convergence. In particular, we must recognize that trans-regional illicit trafficking of drugs, arms, humans, and other illicit trade goods and services, are fuelling greater insecurity and instability across Africa, and in other parts of the world.
In December, the United Nations Security Council expressed concern over the increasing links between cross-border narcotics trafficking and other forms of transnational organized crime in West Africa and the Sahel. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said:
“West Africa is no longer just a transit route for drug traffickers but a growing destination, with more than a million users of illicit drugs. Rising consumption aggravates an already challenging public health environment and threatens socio-economic development.”
The challenge that drug trafficking poses to peace, stability, and development in the region is compounded by the dramatic social and political changes that have taken place in North Africa and the Middle East over the last few years. The tide of change has not only unleashed forces for justice, but also ignited a fury of violence and insecurity that has emboldened a variety of non-state actors to assert their agendas across the region.On the governance front, the proceeds of drug trafficking and illicit trade are fueling a dramatic increase in corruption among the very institutions responsible for fighting crime. The collusion and complicity of some government officials have helped carve out a corridor of illicit trafficking that stretches from the West African coast to the Horn of Africa, from North Africa south to the Gulf of Guinea.
Illicit networks continue to move people and products along these routes. From the coca and opium poppy fields of Colombia and Southeast Asia to the coasts of West Africa and its hashish plantations, drug cartels and other criminal networks navigate an illicit superhighway that serves illicit markets across the continent and around the globe. They use commercial jets, fishing vessels, and container ships to move drugs, people, small arms, crude oil, cigarettes, counterfeit medicine, and toxic waste through the region, generating massive profits.
At a time when many are heralding the rise of some of the world’s fastest-growing economies in sub-Saharan Africa, these criminal entrepreneurs are undermining that growth by financing booming illicit markets, turning many vulnerable communities into a corridor of insecurity and instability. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that terrorist financing, trafficking in arms, drugs, and people, and other transnational forms of organized crime generate approximately $3.34 billion per year.
Cocaine trafficking is among the most lucrative illicit activities. UNODC estimates that approximately 13 percent of the global cocaine traffic moves through West Africa. In the past several years, West Africa has become a key transit route for drug trafficking from the Americas. Large seizures of drugs have been made in and along the coasts of Ghana, Sierra Leone, Cape Verde, Togo, Liberia, Benin, Senegal, and Nigeria. Smugglers and traffickers then transport these drugs through caravans, couriers, and maritime routes to destination markets in Europe and elsewhere.
West Africa is a transit point for heroin destined for the United States. In recent years, the United States disrupted and prosecuted an international cartel that moved heroin from Ghana to Dulles International Airport.
Illicit markets are growing across Africa to meet global demand for arms, counterfeits, cigarettes, diamonds and other precious minerals, wildlife, stolen luxury cars, and other illegal goods. Terrorists also engage in criminal activities, principally kidnapping for ransom and other crimes to fund their violent campaigns such as those that we are witnessing today by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Boko Haram, and others.
The finances of at least one terrorist networks that is engaged in or linked to illicit trafficking in the region are sometimes wired or transferred from West Africa to financial safe havens such as banks in Lebanon.
For example, the Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB) case suggested that the terrorist organization Hizballah is actively engaged in money laundering operations in West Africa involving narcotics trafficking and used and stolen car sales.
Maritime crime has also captured the attention of the regional states and international community. The reported number of incidents in the Gulf of Guinea and the level of violence associated with those acts remain a concern. The Economic Communities of West and Central African States, the Gulf of Guinea Commission, and their member states should be commended for the outcomes of the June 2013 Yaoundé Summit. The signed Gulf of Guinea Code of Conduct (GGC) covers not only armed robbery at sea and piracy, but also other illicit maritime activity such as illegal fishing, maritime pollution, and human and drug trafficking.
Artificial Boundaries: Spillover Effects Across the Sahel and Maghreb
Unfortunately, what happens in West Africa no longer stays in West Africa. Illicit trade is feeding destabilization across West Africa, the Sahel, and the Maghreb. Communities here face a complex set of challenges that threaten the security of all nations in the region and beyond.
As the Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper noted a few weeks ago in a statement to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence:
“Sub-Saharan Africa…[has seen] the emergence of extremist and rebel groups, which increasingly launch deadly asymmetric attacks, and which government forces often cannot effectively counter due to a lack of capability and sometimes will. Additionally, a youth bulge will grow with unfulfilled economic expectations and political frustrations; conflict will increase for land and water resources; and strengthening transnational criminal networks will disrupt political and economic stability.”
Such convergence of actors is further paving the corridor of illicit trafficking and crime-terror continuum across Africa as criminal insurgencies are becoming players themselves in illicit markets and using the proceeds to finance their terror campaigns, secure their training camps, establish safe havens.
We only have to look at some of the current hot spots to clearly comprehend how certain crime-terror dynamics continue to contribute to insecurity and instability.
Mali
The acute crises in Mali and trans-Africa must be understood in the broader context of a deeply strained region, particularly relating to governance, as converging threat vectors come together from all four sides to create regional security hot spots.
Though Mali’s current predicament arises largely from specific internal factors, the country’s challenges are reinforced and exacerbated by a range of transnational dynamics such as region-wide afflictions, adverse ecological changes, underdevelopment, disaffected local populations, and organized criminal networks.
The rise of violent extremism and organized crime across the region is aggravating the situation in Mali. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, and other terrorist groups have launched attacks, fanned suicide bombers, and kidnappings for ransom from northern Mali into neighboring countries. AQIM’s game-plan in the region is to build an Islamic radical caliphate. According to West Point's Combating Terrorism Center, AQIM's objectives include ridding North Africa of Western influence; overthrowing governments deemed apostate, including those of Algeria, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia; and installing fundamentalist regimes based on sharia.
So as illicit goods are trafficked through Mali, the Sahel, and Maghreb, AQIM and its sympathizers are manipulating socio-economic conditions to further advance an illegal economy, and finance their aspirations for a caliphate. For example, prior to losing territorial control after the French intervention in 2013, AQIM was reported to tax drugs passing through their territory.
Despite the transnational impacts, long-term solutions must directly address the internal factors that have made these countries so vulnerable. For example, during the 2012 rebellion, extremists were able to maintain control over cities in the north in part because they provided some semblance of security.
Mali’s civilian security services must develop the capability to provide visible, relevant, and accountable citizen security. Improving citizen participation, trust, and ownership of the national government is a key ingredient to ending the cycle of instability.
Libya
Libya also continues to be challenged with the threat of violence and insecurity.
Libya’s transitional government has been struggling to stabilize the country since a revolution led to dictator Muammar Ghaddafi’s ouster in October 2011. As in other parts of this continent in ungoverned spaces and pockets of insecurity, a proliferation of threat actors and networks including extremists and violent groups are further destabilizing Libya.
AQIM continues to forge alliances with violent extremist networks in Libya and across the Maghreb, Sahel, and West Africa.
After 42 years of dictatorship, Libya suffers from instability and poor governance due to weak institutions, wide, porous borders, huge stockpiles of loose conventional weapons, and the presence of militias, some of whom have extremist ties.
Without capable police and national security forces that work with communities, security and justice sector institutions struggle to fulfill their mandate, and rule of law is undermined, enabling criminality, illicit trade, and frustration to grow.
Border security is also a critical U.S. and international concern in Libya. Libya’s uncontrolled borders permit the flow not only of destabilizing Qadhafi-era conventional weapons, but also violent extremists throughout North Africa, the Middle East, and the Sahel.
As noted earlier, the flow of these foreign fighters has increased since the fall of Qadhafi and was highlighted by the January 2013 attack near In Amenas, Algeria.
The United States is in the process of beginning to implement a Global Security Contingency Fund (GSCF) border security program to provide technical expertise, training, and limited equipment to build Libya’s inter-ministerial border security capacity to address security along its southern land border.
This program includes training and equipment programming for Libya’s neighbors – Chad, Niger, and Algeria – to improve border security cooperation with Libya. In addition, we have a GSCF training and equipment program to build special operations forces capacity.
Nigeria
Nigerian organized criminal networks remain a major factor in moving cocaine and heroin worldwide, and have begun to produce and traffic methamphetamine to and around Southeast Asia.
In addition to drug trafficking, some of these criminal organizations also engage in other forms of trafficking and fraud targeting citizens of the United States, Europe, and globally.
Widespread corruption in Nigeria further facilitates criminal activity, and, combined with Nigeria’s central location along major trafficking routes, enables criminal groups to flourish and make Nigeria an important trafficking hub.
Nigeria is also having to confront the Boko Haram insurgency in the country’s northeast and has suffered a spate of significant terrorist attacks in recent years.
These terrorist acts are the primary reason that the United States formally designated Boko Haram and Ansaru as foreign terrorist organizations, blocking financial transactions in the United States and making it a crime for U.S. persons to provide them with material support.
The close proximity of terrorist and criminal networks in Nigeria raise the potential for illicit collaboration that will negatively influence the current state of affairs across Africa, and the spigot that is financing insecurity and instability.
Impacts on Morocco and Beyond
But the narrative is not all dire and doom. Take Morocco for example.
While Morocco remains a leading source country for cannabis, trailing only Afghanistan in hashish (cannabis resin) production, its relative importance as a source country may be waning, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), with Afghanistan and India gaining prominence as suppliers for the that market.
And while it also continues to serve as a transshipment zone for cocaine originating in Latin America that is smuggled via West Africa to Europe, international cooperation is being strengthened with our partners.
For example, the United States has good cooperation with the Moroccan Navy, the Gendarmerie, and Moroccan Customs as they continue to maintain an aggressive maritime interdiction effort against smugglers and traffickers.
On our overall bilateral relationship, we continue to enjoy a very strong partnership with Morocco, focused on promoting regional stability, supporting democratic reform efforts, countering violent extremism, and strengthening trade and cultural ties.
Sustainable Security: Climate Change and Illicit Networks
But terrorism, crime, and corruption are not the only threats we need to consider when we look at the African context.
Threats to the environment from climate change and other factors add a layer of complexity. Whether through the slaughter of wildlife, theft of natural resources, illegal logging and fishing, or other environmental challenges, Africa is losing its biodiversity and cultural heritage.
On top of all this, the changing climate in the Sahel and West Africa, and throughout Africa, can have profound security implications for the region, in the context of other destabilizing factors and existing vulnerabilities. As climate change contributes to hotter temperatures, rising coastal sea levels, desertification, natural disasters, rapid urbanization, and deforestation, greater pressure will be placed on food supplies, water levels, fisheries, and other critical resources. We must continue to work together to address global climate change, reducing our emissions and building resilience to its impacts.
The United States has committed more than a billion dollars since 2009 to humanitarian assistance for drought-affected and conflict-displaced communities in the Sahel, but we face a long road ahead that must include stemming the terrorist threat, uprooting safe havens and sanctuaries, fighting organized crime, and controlling the proliferation of weapons.
Above all, we must work with Africans to protect children from being exploited, trafficked, or recruited to become child soldiers.
U.S. Diplomatic Efforts and International Cooperation
The United States strongly supports the great strides many African countries have made to improve security, good governance, rule of law, and sustainable economic development.
As President Barack Obama highlighted in the U.S. Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime, the United States will continue to assist our partners to strengthen their security footprint and capabilities to combat today’s threat networks.
A key pillar of the Strategy is to enhance international cooperation with key partners to combat threats posed by organized crime, narco-trafficking, and terrorism, and to protect our communities from the violence, harm, and exploitation wrought by transnational threat networks.
The Strategy also challenges the U.S. government and our international partners to work together to combat transnational illicit networks and converging threats, and take that fight to the next level by breaking their corruptive power, attacking their financial underpinnings, stripping them of their illicit wealth, and severing their access to the financial system.
Throughout this conference, you will have heard presentations about the breadth of U.S. technical assistance from my colleagues from the U.S. Department of Defense, AFRICOM, U.S. law enforcement, and other agencies.
I would like to outline what the Department of State is doing, and in particular to outline some of the programs of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). In May 2011, my boss, Ambassador William Brownfield, led a delegation of senior U.S. officials to West Africa to begin formulating a strategic approach to undermine transnational criminal networks in West Africa and to reduce their ability to operate illicit criminal enterprises.
Through consultations with partners in the region, our U.S. government team developed a plan called the West Africa Cooperative Security Initiative, or WACSI. WACSI is built around five objectives designed to respond to the underlying factors that allow transnational crime to flourish in West Africa.
Drawing on lessons learned from the law enforcement, development, and military perspectives, as well as the conditions on the ground unique to West Africa, WACSI offers the first comprehensive U.S. government approach to drug trafficking in West Africa.
The U.S. government has identified existing and new U.S. assistance to support this initiative and it is anticipated that additional U.S. government resources will be dedicated to support it in the future. Programming under WACSI will be aligned with the five pillars to focus on efforts such as:
- Technical assistance and capacity building to help governments and civil societies develop the skills to combat impunity;
- Technical assistance drafting anti-TOC laws and policies, assisting in the process of getting these laws enacted, and creating awareness about the laws and policies on anti-TOC;
- Investing in elite counternarcotics units, operational training and equipping of accountable institutions, and technical assistance to build basic law enforcement skills and institutional capacity;
- Technical assistance to build the capacity of prosecutors and judges to prosecute and adjudicate complex TOC cases; and
- Drug demand reduction and raising public awareness of TOC.
Within the WACSI framework, INL is revamping our assistance programs to create a regional effect, maximize our impact, and coordinate with international partners, including West Africans, other donors, and international organizations.
In 2011 and 2012, the U.S. government provided approximately $95 million for WACSI programs. With this funding, we have undertaken several new projects that help Africans build skills and abilities to fight transnational crime, including maritime crime.
For example, we opened the West Africa Regional Training Center (RTC) in Accra, Ghana, in January 2013. The RTC brings together law enforcement, security, and judicial officials from multiple countries, creating relationships across the region, and building knowledge and skills on topics ranging from investigative analysis to anti-corruption to counternarcotics. In 2013, we conducted 19 courses and trained more than 675 officials from 17 countries.
To address maritime security, we supported a series of three regional workshops focused on maritime criminal justice for ECOWAS member states.
We continue to explore future areas of assistance to include strengthening capabilities to preserve crime scenes for complex investigations, create strong case packages, and build more effective, evidence-based trials.
Trans-Saharan Counter-Terrorism Partnership
The Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership (TSCTP) is a multi-faceted U.S. strategy aimed at disrupting terrorist organizations by strengthening regional counterterrorism capabilities, and enhancing and institutionalizing cooperation among the region’s security forces. This effort has taken an increasingly holistic view of counter-terrorism, focusing on the drivers of extremism, and the importance of effective, resilient, and accountable security and justice institutions.
In 2014, INL will be working with governments in the Maghreb and Sahel to improve the responsiveness of their security institutions to their citizens. In particular, INL will provide mentorship and training to law enforcement and corrections services to help them proactively and accountably provide the valuable citizen security their citizens expect and need. INL is also looking to engage with communities to help them more proactively advocate for their interests and work with law enforcement to find practical solutions to their security concerns.
We are also exploring how regional networks can help improve the sustainability and effectiveness of key security sector reforms, both within the Sahel and the Maghreb.
Conclusion: Partnerships for Sustainable Security
I applaud the organizers of the AFSEC14 conference for focusing on the importance of strengthening international cooperation on sea and on land to effectively disrupt and dismantle transnational organized crime, illicit flows, and terrorism across Africa.
I want to again extend my appreciation on behalf of the United States to our partners in attendance for their commitment to work across borders, improve coordination and information-sharing, and leverage our respective capabilities and capacities to defeat our common adversaries.
Many of our partners, including the European Union, NATO, the African Union, and others, are undertaking multi-dimensional, trans-African strategies, and we must continue to coordinate closely to ensure a common and complementary approach.
The United States will be an active partner in this endeavor and will continue to support the ongoing efforts of the UN Special Envoy for the Sahel, Romano Prodi, to develop an integrated UN strategy for tackling the multiple crises trans Africa. We must continue our efforts to approach the Sahel and the Maghreb’s interconnected problems with a comprehensive inter-regional and international effort.
The United States, China, France, and other countries must work more closely with the international community to better coordinate efforts and resources, build Africa’s sustainable future and work together to combat the threats that undermine the capital and investments that are necessary to sustain economic prosperity throughout Africa.
We must continue to leverage all national economic, intelligence, and diplomatic powers to make it riskier, harder, and costlier for threat networks to do business within Africa.
Illicit trafficking remains the lifeblood of the numerous bad actors and networks, creating vulnerabilities for nations. We must crackdown on corruption at all levels and cut off the ability of kleptocrats, criminals, and terrorists to enjoy the fruits of illicit enterprise and that enable the financial capacity to execute their operations.
By combating the triple threat of corruption, organized crime, and terrorism, we can also shut the door and keep criminals and extremists alike from exploiting vulnerable and corrupt nodes or their grievances to wage jihad. We must prevent narco-corruption from destroying countries like Guinea and Guinea-Bissau.
Finally, just as Al-Qaeda, al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, and other violent extremist groups are determined to spread insecurity and despair, the international community must support governments in the region to offer the better alternative—the option of hope, economic freedom, and sustainable futures that are real investments in peoples’ lives.
To do this, we must support pragmatic partnerships and creative incentives that deter the recruitment of Africa’s marginalized youth and peoples, unemployed, and disenfranchised and invest in developing economic opportunities that help finance their education, health, and on agricultural technologies and other micro-business that augment market growth and investment strategies. Reducing demand for increasingly available illicit drugs is a key part of this puzzle, if we are to give Africa’s youth a fighting chance at stopping the cycle of crime and corruption.
We need to address underlying causes that are contributing to today’s conflicts in Africa: food and water security, poverty, economic integration and development, and other socio-economic areas that empower communities and nurture growth markets, investment frontiers, and resiliency.
With careful, targeted assistance, and smart diplomatic engagement, together we can advance our common objectives and strategic interests.
If we do not act decisively, the region will remain an exporter of terror and a provider of safe havens where terrorists from other conflicts all over the world find refuge, illicit trafficking will continue to expand, arms and weapons will dangerously proliferate, women, men, and children will be trafficked, and drugs and illicit enterprise will corrode the rule of law and the gains of globalization.
The tragic attacks in Abuja, In Amenas, Bamako, Benghazi, Nairobi, and other cities across West Africa, the Sahel, East Africa, and Maghreb are not reasons to retreat. Neither are the greedy and illicit ventures by criminal entrepreneurs that are destroying communities.
An effective response will require more local and regional partners, more cooperation with allies, more resources, and most of all a willingness to accept risk and political courage and commitment to stay the course.
We can only tackle these threats effectively if we work together and synchronize our capabilities and capacities.
If we do this, we can create hope, stability, opportunity, and an enduring peace.
And we must not fail to safeguard all of our security and to protect the blessings for our children to enjoy—a global village that is safer, more secure, prosperous, and at peace.
Thank you.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
THREE EXECUTIVES PLEAD GUILTY TO ROLES IN SEATBELT PRICE FIXING CONSPIRACY
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Three Takata Corp. Executives Agree to Plead Guilty to Participating in Global Seatbelt Price Fixing Conspiracy
All Agree to Serve Prison Time in the United States
Three high-level executives of Tokyo-based Takata Corp. have agreed to plead guilty for their participation in a conspiracy to fix prices of seatbelts installed in cars sold in the United States, the Department of Justice announced today. The executives have also agreed to serve time in a U.S. prison.
According to the one-count felony charges filed separately against each of the executives today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit, Yasuhiko Ueno, Saborou Imamiya and Yoshinobu Fujino participated in a conspiracy to rig bids for, and to fix, stabilize and maintain the prices of seatbelts sold to Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. Ltd., Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., Fuji Heavy Industries Inc. – more commonly known by its brand name, Subaru – and Mazda Motor Corp. in the United States and elsewhere. The three executives have agreed to serve prison sentences ranging from 14 to 19 months, and to cooperate with the department’s ongoing investigation.
Ueno was employed by Takata’s Auburn Hills, Mich.-based U.S. subsidiary, TK Holdings Inc., in the United States as senior vice president for sales for Japanese manufacturers from at least January 2006 through December 2007. From early 2008 through June 2009, Ueno was employed by Takata in Japan as deputy division director of the customer relations division, and as director of the customer relations division from June 2009 through at least February 2011. According to the charge, Ueno’s involvement in the conspiracy lasted from at least as early as January 2006 until at least February 2011. Ueno has agreed to serve 19 months in prison and to pay a $20,000 criminal fine.
Imamiya was employed by Takata in Japan as general manager for Toyota sales from at least January 2008 to July 2009, and as director of the customer relations division from July 2009 through at least February 2011. According to the charge, Imamiya’s involvement in the conspiracy lasted from at least as early as January 2008 until at least February 2011. Imamiya has agreed to serve 16 months in prison and to pay a $20,000 criminal fine.
Fujino was employed by Takata in Japan as the manager of the Toyota group within the customer relations division from at least January 2004 through June 2005, and as the manager of the Mazda group within the customer relations division from June 2005 through the end of 2007. From the beginning of 2008 through at least February 2011, Fujino was employed by TK Holdings in the United States as assistant vice president for sales for Japanese manufacturers. According to the charge, Fujino’s involvement in the conspiracy lasted from at least as early as January 2004 until at least February 2011. Fujino has agreed to serve 14 months in prison and to pay a $20,000 criminal fine.
Takata Corp. is a manufacturer of automotive occupant safety systems, including seatbelts. Seatbelts are safety strap restraints designed to secure an occupant in position in a vehicle in the event of an accident, and may be sold bundled with related parts according to the needs of the automobile manufacturer. According to the charges, the Takata executives and their co-conspirators carried out the conspiracy by, among other things, agreeing during meetings and communications to coordinate bids submitted to the automobile manufacturers.
On Sept. 26, 2013, Gary Walker, an executive of TK Holdings Inc., agreed to plead guilty and serve a sentence of 14 months in prison for his involvement in the same conspiracy. On Oct. 9, 2013, Takata Corp. agreed to plead guilty for its involvement in the conspiracy and to pay a criminal fine of $71.3 million.
Each of the executives is charged with price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million criminal fine for individuals. The maximum fine for an individual may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.
Including today’s charges, 24 individuals have been charged in the department’s investigation into price fixing and bid rigging in the auto parts industry. Additionally, 21 corporations have been charged.
The current prosecution arose from an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into price fixing, bid rigging and other anticompetitive conduct in the automotive parts industry, which is being conducted by each of the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement sections and the FBI. Today’s charges were brought by the National Criminal Enforcement Section, with the assistance of the Detroit, Michigan, Field Office of the FBI.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Three Takata Corp. Executives Agree to Plead Guilty to Participating in Global Seatbelt Price Fixing Conspiracy
All Agree to Serve Prison Time in the United States
Three high-level executives of Tokyo-based Takata Corp. have agreed to plead guilty for their participation in a conspiracy to fix prices of seatbelts installed in cars sold in the United States, the Department of Justice announced today. The executives have also agreed to serve time in a U.S. prison.
According to the one-count felony charges filed separately against each of the executives today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit, Yasuhiko Ueno, Saborou Imamiya and Yoshinobu Fujino participated in a conspiracy to rig bids for, and to fix, stabilize and maintain the prices of seatbelts sold to Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. Ltd., Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., Fuji Heavy Industries Inc. – more commonly known by its brand name, Subaru – and Mazda Motor Corp. in the United States and elsewhere. The three executives have agreed to serve prison sentences ranging from 14 to 19 months, and to cooperate with the department’s ongoing investigation.
Ueno was employed by Takata’s Auburn Hills, Mich.-based U.S. subsidiary, TK Holdings Inc., in the United States as senior vice president for sales for Japanese manufacturers from at least January 2006 through December 2007. From early 2008 through June 2009, Ueno was employed by Takata in Japan as deputy division director of the customer relations division, and as director of the customer relations division from June 2009 through at least February 2011. According to the charge, Ueno’s involvement in the conspiracy lasted from at least as early as January 2006 until at least February 2011. Ueno has agreed to serve 19 months in prison and to pay a $20,000 criminal fine.
Imamiya was employed by Takata in Japan as general manager for Toyota sales from at least January 2008 to July 2009, and as director of the customer relations division from July 2009 through at least February 2011. According to the charge, Imamiya’s involvement in the conspiracy lasted from at least as early as January 2008 until at least February 2011. Imamiya has agreed to serve 16 months in prison and to pay a $20,000 criminal fine.
Fujino was employed by Takata in Japan as the manager of the Toyota group within the customer relations division from at least January 2004 through June 2005, and as the manager of the Mazda group within the customer relations division from June 2005 through the end of 2007. From the beginning of 2008 through at least February 2011, Fujino was employed by TK Holdings in the United States as assistant vice president for sales for Japanese manufacturers. According to the charge, Fujino’s involvement in the conspiracy lasted from at least as early as January 2004 until at least February 2011. Fujino has agreed to serve 14 months in prison and to pay a $20,000 criminal fine.
Takata Corp. is a manufacturer of automotive occupant safety systems, including seatbelts. Seatbelts are safety strap restraints designed to secure an occupant in position in a vehicle in the event of an accident, and may be sold bundled with related parts according to the needs of the automobile manufacturer. According to the charges, the Takata executives and their co-conspirators carried out the conspiracy by, among other things, agreeing during meetings and communications to coordinate bids submitted to the automobile manufacturers.
On Sept. 26, 2013, Gary Walker, an executive of TK Holdings Inc., agreed to plead guilty and serve a sentence of 14 months in prison for his involvement in the same conspiracy. On Oct. 9, 2013, Takata Corp. agreed to plead guilty for its involvement in the conspiracy and to pay a criminal fine of $71.3 million.
Each of the executives is charged with price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million criminal fine for individuals. The maximum fine for an individual may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.
Including today’s charges, 24 individuals have been charged in the department’s investigation into price fixing and bid rigging in the auto parts industry. Additionally, 21 corporations have been charged.
The current prosecution arose from an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into price fixing, bid rigging and other anticompetitive conduct in the automotive parts industry, which is being conducted by each of the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement sections and the FBI. Today’s charges were brought by the National Criminal Enforcement Section, with the assistance of the Detroit, Michigan, Field Office of the FBI.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
OVER 80 ANTITRUST AGENCIES MEET TO DISCUSS INTERNATIONAL ENFORCEMENT COOPERATION
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Friday, April 26, 2013
International Competition Network Advances Convergence Through Initiatives on Enforcement Cooperation and Investigative Process
The International Competition Network (ICN) advanced convergence through important initiatives on international enforcement cooperation and investigative processes in competition cases, the Department of Justice announced today. The ICN adopted new work product on economic analysis in merger review, legal theories in exclusive dealing investigations, international cooperation and information sharing in cartel enforcement, and the benefits of competition.
The 12th annual ICN conference, hosted by Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (OCCP), was held on April 24-26, 2013, in Warsaw, Poland. More than 500 delegates participated, representing more than 80 antitrust agencies from around the world, including competition experts from international organizations and the legal, business, consumer and academic communities. Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairwoman Edith Ramirez led the U.S. delegation. The conference showcased the achievements of ICN working groups on cartels, competition advocacy, competition agency effectiveness, mergers and unilateral conduct.
"One of the defining characteristics of the ICN is the deep engagement of its members on critical antitrust issues, including mergers, anti-cartel enforcement, unilateral conduct and competition advocacy," said Assistant Attorney General Baer. "The discussions and work product emerging from this meeting strengthen the ties between U.S. enforcers and our counterparts around the globe and enhance effective antitrust enforcement for the benefit of all consumers."
Bronislaw Komorowski, the President of Poland, provided opening remarks at the conference. John Fingleton, former Chief Executive of the UK Office of Fair Trading and former ICN Steering Group Chair, moderated a panel on competition and its relevance to global economic policy discussion among representatives from the World Trade Organization, World Bank and International Chamber of Commerce. Joaquin Almunia, European Commission Vice President and Commissioner for Competition, also addressed the conference. Eduardo P é rez Motta, ICN Steering Group Chair and President of the Mexican Federal Competition Commission, spoke about his initiatives to support ICN member competition advocacy and enhance cooperation with international organizations .
Assistant Attorney General Baer moderated a panel of antitrust officials on international enforcement cooperation to discuss the strengths and limitations of current cooperation frameworks. The panel also discussed future ICN work that could best help antitrust agencies address the challenges of engaging effectively in international enforcement cooperation. Over the past year, the ICN partnered with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)’s Competition Committee on a comprehensive study of the state of international enforcement cooperation. Lynda K. Marshall, Assistant Chief of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division’s Foreign Commerce Section, led a discussion on future work on international cooperation in cartel enforcement.
The Polish OCCP led a special project devoted to the interaction between competition agencies and courts, culminating in a session led by OCCP President Malgorzata Krasnodebska-Tomkiel. FTC Chairwoman Ramirez addressed the vital role of economic evidence in competition cases and offered guidance for how to effectively present this evidence to generalist courts. She also highlighted the various tools available to competition agencies to encourage courts to recognize competition law principles.
"This 12th annual ICN conference demonstrated how competition agencies from around the world can come together both to advance convergence toward best practices in antitrust enforcement and to strengthen the voice of competition policy as our governments confront common economic challenges," said Chairwoman Ramirez.
The conference also highlighted the work of the Cartel Working Group, co-chaired by the Department of Justice, the Japan Fair Trade Commission and Germany’s Bundeskartellamt. The working group brings together antitrust enforcers to address the challenges of anti-cartel enforcement, through the examination of important policy issues and the exchange of effective investigative techniques. The group presented a new chapter on international cooperation and information sharing for its Anti-Cartel Enforcement Manual, a reference tool for antitrust agencies on effective investigative techniques.
The Agency Effectiveness Working Group, co-chaired by the FTC, the Mexican Federal Competition Commission and the Norwegian Competition Authority, examines the institutions and procedures that support the enforcement missions of competition agencies. Randolph W. Tritell, Director of the FTC’s Office of International Affairs , led a panel discussion and presentation of the group’s work related to investigative tools and agency transparency practices, part of a project on investigative processes in competition cases. The working group also presented two new chapters on effective knowledge management and human resources management for its competition agency practice manual.
The conference showcased the ICN Curriculum Project, a project led by the FTC to create a "virtual university" of training materials on competition law and practice. FTC Counsel Paul O’Brien presented the Curriculum Project and its new modules on planning and conducting investigations, competition advocacy and challenges for agencies in developing countries.
The Merger Working Group, co-chaired by the European Commission’s Competition Directorate, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and the Italian Competition Authority aims to promote best practices in the design and operation of merger review regimes. The FTC’s Director of the Bureau of Economics, Howard Shelanski, participated in a panel discussion of the role of economic analysis in merger review. The panel highlighted the group’s new work addressing the role of economic evidence in merger analysis, a comprehensive overview of the qualitative and quantitative analyses available to antitrust agencies for the review of horizontal mergers.
The Unilateral Conduct Working Group, co-chaired by the Swedish Competition Authority, the Turkish Competition Authority, and the UK Office of Fair Trading, promotes convergence and sound enforcement of laws governing conduct by firms with substantial market power. T he working group presented a new workbook chapter on exclusive dealing arrangements as part of a project that is producing a practical guide to the investigation of the various types of unilateral conduct.
The Advocacy Working Group, co-chaired by the French Autorité de la Concurrence, the Portuguese Competition Authority and the Competition Commission of Mauritius, develops practical tools and guidance to improve the effectiveness of ICN members’ competition advocacy. This year, the working group developed draft guidance on procedures and analysis for assessing existing or proposed laws and regulations to determine whether they may have a significant impact on competition. The group also presented its work on practical techniques to help promote a competition culture and strategies for explaining the benefits of competition to other government entities.
The ICN was created in October 2001, when the Department of Justice and the FTC joined antitrust agencies from 13 other jurisdictions to increase understanding of competition policy and promote convergence toward best practices around the world. The ICN now includes 126 member agencies from 111 jurisdictions.
Friday, April 26, 2013
International Competition Network Advances Convergence Through Initiatives on Enforcement Cooperation and Investigative Process
The International Competition Network (ICN) advanced convergence through important initiatives on international enforcement cooperation and investigative processes in competition cases, the Department of Justice announced today. The ICN adopted new work product on economic analysis in merger review, legal theories in exclusive dealing investigations, international cooperation and information sharing in cartel enforcement, and the benefits of competition.
The 12th annual ICN conference, hosted by Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (OCCP), was held on April 24-26, 2013, in Warsaw, Poland. More than 500 delegates participated, representing more than 80 antitrust agencies from around the world, including competition experts from international organizations and the legal, business, consumer and academic communities. Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairwoman Edith Ramirez led the U.S. delegation. The conference showcased the achievements of ICN working groups on cartels, competition advocacy, competition agency effectiveness, mergers and unilateral conduct.
"One of the defining characteristics of the ICN is the deep engagement of its members on critical antitrust issues, including mergers, anti-cartel enforcement, unilateral conduct and competition advocacy," said Assistant Attorney General Baer. "The discussions and work product emerging from this meeting strengthen the ties between U.S. enforcers and our counterparts around the globe and enhance effective antitrust enforcement for the benefit of all consumers."
Bronislaw Komorowski, the President of Poland, provided opening remarks at the conference. John Fingleton, former Chief Executive of the UK Office of Fair Trading and former ICN Steering Group Chair, moderated a panel on competition and its relevance to global economic policy discussion among representatives from the World Trade Organization, World Bank and International Chamber of Commerce. Joaquin Almunia, European Commission Vice President and Commissioner for Competition, also addressed the conference. Eduardo P é rez Motta, ICN Steering Group Chair and President of the Mexican Federal Competition Commission, spoke about his initiatives to support ICN member competition advocacy and enhance cooperation with international organizations .
Assistant Attorney General Baer moderated a panel of antitrust officials on international enforcement cooperation to discuss the strengths and limitations of current cooperation frameworks. The panel also discussed future ICN work that could best help antitrust agencies address the challenges of engaging effectively in international enforcement cooperation. Over the past year, the ICN partnered with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)’s Competition Committee on a comprehensive study of the state of international enforcement cooperation. Lynda K. Marshall, Assistant Chief of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division’s Foreign Commerce Section, led a discussion on future work on international cooperation in cartel enforcement.
The Polish OCCP led a special project devoted to the interaction between competition agencies and courts, culminating in a session led by OCCP President Malgorzata Krasnodebska-Tomkiel. FTC Chairwoman Ramirez addressed the vital role of economic evidence in competition cases and offered guidance for how to effectively present this evidence to generalist courts. She also highlighted the various tools available to competition agencies to encourage courts to recognize competition law principles.
"This 12th annual ICN conference demonstrated how competition agencies from around the world can come together both to advance convergence toward best practices in antitrust enforcement and to strengthen the voice of competition policy as our governments confront common economic challenges," said Chairwoman Ramirez.
The conference also highlighted the work of the Cartel Working Group, co-chaired by the Department of Justice, the Japan Fair Trade Commission and Germany’s Bundeskartellamt. The working group brings together antitrust enforcers to address the challenges of anti-cartel enforcement, through the examination of important policy issues and the exchange of effective investigative techniques. The group presented a new chapter on international cooperation and information sharing for its Anti-Cartel Enforcement Manual, a reference tool for antitrust agencies on effective investigative techniques.
The Agency Effectiveness Working Group, co-chaired by the FTC, the Mexican Federal Competition Commission and the Norwegian Competition Authority, examines the institutions and procedures that support the enforcement missions of competition agencies. Randolph W. Tritell, Director of the FTC’s Office of International Affairs , led a panel discussion and presentation of the group’s work related to investigative tools and agency transparency practices, part of a project on investigative processes in competition cases. The working group also presented two new chapters on effective knowledge management and human resources management for its competition agency practice manual.
The conference showcased the ICN Curriculum Project, a project led by the FTC to create a "virtual university" of training materials on competition law and practice. FTC Counsel Paul O’Brien presented the Curriculum Project and its new modules on planning and conducting investigations, competition advocacy and challenges for agencies in developing countries.
The Merger Working Group, co-chaired by the European Commission’s Competition Directorate, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and the Italian Competition Authority aims to promote best practices in the design and operation of merger review regimes. The FTC’s Director of the Bureau of Economics, Howard Shelanski, participated in a panel discussion of the role of economic analysis in merger review. The panel highlighted the group’s new work addressing the role of economic evidence in merger analysis, a comprehensive overview of the qualitative and quantitative analyses available to antitrust agencies for the review of horizontal mergers.
The Unilateral Conduct Working Group, co-chaired by the Swedish Competition Authority, the Turkish Competition Authority, and the UK Office of Fair Trading, promotes convergence and sound enforcement of laws governing conduct by firms with substantial market power. T he working group presented a new workbook chapter on exclusive dealing arrangements as part of a project that is producing a practical guide to the investigation of the various types of unilateral conduct.
The Advocacy Working Group, co-chaired by the French Autorité de la Concurrence, the Portuguese Competition Authority and the Competition Commission of Mauritius, develops practical tools and guidance to improve the effectiveness of ICN members’ competition advocacy. This year, the working group developed draft guidance on procedures and analysis for assessing existing or proposed laws and regulations to determine whether they may have a significant impact on competition. The group also presented its work on practical techniques to help promote a competition culture and strategies for explaining the benefits of competition to other government entities.
The ICN was created in October 2001, when the Department of Justice and the FTC joined antitrust agencies from 13 other jurisdictions to increase understanding of competition policy and promote convergence toward best practices around the world. The ICN now includes 126 member agencies from 111 jurisdictions.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
STATEMENT FROM G-8 FOREIGN MINISTER'S MEETING HELD APRIL 10-11
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| Photo: Big Ben. Credit: Wikimedia Commons |
G8 Foreign Ministers' Meeting Statement
Media Note
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
April 11, 2013
Introduction
G8 Foreign Ministers met in London on 10-11 April. The G8 represents a group of nations with a broad range of global interests and with a collective responsibility and opportunity to use its influence to address some of the most pressing issues in the world.
Foreign Ministers addressed a number of international issues, challenges and opportunities that impact on global peace, security and prosperity. Beyond exchanging views and coordinating actions on the pressing foreign policy issues of the day, they made a number of commitments as set out below and in the separate Declaration on the Prevention of Sexual Violence in Conflict.
Prevention of Sexual Violence in Conflict
Foreign Ministers endorsed the Declaration on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict. They called for urgent action to address comprehensively the culture of impunity and to hold perpetrators to account for acts of sexual violence committed in armed conflict. Ministers emphasised the need to promote justice and accountability for sexual violence in armed conflict by strengthening the existing framework for prosecution, and to provide more long-term support to prevent and respond to sexual violence in armed conflict, as part of broader development and humanitarian efforts. They confirmed that rape and other forms of serious sexual violence in armed conflict are war crimes and also constitute grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions affecting large numbers of women and girls as well as men and boys. In addition to the physical and psychological trauma, sexual violence when used to deliberately target civilians or as a part of a widespread or systematic attack against civilian populations is a violation of international law, which can significantly exacerbate situations of armed conflict and may impede the restoration of peace and security. The G8 has an important role in advancing the implementation of the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security and Children and Armed Conflict, including by tackling conflict-related sexual violence and advancing the participation of women in peace building and transition processes, as Ministers acknowledged in Washington in April 2012.
Africa
G8 Foreign Ministers noted, as Africa commemorates the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (now the African Union), the sense of optimism in the light of progress in economic growth, political stability, and democratisation over recent years in many parts of the African continent. The African Union and African Regional organisations are increasingly resolved to intensify regional cooperation and to ensure peace and security on the continent.
Many African states have taken great strides in reducing poverty and generating sustainable development and long-term growth. G8 Ministers supported the aims of the fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD V), to take place in Yokohama in June. G8 Ministers supported the deepening and expansion of the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition.
North and West Africa
G8 Foreign Ministers stressed the importance of building resilience and good governance across North and West Africa in order to address deep-seated security, economic and development challenges, and in particular to address the needs of the Sahel region. They reaffirmed their commitment to promoting tolerance and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. They welcomed the work of the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States in support of initiatives aimed at building economic opportunity and prosperity, and expressed the hope that this might take place in a co-ordinated fashion across the wider region, including North Africa. The Ministers emphasised the need for a co-ordinated response to address the immediate humanitarian challenges in the region. They also stressed the need to accelerate actions to build long-term resilience in the face of environmental challenges and endemic food insecurity, particularly in the Sahel. The Ministers encouraged the United Nations and International Financial Institutions to adopt coherent and co-ordinated policies to address the development needs and the resilience of the Sahel, and, in this regard, called for rapid progress to finalise and implement the UN Integrated Regional Strategy for the Sahel.
The Ministers specifically endorsed the need for a regional response to a wide range of security challenges, including: restricting the proliferation and illicit trafficking of conventional weapons, including small arms and light weapons and MANPADS; stemming the flows of illicit finance generated by organised criminality; building capacity in security and justice sectors; improving aviation and border security; encouraging counter-terrorism partnerships, including on crisis response and counter-radicalisation; and building contingency planning capacity in the private sector.
The G8 Ministers commended the efforts undertaken at the conference on women’s leadership in the Sahel region (Brussels, 9 April) to advance gender equality and women’s leadership as a contribution to resolving the crisis in the Sahel.
Mali
G8 Foreign Ministers restated their support for the territorial integrity of Mali and their condemnation of the violence by separatist and terrorist groups. Ministers expressed their support for the efforts of France and its African partners to re-assert Malian state control over its territory. The Ministers emphasised the strong international consensus in the United Nations Security Council, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States for this action. The Ministers agreed to support a successful handover of stabilisation activity to AFISMA which has now successfully deployed to Mali and, as soon as conditions permit, to a multi-dimensional UN Operation. The Ministers welcomed the establishment of the EU Training Mission to train the Malian Armed Forces. They emphasised the need for all actors in Mali to recognise their obligations under international law and their responsibilities to meet international human rights standards. They also called on the international community to support short-term humanitarian needs in Mali, as well as contribute towards resolving longer term development challenges.
The Ministers welcomed the decision of the Malian authorities in January 2013 to adopt the Road Map and Action Plan to transition to democracy and to hold elections in July 2013. The Ministers welcomed the Malian Government’s commitment and noted that meaningful progress must be made, in parallel with preparations for elections, on institutional reform, accountability, promotion and protection of human rights, including prosecution of human rights abuses in national courts, taking forward co-operation with the ICC and the UN Independent Expert on Mali, and dialogue and reconciliation. Ministers therefore welcomed the establishment by the Malian Government of the National Council for Dialogue and Reconciliation on 6 March 2013, and expressed their wish that the Malian authorities take forward the process of inclusive dialogue with the necessary urgency. They urged an end to the settling of disputes through violence, and called on all Malians to engage in dialogue as the only sustainable, long-term solution to instability.
Somalia
G8 Foreign Ministers welcomed the significant progress made in Somalia over the past 18 months on security, political transition and humanitarian conditions and recognised the considerable support provided by the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), African Union strategic partners, Troop Contributing Countries, the United Nations, European Union and other international donors. G8 Ministers underlined the need for continued early international support to the new Somali Government. The G8 noted that the second Somalia Conference in London, to be co-hosted with the Somali Government in May, aims to endorse a series of Somali-led plans to rebuild the security forces, the judiciary, and public financial management systems. It will also support the Federal Government of Somalia in establishing effective federal structures for Somalia. The Special Conference on Somalia in the margins of the TICAD V in Japan in May will focus on the need for socio-economic development from the angle of human security. This will be followed in September by an EU conference seeking to encompass a broader set of Somali priorities for rebuilding the state and establishing a new political order. It will do so on the basis of a Compact, in line with the New Deal Principles for Fragile States. All three conferences will place the new Somali Government firmly in the lead on rebuilding Somalia.
Somalia: IFI re-engagement
Ministers agreed to provide high-level political support to the process of Somalia’s re-engagement with the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, while taking into account the policies and procedures of the International Financial Institutions with regard to countries in fragile situations, including security considerations. Ministers strongly encouraged the Somali Government in its efforts to this end. They recognised that the economic and institutional expertise and broader support these organisations can provide is necessary to help implement reforms that could promote macroeconomic stability, fiscal sustainability, the potential for inclusive economic growth, an enabling environment for Foreign Direct Investment, and the expansion of trade.
In parallel, Ministers urged the Somali Government to demonstrate particular political commitment to public financial management and to strengthening transparency and accountability in order to lay the foundations for IFI re-engagement. Ministers acknowledged that full IFI engagement and the rebuilding of Somalia was a long-term endeavour that would require sustained high-level political support.
Somalia: Counter-terrorism
Al Shabaab and foreign fighters present in Somalia remain a major terrorist threat to Somali and international interests. G8 Foreign Ministers stressed the importance of continued co-ordinated international assistance to develop the rule of law, Somalia’s security, financial and judicial systems (including on border security, anti-money laundering and countering terrorist financing), in line with the Rabat principles on human rights. Foreign Ministers acknowledged the importance of the Somali Government’s work to promote reconciliation, de-mobilise and re-integrate those Al Shabaab fighters who have renounced violence, and pledged to support these efforts. They reiterated the importance of a comprehensive political settlement in Somalia, including clarity on relations between central and regional authorities, as a means of reducing the operating space for those who advocate violence and terror.
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
G8 Foreign Ministers expressed concern about the security and humanitarian situation in the East of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and were particularly concerned by reports of continuing killings of civilians, the forced recruitment of children into armed conflict, and sexual violence. They condemned such acts of violence and called on all parties to adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law and respect human rights and human dignity. They called on all countries of the region to fight impunity and ensure that those suspected of serious violations be brought to justice, including through cooperation with the ICC.
Ministers welcomed the recent signature of the regional Peace, Security, and Cooperation Framework by the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and other regional countries, as well as the signing by the African Union, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, the Southern African Development Community, and the United Nations as guarantors. The Ministers urged all parties to the Framework to work together to implement their commitments, and to play a constructive role in building long term stability and prosperity in eastern DRC. This should involve addressing the underlying causes of conflict, and improving the lives of ordinary people there. The Ministers welcomed the appointment of the UN Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region of Africa to oversee the implementation of the Peace Security and Cooperation Framework and urged the Special Envoy to establish a comprehensive political process, building on the Framework, that includes all relevant stakeholders and addresses the underlying regional, security, economic, and governance issues.
The Ministers welcomed UNSCR 2098 which renews the mandate of the UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the DRC to enable it to better carry out its mandate to protect civilians, neutralise armed groups, and build peace in the region, including through the deployment of an intervention brigade.
Sudan and South Sudan
G8 Foreign Ministers noted the economic, security and human rights challenges that face Sudan and South Sudan, and underlined the need to implement the September 2012 Addis Ababa agreements, and meet the deadlines set out in March 2013. In particular, Ministers welcomed progress towards the establishment of the safe demilitarised border zone, deployment of the joint border verification and monitoring mechanism, a resumption of the production and export of oil from South Sudan, and called for a process to determine the final status of Abyei. Ministers noted the need for Sudan to improve respect for human rights while addressing the causes of its conflicts. They noted with concern that in Sudan, the conflict in Darfur has entered its tenth year, with insecurity continuing. They called for faster implementation of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur, and called for all groups to engage in the peace process. Ministers expressed alarm at the humanitarian crisis caused by the conflict in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states. They called on the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North to enter into talks immediately to agree a ceasefire and full humanitarian access. Ministers commended and offered their continued support to the role of the African Union, in particular the work of the High-Level Implementation Panel.
Ministers regretted the loss of life of Indian peacekeepers and a number of civilians, in Jonglei, South Sudan, on 9 April and offered their condolences to the Governments of India and South Sudan.
The Middle East
Syria
G8 Foreign Ministers expressed deep concerns about the increasing human tragedy of the conflict in Syria. They were appalled that more than 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict and that there are now more than a million Syrian refugees registered by the UNHCR in neighbouring countries, and more than two million internally displaced persons in Syria. They acknowledged the importance of neighbouring countries’ efforts in hosting refugees, and stressed the need for the international community to help the most affected neighbouring countries. They called on all countries to join with them in maximising their contributions to the latest UN appeals and to provide them with direct support in order to help them face this challenging situation.
Against this desperate background, the Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to supporting a Syrian-led political transition, and the work of Joint UN and Arab League Special Representative Brahimi, based on the principles set out in the Geneva Communiqué. This transition should meet the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people and enable them to democratically and independently determine their own future. They called for the UN Security Council to remain seized of this matter. The Ministers condemned in the strongest possible terms all human rights violations and abuses in Syria and called on all sides to respect international humanitarian and human rights law, noting the particular responsibility of the Syrian authorities in this regard. They welcomed efforts to document all crimes for the purposes of future accountability.
The Ministers condemned the ongoing use of heavy weapons against residential areas and reaffirm their view that any use of chemical weapons would demand a serious international response. To this end, the Ministers reaffirmed the importance of safeguarding sites where any such weapons are held.
The humanitarian situation in Syria is deplorable and continues to worsen. The Ministers called for greater humanitarian assistance and for improved and safe access to the Syrian people by humanitarian agencies in co-ordination with all parties to the conflict.
Middle East Peace Process (MEPP)
G8 Foreign Ministers confirmed their commitment to a just, lasting, and comprehensive peace in the Middle East. They agreed on the urgent need to make progress on the Middle East Peace Process towards this goal and underscored the need for a major international effort, involving all relevant parties, including the Quartet, to drive the peace process forward.
The Ministers welcomed President Obama’s visit to the region and his statement that peace between Israelis and Palestinians is necessary, just and possible. They urged both sides to show the bold political leadership needed to achieve peace, to take the necessary steps to build trust and to work towards the resumption of negotiations without preconditions.
The Ministers stressed that a long term solution to this conflict can be achieved only through direct negotiations, taking note of the 23 September 2011 statement of the Middle East Quartet. Ministers called on parties to refrain from unilateral actions and to create an atmosphere conducive to peace. They strongly reaffirmed that unilateral actions by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations.
Ministers expressed grave concerns about the poor state of the Palestinian economy, and the impact this has on Palestinian state-building efforts. Ministers affirmed their support for the Palestinian Authority and encouraged Arab countries, as well as emerging economies, to extend the fullest assistance possible to revitalising the Palestinian economy.
The Ministers welcomed the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire of 21 November 2012 which ended hostilities in Gaza and southern Israel, condemned rocket attacks in contravention of this and urged all sides to uphold their commitments.
Deauville Partnership with Arab Countries in Transition
The Deauville Partnership with Arab Countries in Transition has played an important role in bringing together Middle Eastern and North African countries in transition, regional partner countries, G8 members, and International Financial Institutions in an effective and pragmatic partnership to promote successful economic and political transition.
G8 Foreign Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to the six Deauville Partnership transition countries (Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, Libya and Yemen) recognising progress made since the start of the Arab Spring and noting the enduring partnership of the G8 in continuing to address the difficulties they continue to face. Deauville transition countries are encouraged to seek the broadest possible consensus on the political transition in their countries. Ministers reiterated their belief that democratic process, open societies and open economies were essential to create confidence, consolidate political reform and achieve inclusive economic growth. Ministers recalled the principles which are fundamental to the long term security and prosperity of the Middle East and North Africa, and underline our capacity to partner together toward shared goals. Those principles include the responsibilities to reject violence and protect all persons living within their territory regardless of faith, ethnicity, or gender; to promote tolerance and freedom of expression; freedom of religion and belief, including practicing the freedom of religion in safety; and to uphold the rule of law and security.
Ministers welcomed the continued focus of the Deauville Partnership in 2013 on open economies and inclusive economic growth, supporting job creation and increasing economic opportunities for youth and women, and recognised the important role of the International Financial Institutions in delivering this. Areas of focus will include promoting enhanced trade and investment, facilitating access to capital markets, progress on asset recovery, international exchanges and the fight against corruption. Ministers expressed support for the planned high-level conference in London in September, which will showcase investment opportunities in transition countries, and the steps being taken by governments to improve the investment climate. Supporting the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the region will be central to economic development and growth. Implementation of SME Action Plans will take place in parallel with a new initiative to provide mentoring support to SMEs. The G8 will also promote a new focus on encouraging women’s participation in business and the economy. Ministers acknowledged the UK’s co-chairmanship of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), and encouraged efforts to engage Deauville Partnership countries in OGP activities.
Ministers welcomed the operationalisation of the Transition Fund and the initiation of the first tranche of high quality projects which will provide technical assistance to help strengthen public institutions and build capacity to advance country-led reforms. There was recognition of the high level of demand from the transition countries for further support of this kind, and Ministers encouraged partners to increase contributions to ensure the initial capitalisation of $250 million is met. Ministers showed support for the ongoing work of extending the geographical mandate of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in order to make available greater investment programmes in the region.
As stated in the last Ministerial meeting on the Deauville Partnership with Arab Countries in Transition (New York, 28th September), G8 members will build on the G8’s accountability efforts and report on progress achieved in the Partnership.
The Ministers welcomed the upcoming meeting on April 19th of Deauville Partnership Finance Ministers and look forward to continued work by their Finance counterparts and the International Financial Institutions to provide macroeconomic frameworks for bilateral and multilateral assistance.
Foreign Ministers underlined the critical role of independent civil society organisations in an inclusive political process that responds to the aspirations of the region’s citizens. Ministers reaffirmed the consensus Tunis Declaration reached at the 2012 Forum for the Future, which brings together governments, civil society and private sector leaders to engage in dialogue on social, political and economic reform. They welcomed the UK and Egyptian co-chairing of the process in 2013.
Yemen
G8 Foreign Ministers re-affirmed their strong support for the political transition process in Yemen, including the start of the National Dialogue Conference, as outlined in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Initiative and the UN Implementation Plan. They encouraged all Yemeni parties to contribute in a positive and meaningful way, and urged all parties to comply with UNSCRs 2014 and 2051. They welcomed the generous pledges made by the Friends of Yemen to underpin the transition and urged donors to deliver rapidly the $7.8bn pledged, which will benefit the lives of ordinary Yemenis.
Ministers recognised the stability of Yemen remains essential for the stability of the wider region, and the maintenance of international security. Ministers commended the Yemeni Government’s steps to advance security sector reform and ongoing efforts to counter the continued threat from AQ-AP and other violent extremists.
Non Proliferation and Disarmament
G8 Foreign Ministers agreed that the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery continues to be a major threat to international peace and security. Addressing it is one of the G8’s top priorities. G8 countries are all committed to seeking a safer world for all and to creating the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons, in a way that promotes international security, peace and undiminished security for all in accordance with the goals of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty. The illicit trade in conventional weapons also represents a serious challenge, causing great suffering and threatening regional stability.
Ministers welcomed the adoption of the Arms Trade Treaty by the United Nations General Assembly on 2 April. Efficient implementation of the Treaty will contribute to saving lives, reducing human suffering, protecting human rights, preventing the diversion of weapons to the illegal market and combating terrorism, while upholding the legitimate trade in arms, vital for national defence and security.
G8 Foreign Ministers continue their commitment to efforts that strengthen and enhance long-term sustainability, stability, safety, and security in outer space. G8 Foreign Ministers welcomed the statement agreed by the Non-Proliferation Directors’ Group and published today.
Ministers recalled the decision at the 2010 NPT Review Conference to hold a Conference on the establishment in the Middle East of a zone free of nuclear weapons, as well as other weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery. They regretted that it was not convened in 2012. They strongly supported the continued efforts of the facilitator of the Conference and welcomed the commitment of the co-sponsors of the 1995 Resolution. The Ministers called upon all States concerned to make all efforts necessary for the preparation and convening of the Conference in the nearest future.
Iran
G8 Foreign Ministers expressed their deep concern regarding Iran’s continuing nuclear and ballistic missile activities in violation of numerous UN Security Council and IAEA Board of Governors resolutions.
Following the 5-6 April substantive round of negotiations in Almaty, Kazakhstan with Iran and the E3+3 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union High Representative), the Ministers reaffirmed their desire for a peaceful and negotiated resolution to the nuclear issue, noting that talks cannot continue indefinitely. They noted that the positions of the E3+3 and Iran remain far apart and called on Iran to engage urgently, actively and constructively in the diplomatic process with the E3+3, and to cooperate with the IAEA to resolve the serious concerns of the international community and to demonstrate that its nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful. Ministers further reaffirmed that, in line with the United Nations Security Council’s approved dual track approach, Iran has the ability to avoid further isolation and improve its situation only if it promptly addresses the concerns of the international community.
Ministers urged Iran to comply with international obligations to uphold human rights and fundamental freedoms, including freedom of religion, and end interference with the media, arbitrary executions, torture and other restrictions placed on rights and freedoms. They further urged Iran to cooperate constructively with all relevant UN human rights mechanisms. A visit by the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran would be a step in this direction.
Ministers also urged Iran to play a more constructive role in supporting regional security and to distance itself from all acts of terrorism and terrorist groups.
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)
G8 Foreign Ministers condemned in the strongest possible terms the continued development of its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), including its uranium enrichment. This is in direct violation of UN Security Council Resolutions 1718, 1874, 2087 and 2094.
Ministers noted that the DPRK’s nuclear test on 12 February 2013 - the third since 2006 - and its launches using ballistic missile technology on 13 April 2012 and 12 December 2012 seriously undermine regional stability, jeopardise the prospects for lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula and threaten international peace and security. Ministers welcomed UNSCR 2094, adopted unanimously on 7 March 2013, to respond to the DPRK’s nuclear test and emphasized the importance of full implementation of the resolution by the international community. Ministers supported the commitment in the resolution to strengthen the current sanctions regime and take further significant measures in the event of a further launch or nuclear test by the DPRK. Ministers also expressed concern about the DPRK’s announcement that it intends to re-open its Yongbyon nuclear facility.
Ministers confirmed their commitment to the goal of lasting peace and the verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner. They condemned DPRK’s current aggressive rhetoric and confirmed that this will only serve to further isolate the DPRK. They urged the DPRK to engage in credible and authentic multilateral talks on denuclearisation, abide by its obligations under all relevant UNSCRs and its commitments under the September 19, 2005, Joint Statement of the Six-Party Talks, abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner, and refrain from further provocative acts.
Ministers expressed concerns over the systematic and widespread human rights violations in the DPRK, highlighted the importance of improving inter-Korean relations and emphasised the need to address humanitarian issues including abductions and family reunions. They emphasized that the DPRK must address these issues and cooperate fully with all relevant UN mechanisms.
Burma/Myanmar
Ministers noted with satisfaction that since President Thein Sein took office in March 2011, the Government of Burma/Myanmar has, with the support of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, opposition groups and parliament, initiated a number of remarkable political and economic reforms toward strengthening democracy and the rule of law, improving human rights (including the release of political prisoners and freedom of the press), expanding economic activity and engaging with the international community. Ministers welcomed the progress that has been made on addressing national reconciliation and encouraged the Government of Burma/Myanmar and other actors, including ethnic groups, women and political parties, to continue on this path in particular in view of the complex situation in Kachin State and unresolved tensions in Rakhine State. They also called on the Burma/Myanmar Government to take further steps to end all violence, to respect the rights of ethnic and religious minorities and to pursue inclusive peace negotiations.
Ministers underlined their firm intention to continue to support ongoing political and economic reforms, to help the authorities tackle the important challenges that remain, and to work closely with other donors to ensure our assistance is used effectively to address the needs of the people of Burma/Myanmar in line with the Naypyitaw Accord for Effective Development Cooperation.
Ministers welcomed the resulting new opportunities for investment and development, as well as the prospects for greater transparency, accountability and prosperity. They believed that new investments and development programmes should operate consistently with international environmental, business, and human rights principles and guidelines with the goal of benefiting the people. They welcomed the Government’s commitment to responsible investment in Burma/Myanmar in line with the UN Global Compact and Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Afghanistan
G8 Foreign Ministers reaffirmed their collective commitment to support Afghanistan on the path to peace and stability as it enters the ‘transformation decade’. Ministers noted that Afghanistan would continue to face many challenges, including in the field of security, and reiterated international support to the Afghan Government in overcoming them.
They welcomed the pledges of long-term support to Afghanistan by the international community, including at the Bonn Conference, the NATO Chicago Summit meetings and the Tokyo Conference. They agreed that all must meet their commitments under the Tokyo Mutual Accountability Framework. Ministers noted the importance of protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms, including religious freedom, particularly of women, children and minorities, and of expanding opportunities for them to contribute to Afghanistan’s future.
The Ministers noted progress made on transition of responsibility for security. Ministers looked forward to the ANSF taking the nationwide lead for security in mid-2013. Ministers encouraged the Afghan Government to make progress on its National Drug Control Strategy, which balances law enforcement action with capacity-building and the development of sustainable alternative livelihoods. Ministers endorsed the continuing need for an international response to tackling more effectively illicit drug production, trade, trafficking and dealing with the threat of terrorism. Money from the trafficking of narcotics continues to fund insurgent activity.
The Ministers welcomed the announcement of the date for Presidential and Provincial elections in Afghanistan. It is important that the Government of Afghanistan and relevant authorities continue to work with all stakeholders and international organisations to prepare for inclusive, credible and transparent elections.
The Ministers fully supported an inclusive Afghan-led peace and reconciliation process that is based on the principles of renunciation of violence, cutting ties with all terrorist groups and respect for the Afghan Constitution including its human rights provisions, notably on the rights of women, in line with the Kabul Communiqué and the Bonn Conference Conclusions. The Ministers welcome and support efforts to strengthen regional co-operation.
Transnational challenges and opportunities
Cyber
G8 Foreign Ministers agreed that a safe, open and accessible Internet is an essential tool for our societies and economies. They agreed that it promotes prosperity, freedom, democracy and human rights. They also acknowledged the importance of the Internet in helping all nations to benefit from the potential for economic growth and innovation. Ministers recognised that this potential is reliant on availability, trust and security – which are essential for developed and developing countries alike.
Ministers noted that, since the Deauville G8 Declaration on a Renewed Commitment for Freedom and Democracy in 2011, there had been a wide range of welcome initiatives in various international fora. They highlighted in particular the work of the UN Group of Governmental Experts on developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security (UNGGE). Ministers encouraged the UNGGE to reach consensus on substantive recommendations on norms of responsible state behaviour and confidence building measures, including capacity building, as an essential element of international stability.
Ministers affirmed that international law is relevant in the digital world as it is off-line. They further affirmed the need to take steps to promote transparency and confidence building measures in order to reduce the risk of misperceptions between states.
Ministers agreed on the importance of international capacity building efforts to enhance trust, strengthen the fight against cyber crime and improve the security of the global digital environment. They noted that capacity building required the full participation of governments, business and civil society. Ministers agreed to promote and advance international cyber security capacity building initiatives to encourage a wide range of partners, including industry, to deliver increased and more effective capacity building across the globe.
Ministers agreed that cyber security capacity-building in this area needs to be embedded in the wider context of the economic growth and social benefits derived from the global digital economy. They also agreed to ensure that these efforts are implemented in a way which promotes openness, trust and security, stability and the rule of law in the digital realm.
Ministers welcomed the efforts by the Roma-Lyon High Tech Crime Sub Group (HTCSG) to strengthen and expand the G8 24/7 Network of Contact Points, including through a sustained training initiative. Ministers encouraged all future Presidencies to continue these efforts.
Climate Change
Climate change remains a key global challenge which, if not controlled, would have dramatic consequences not only on the environment but also on economic prosperity. G8 Ministers recognised climate change as a contributing factor to increased economic and security risks globally. The G8 agreed to consider means to better respond to this challenge and its associated risks, recalling that international climate policy and sustainable economic development are mutually reinforcing. Officials from interested G8 countries will meet to consider the potential consequences of climate change and associated environmental and resource stresses as a contributing factor to increased security risks globally, and report to Foreign Ministers.
Ministers recognised the ambitious measures already undertaken to reduce greenhouse gases, noting that action needs to continue and intensify as a matter of urgency. Ministers remain committed to long term efforts with a view to limiting effectively the increase in global average temperature below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, consistent with science. The G8 remain fully committed to the UNFCCC process; to achieving, by 2015, a new climate change agreement, applicable to all Parties, which will come into effect and be implemented from 2020; to increase mitigation ambition in the pre-2020 timeframe, including through international cooperative initiatives such as the Climate and Clean Air Coalition; and to the developed countries’ goal of mobilising jointly USD 100bn per year by 2020, from a wide variety of public and private sources, in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation. Ministers stressed the importance of transparency in the UNFCCC process. Measurement, reporting and verification will play a key role with respect to mitigation, adaptation and international climate finance flows in order to measure progress towards the achievement of our goals.
Maritime Security
G8 Foreign Ministers recognised the importance of maritime security as a critical enabler of regional stability, economic development, trade and international prosperity. Maritime insecurity affects the international community as a whole and, as such, can only be effectively addressed through a comprehensive national and international approach. Ministers remain committed to the freedom of navigation, unimpeded lawful commerce, and the peaceful resolution of disputes in accordance with applicable international law including UNCLOS.
Ministers, firmly condemning acts of piracy and other maritime crime, expressed their continued commitment to pursue international cooperation to combat these threats remaining consistent with international law and internationally recognised principles of jurisdiction in international waters. Ministers noted the importance of continuing work to develop and support regional maritime security capability, increase capacity to prosecute maritime crime, and maximise economic potential from the maritime domain through frameworks like the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia, Friends of the Gulf of Guinea and Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia.
Human Rights
G8 Foreign Ministers emphasised the importance of promoting and protecting all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the rights of women, freedom of religion or belief, and the freedoms of expression and association.
Ministers reiterated the need to accelerate efforts to eliminate discrimination against women and girls in order to ensure their equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms. Ministers expressed concern for the continuing practice of early and forced marriage.
Counter Terrorism
G8 Foreign Ministers reiterated their absolute condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. They noted the evolving nature of the terrorist threat, which was increasingly fragmented and geographically diverse, and the increasing use in some areas of the world of kidnapping for ransom as a growing source of terrorist financing. Ministers remained concerned about the threat posed by al-Qaeda and affiliated groups in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and other countries, and noted the increased threat of terrorism in North and West Africa, as demonstrated by recent events in Algeria, Mali and Nigeria; they also noted new radicalisation trends and related terrorist risks; which will be examined in more detail by the G8 Roma-Lyon Group and its expert-level sub-groups dealing with transnational organised crime and terrorism.
Ministers reiterated the importance of continued international support for those countries facing a terrorist threat, including through assistance to build the capacity of their security and justice systems to identify, disrupt and prosecute terrorist activity, while respecting human rights and humanitarian law and ensuring safe operations of foreign investment which is a valuable source of growth for those countries. They noted the efforts of the United Nations and its Security Council, and of the Global Counterterrorism Forum, in this regard. They further emphasised the importance of regional co-operation in tackling terrorist groups that move across borders and exploit local and regional issues to their own ends. Ministers underlined the need for further implementation of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, based on the comprehensive approach to counter-terrorism combining security, diplomatic and development efforts to counter violent extremism and to deprive the terrorists of resources and support and to tackle the conditions and grievances that terrorists seek to exploit.
Illicit Drugs
G8 Foreign Ministers are concerned by the scale of the problem of illicit drug production, trade and trafficking and its harmful consequences for individuals, societies and States, as well as regional and international stability. They reiterated their commitment to the balanced and evidence based approach set out in the three United Nations conventions on the control of drugs (1961, 1971 and 1988). They recognised the need for increased political impetus and a stronger mobilisation of the international community within that legal framework and support further steps to implement the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and the UN Convention against Corruption.
Ministers underlined the crucial importance of intensified cooperation among States on the basis of common and shared responsibility and a balanced comprehensive approach tackling both demand and supply of illicit drugs.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
U.S. OFFICIALS REMARK'S ON FIGHTING INTERNATIONAL CRIME
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Remarks
David M. Luna
Director for Anticrime Programs, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
Jakarta, Indonesia
January 26, 2013
Good morning.
It is a pleasure to be here with you as we begin the new APEC year.
The United States applauds the leadership of the Government of the Republic of Indonesia as the APEC Host Economy in 2013 and the Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) as Chair of this year’s APEC Anticorruption and Transparency (ACT) Working Group.
Your Excellency, Bambang Widjowanto, KPK Deputy Chairman, as a previous Chair of this very important and influential sub-forum in APEC, let me congratulate you on your appointment as our new ACT Chair and commend your life-long commitment to promoting human rights, advancing the rule of law, and safeguarding integrity in Indonesia.
The KPK remains a model within APEC on prosecuting high-level corruption cases, including within the police and security agencies, and demonstrating to us all that no official is above the law. The ACT must continue to support the KPK and all of our economies’ anticorruption authorities to eradicate corruption, safeguard integrity and public trust, and restore people’s faith in government as a steward of equality and justice.
I would also like to thank the Government of the Russian Federation for its leadership last year, and applaud all of the economies here for our collective achievements in 2012. I am confident that we will make great gains this year on developing an APEC regional network of anticorruption authorities that further protects our economies against abuses of power and the plunder of our national assets, human capital, and natural resources.
In 2013, we must work together to achieve the three core objectives outlined in our ACT five-year strategy: 1) to minimize impunity and kleptocracy by preventing and prosecuting public corruption; 2) to level the playing field for all businesses by fighting foreign bribery; and 3) to shut down the illegal economy and criminalized markets by combating corruption and illicit trade.
Combating Impunity and Kleptocracy: Enough is Enough!
No economy is immune from corruption, nor can any economy combat it alone. In addition to effective governance within our own jurisdictions, we must take collective action to improve governance across borders and reconfigure the way we fight corruption with smarter, more holistic strategies and approaches. We must work to prevent the flow of illicit funds, including proceeds of corruption.
APEC Leaders recognized the ACT work program in the 2012 Vladivostok Declaration on Fighting Corruption. They emphasized their commitment to investigate and prosecute corruption; to enforce our domestic bribery laws and laws criminalizing the bribery of foreign public officials; to fight money laundering and deny safe haven to assets illicitly acquired by individuals engaged in corruption. They also vowed to combat illicit trade by attacking the financial underpinnings of transnational criminal organizations and illicit networks; stripping criminal entrepreneurs and corrupt officials of their illicit wealth; and severing their access to the global financial system.
The Vladivostok Declaration also renewed and elevated APEC Leaders’ commitment to "enhance public trust by committing to transparent, fair, and accountable governance" to empower communities to monitor government policies and voice their perspectives on the use of resources.
Voice and accountability can not only help check corruption, but also allow our citizens and communities to take hold of their destinies, enjoy higher standards of living, and trust that their governments exist to do good. Transparent and open governments tend to pursue cost-effective policies; minimize misallocation of resources; and attract investment from companies looking for solid investment environments and opportunities. This is why eight APEC member countries (Canada, Chile, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Russia, and the United States) have joined the Open Government Partnership (OGP), a multi-stakeholder initiative launched in 2011 to promote transparency, enhance accountability, and fight corruption. Indonesia is also a co-chair of the OGP’s Steering Committee this year, and its leadership of both the OGP and the ACT presents an opportunity for us all to further our efforts to enhance public trust and raise standards of living.
Our Leaders have spoken. They have repeatedly affirmed their will to combat corruption across the Asia Pacific region. We must answer them with a transformative good governance agenda that will anchor economic growth and development from Moscow to Jakarta, from Beijing to Lima, from San Francisco to Sydney, and transform people’s lives across all markets in APEC.
ACT colleagues, we must act decisively and collectively to implement the five-year strategy. I am confident that we can fulfill our Leaders’ mandate and achieve APEC’s broader agenda to secure open markets, economic prosperity, and the rule of law.
Fighting All Forms of Bribery
Continued cooperation with the private sector is a critical component of our efforts to level the playing field for businesses across APEC economies.
Our recent work with the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) and other partners has ushered in a new era of cooperation between the public and private sectors. This partnership is enhancing market integrity and forging a more connected, innovative, and dynamic Asia Pacific region that thrives on openness and a rules-based approach to trade and investment.
We can do more. Building on the APEC Santiago Commitment, the APEC Code of Conduct for Business (Business Integrity and Transparency Principles for the Private Sector), and the Complementary Anti-Corruption Principles for the Public and Private Sectors, we can vigorously enforce domestic bribery laws, including laws criminalizing the bribery of foreign public officials, and fulfill our international obligations. I also hope that we can continue to share experiences and best practices in combating foreign bribery, enlist the private sector as a partner in combating bribery, and provide specialized training to make greater inroads on this important front.
We can minimize corruption as a significant market and trade barrier and improve the investment climate in our economies by ensuring that we effectively investigate and prosecute corrupt public officials and those who bribe them, in compliance with our respective domestic laws and international obligations, where appropriate, under the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions and similar instruments.
The United States looks forward to working with Indonesia, China, and all economies to support stronger bribery enforcement, prosecutions, and other actions in APEC in 2013-2014.
Combating Illicit Trade and Shutting Down the Illegal Economy
Sustainable economic growth also depends on our progress to combat illicit trade and its pernicious impact on the environment and markets.
Illicit trade and the illegal economy undermine social stability and the welfare of our communities. Illicit enterprises not only distort the legal economy, but they also divert revenue from legitimate market drivers such as businesses and governments. Illicit trade further hampers development by preventing the equitable distribution of public goods. But this goes beyond just economic harm. The illegal economy also incurs a significant negative social cost, and in some cases, devastates vital ecosystems and habitats.
The dumping of toxic waste contaminates our food and water supplies. Illegal logging and deforestation or poaching exacerbate climate change and undermine our ability in APEC to advance inclusive, green, sustainable development. Poaching and trafficking of endangered wildlife robs economies of their natural assets and their future.
The corruption that allows counterfeit or ineffective pharmaceuticals to enter our communities endangers public health, denying the sick effective treatment and permitting deadly diseases to mutate and become untreatable.
The corruption that allows traffickers to move people across borders and exploit them with impunity not only violates individuals’ basic rights and freedoms but also stunts both their and their communities’ economic potential and political development.
Kleptocracy and the embezzlement of national revenue and assets that are intended to finance the future for our citizens impair the ability of communities to make the investments necessary to stimulate growth. Revenue that could be used to build roads to facilitate commerce, hospitals to save lives, homes to raise and protect families, or schools to educate future leaders and entrepreneurs is instead siphoned away for private gain.
APEC has a number of tools in its toolkit to combat corruption and illicit trade, and we have an ongoing opportunity to work together to comprehensively and holistically combat corruption, as well as illicit finance more broadly; to foster integrity in global markets and supply chains; and to protect and promote economic growth and shared prosperity.
Among them is the ACT Multi-Year Project that Thailand and Chile are co-leading on ways to combat money laundering, recover the fruits of corrupt and criminal activity, and track illicit financial flows. As kleptocrats and criminal entrepreneurs continue to hide the proceeds of their crimes in legal structures such as offshore shell companies and foundations and then launder most of that through casinos, financial institutions, or real estate into the global financial system, we must bring them to justice and, where possible, return their illicit wealth back to impacted communities.
To do this effectively, we must also target more aggressively the financial facilitators and service providers who commit crimes in helping corrupt officials, criminals, and illicit networks inject their dirty money into our financial system.
The APEC-ASEAN Pathfinder Workshop on Combating Corruption and Illicit Trade that will be held in Siem Reap, Cambodia, in June 2013, will advance a dialogue among partners across the Asia Pacific region and strengthen cooperation by creating a network of anticorruption authorities, promoting information and intelligence exchanges, and facilitating cooperation and information sharing in investigations related to corruption and illicit trade and efforts to shut down the illegal economy.
More broadly, we can and should support the effective implementation of global anti-money laundering standards promulgated by the Financial Action Task Force. Among these are preventive measures that facilitate financial transparency and help prevent the flow of proceeds of corruption.
Converting Political Will into Action: Regional Networks and Partnerships
We can build on our APEC anti-corruption and transparency commitments and the collaborative relationships around this table to create a regional network of anti-corruption bodies that would facilitate the sharing of intelligence and information, as well as the sharing of best practices and challenges in effectively tracking cross-border corruption, other crime, and illicit financial flows.
The United States is more committed than ever to combating corruption and illicit trade, and we look forward to the discussion here in Jakarta.
Together, we will create a better, more prosperous future by uniting our efforts to combat corruption and support accountability and good governance. We must turn our shared interests into collective action by developing more comprehensive approaches to combating corruption so that we can prosecute corrupt public officials and those who bribe them.
Again, I wish Indonesia a great and successful year in APEC 2013 and applaud my ACT colleagues for developing and pressing forward on a vibrant course of action to fight corruption and promote integrity—a course that I know will lead us towards economic growth and a stronger foundation to build the new markets and investment frontiers of tomorrow.
Thank you.
Remarks
David M. Luna
Director for Anticrime Programs, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
Jakarta, Indonesia
January 26, 2013
Good morning.
It is a pleasure to be here with you as we begin the new APEC year.
The United States applauds the leadership of the Government of the Republic of Indonesia as the APEC Host Economy in 2013 and the Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) as Chair of this year’s APEC Anticorruption and Transparency (ACT) Working Group.
Your Excellency, Bambang Widjowanto, KPK Deputy Chairman, as a previous Chair of this very important and influential sub-forum in APEC, let me congratulate you on your appointment as our new ACT Chair and commend your life-long commitment to promoting human rights, advancing the rule of law, and safeguarding integrity in Indonesia.
The KPK remains a model within APEC on prosecuting high-level corruption cases, including within the police and security agencies, and demonstrating to us all that no official is above the law. The ACT must continue to support the KPK and all of our economies’ anticorruption authorities to eradicate corruption, safeguard integrity and public trust, and restore people’s faith in government as a steward of equality and justice.
I would also like to thank the Government of the Russian Federation for its leadership last year, and applaud all of the economies here for our collective achievements in 2012. I am confident that we will make great gains this year on developing an APEC regional network of anticorruption authorities that further protects our economies against abuses of power and the plunder of our national assets, human capital, and natural resources.
In 2013, we must work together to achieve the three core objectives outlined in our ACT five-year strategy: 1) to minimize impunity and kleptocracy by preventing and prosecuting public corruption; 2) to level the playing field for all businesses by fighting foreign bribery; and 3) to shut down the illegal economy and criminalized markets by combating corruption and illicit trade.
Combating Impunity and Kleptocracy: Enough is Enough!
No economy is immune from corruption, nor can any economy combat it alone. In addition to effective governance within our own jurisdictions, we must take collective action to improve governance across borders and reconfigure the way we fight corruption with smarter, more holistic strategies and approaches. We must work to prevent the flow of illicit funds, including proceeds of corruption.
APEC Leaders recognized the ACT work program in the 2012 Vladivostok Declaration on Fighting Corruption. They emphasized their commitment to investigate and prosecute corruption; to enforce our domestic bribery laws and laws criminalizing the bribery of foreign public officials; to fight money laundering and deny safe haven to assets illicitly acquired by individuals engaged in corruption. They also vowed to combat illicit trade by attacking the financial underpinnings of transnational criminal organizations and illicit networks; stripping criminal entrepreneurs and corrupt officials of their illicit wealth; and severing their access to the global financial system.
The Vladivostok Declaration also renewed and elevated APEC Leaders’ commitment to "enhance public trust by committing to transparent, fair, and accountable governance" to empower communities to monitor government policies and voice their perspectives on the use of resources.
Voice and accountability can not only help check corruption, but also allow our citizens and communities to take hold of their destinies, enjoy higher standards of living, and trust that their governments exist to do good. Transparent and open governments tend to pursue cost-effective policies; minimize misallocation of resources; and attract investment from companies looking for solid investment environments and opportunities. This is why eight APEC member countries (Canada, Chile, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Russia, and the United States) have joined the Open Government Partnership (OGP), a multi-stakeholder initiative launched in 2011 to promote transparency, enhance accountability, and fight corruption. Indonesia is also a co-chair of the OGP’s Steering Committee this year, and its leadership of both the OGP and the ACT presents an opportunity for us all to further our efforts to enhance public trust and raise standards of living.
Our Leaders have spoken. They have repeatedly affirmed their will to combat corruption across the Asia Pacific region. We must answer them with a transformative good governance agenda that will anchor economic growth and development from Moscow to Jakarta, from Beijing to Lima, from San Francisco to Sydney, and transform people’s lives across all markets in APEC.
ACT colleagues, we must act decisively and collectively to implement the five-year strategy. I am confident that we can fulfill our Leaders’ mandate and achieve APEC’s broader agenda to secure open markets, economic prosperity, and the rule of law.
Fighting All Forms of Bribery
Continued cooperation with the private sector is a critical component of our efforts to level the playing field for businesses across APEC economies.
Our recent work with the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) and other partners has ushered in a new era of cooperation between the public and private sectors. This partnership is enhancing market integrity and forging a more connected, innovative, and dynamic Asia Pacific region that thrives on openness and a rules-based approach to trade and investment.
We can do more. Building on the APEC Santiago Commitment, the APEC Code of Conduct for Business (Business Integrity and Transparency Principles for the Private Sector), and the Complementary Anti-Corruption Principles for the Public and Private Sectors, we can vigorously enforce domestic bribery laws, including laws criminalizing the bribery of foreign public officials, and fulfill our international obligations. I also hope that we can continue to share experiences and best practices in combating foreign bribery, enlist the private sector as a partner in combating bribery, and provide specialized training to make greater inroads on this important front.
We can minimize corruption as a significant market and trade barrier and improve the investment climate in our economies by ensuring that we effectively investigate and prosecute corrupt public officials and those who bribe them, in compliance with our respective domestic laws and international obligations, where appropriate, under the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions and similar instruments.
The United States looks forward to working with Indonesia, China, and all economies to support stronger bribery enforcement, prosecutions, and other actions in APEC in 2013-2014.
Combating Illicit Trade and Shutting Down the Illegal Economy
Sustainable economic growth also depends on our progress to combat illicit trade and its pernicious impact on the environment and markets.
Illicit trade and the illegal economy undermine social stability and the welfare of our communities. Illicit enterprises not only distort the legal economy, but they also divert revenue from legitimate market drivers such as businesses and governments. Illicit trade further hampers development by preventing the equitable distribution of public goods. But this goes beyond just economic harm. The illegal economy also incurs a significant negative social cost, and in some cases, devastates vital ecosystems and habitats.
The dumping of toxic waste contaminates our food and water supplies. Illegal logging and deforestation or poaching exacerbate climate change and undermine our ability in APEC to advance inclusive, green, sustainable development. Poaching and trafficking of endangered wildlife robs economies of their natural assets and their future.
The corruption that allows counterfeit or ineffective pharmaceuticals to enter our communities endangers public health, denying the sick effective treatment and permitting deadly diseases to mutate and become untreatable.
The corruption that allows traffickers to move people across borders and exploit them with impunity not only violates individuals’ basic rights and freedoms but also stunts both their and their communities’ economic potential and political development.
Kleptocracy and the embezzlement of national revenue and assets that are intended to finance the future for our citizens impair the ability of communities to make the investments necessary to stimulate growth. Revenue that could be used to build roads to facilitate commerce, hospitals to save lives, homes to raise and protect families, or schools to educate future leaders and entrepreneurs is instead siphoned away for private gain.
APEC has a number of tools in its toolkit to combat corruption and illicit trade, and we have an ongoing opportunity to work together to comprehensively and holistically combat corruption, as well as illicit finance more broadly; to foster integrity in global markets and supply chains; and to protect and promote economic growth and shared prosperity.
Among them is the ACT Multi-Year Project that Thailand and Chile are co-leading on ways to combat money laundering, recover the fruits of corrupt and criminal activity, and track illicit financial flows. As kleptocrats and criminal entrepreneurs continue to hide the proceeds of their crimes in legal structures such as offshore shell companies and foundations and then launder most of that through casinos, financial institutions, or real estate into the global financial system, we must bring them to justice and, where possible, return their illicit wealth back to impacted communities.
To do this effectively, we must also target more aggressively the financial facilitators and service providers who commit crimes in helping corrupt officials, criminals, and illicit networks inject their dirty money into our financial system.
The APEC-ASEAN Pathfinder Workshop on Combating Corruption and Illicit Trade that will be held in Siem Reap, Cambodia, in June 2013, will advance a dialogue among partners across the Asia Pacific region and strengthen cooperation by creating a network of anticorruption authorities, promoting information and intelligence exchanges, and facilitating cooperation and information sharing in investigations related to corruption and illicit trade and efforts to shut down the illegal economy.
More broadly, we can and should support the effective implementation of global anti-money laundering standards promulgated by the Financial Action Task Force. Among these are preventive measures that facilitate financial transparency and help prevent the flow of proceeds of corruption.
Converting Political Will into Action: Regional Networks and Partnerships
We can build on our APEC anti-corruption and transparency commitments and the collaborative relationships around this table to create a regional network of anti-corruption bodies that would facilitate the sharing of intelligence and information, as well as the sharing of best practices and challenges in effectively tracking cross-border corruption, other crime, and illicit financial flows.
The United States is more committed than ever to combating corruption and illicit trade, and we look forward to the discussion here in Jakarta.
Together, we will create a better, more prosperous future by uniting our efforts to combat corruption and support accountability and good governance. We must turn our shared interests into collective action by developing more comprehensive approaches to combating corruption so that we can prosecute corrupt public officials and those who bribe them.
Again, I wish Indonesia a great and successful year in APEC 2013 and applaud my ACT colleagues for developing and pressing forward on a vibrant course of action to fight corruption and promote integrity—a course that I know will lead us towards economic growth and a stronger foundation to build the new markets and investment frontiers of tomorrow.
Thank you.
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