FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Justice Department Announces Results of Investigation into the Death of Milton Hall
The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan and the FBI announced today that they will not be pursuing federal criminal civil rights charges against the Saginaw Police Department (SPD) officers who shot and killed Milton Hall on July 1, 2012. After a thorough investigation, federal authorities have determined that this tragic event does not present sufficient evidence of willful misconduct to lead to a federal criminal prosecution of the police officers involved.
The Civil Rights Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the FBI conducted an independent investigation that carefully considered all of the evidence. During the investigation, prosecutors thoroughly reviewed the criminal investigation previously conducted by the Michigan State Police in conjunction with the Saginaw County Prosecutor’s Office and the Michigan Attorney General’s Office. State authorities collected the physical evidence at the scene; photographed the scene; interviewed the two non-shooting SPD officers and dozens of eyewitnesses; acquired the patrol car dashcam and civilian videos of the incident; gathered the dispatch logs, 911 calls and other investigative materials related to the incident; obtained the involved officers’ police reports; and conducted a ballistics and autopsy examination. At the conclusion of the state investigation, the Saginaw County Prosecutor and the Michigan Attorney General declined to prosecute any of the SPD officers involved in the incident.
In addition to reviewing the evidence previously collected, FBI agents interviewed a number of witnesses who had not been interviewed during the state investigation, including individuals whose names were provided to prosecutors by Hall’s family.
To pursue prosecution under Section 242 in the U.S. Code, the applicable criminal civil rights statute, the government would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the SPD officers deprived Hall of his constitutional right to be free from an unreasonable use of force. The government would also have to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the officers acted willfully, that is, for the specific purpose of violating the law. Law enforcement actions based on fear, panic, misperception or even poor judgment do not constitute willful conduct prosecutable under the statute.
The evidence in this case shows that on July 1, 2012, SPD officers responded to the Riverview Plaza in Saginaw, Mich., after receiving a 911 call about a confrontation between a man, later identified as Hall, and a clerk at a Mobil gas station. An SPD sergeant was the first officer to arrive at the scene, where she located Hall in the plaza’s parking lot and saw that he was carrying a knife with an approximately three-inch blade. After encountering Hall and seeing that he was armed with a knife, the sergeant requested backup. When the second officer arrived, Hall approached that officer’s patrol car and jabbed the hood of the vehicle with a knife. The six remaining SPD officers on duty that day, including a K-9 officer and his dog, reported to the plaza, approached Hall and repeatedly ordered him to drop his knife. Hall did not comply with the officers’ commands, and verbally responded that he would not put the knife down. While the SPD officers came together on the scene, the K-9 officer and his dog approached and retreated from Hall several times. During this time, Hall was intermittently shifting his feet and getting into and out of a crouching stance. When Hall, with the knife still in his hand, moved toward the K-9 officer and his dog, six SPD officers fired at him and fatally wounded him.
Two SPD patrol car dashcams captured a video recording, with no audio, of much of the encounter between Hall and the SPD officers. The dashcams on the other SPD patrol cars were either not operational or not activated during this incident. Several civilians witnessed the incident and recorded portions of it on their cellular phones.
After the shooting, all of the SPD officers at the scene wrote reports. In these reports, the officers who discharged their weapons explained that they did so because they believed Hall posed an imminent threat to the officers’ safety.
A fter a careful review of all of the evidence, experienced prosecutors from the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan have determined that t he evidence in this case is insufficient to prove , beyond a reasonable doubt, that the SPD officers willfully shot Hall for an unlawful purpose, rather than for their stated purpose of preventing Hall from harming SPD staff. Even if the officers were mistaken in their assessment of the threat posed by Hall, this would not establish that the officers acted willfully, or with an unlawful intent, when using deadly force against Hall. Accordingly , this tragic event does not present sufficient evidence of willful misconduct to give rise to a federal criminal prosecution of the police officers involved.
Thursday, February 27, 2014
SECRETARY KERRY, AMBASSADOR RUSSEL MAKE REMARKS ON SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN CONFLICT SITUATIONS
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Discussion on Ending and Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Situations
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Catherine M. Russell
Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues
Benjamin Franklin Room
Washington, DC
February 25, 2014
SECRETARY KERRY: Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you very, very much for joining us here. We’re really honored to have all of you.
But also, I’m privileged to have Foreign Secretary William Hague here today. He has really been the leader on this issue, not just a leader, but the leader. And I was privileged to be with him in London – as a matter of fact, today is the anniversary of my leaving on my first trip as Secretary of State, and my first stop was in London, where I received a magnificent naval sword given to me by the Secretary, which I keep down in my office to manage the staff with. (Laughter.) And the – now some 350,000 miles later, the secretary’s coming back to visit us here, and we’re very honored to have him here. And I’m delighted to take part with him in this initiative and in these initiatives that we’re engaged in to deal with the problem of sexual violence in conflict.
Let me just say at the outset – and I think William wants to join me in saying a word in a few moments when I introduce him – we are all watching – and not just watching, but deeply engaged in trying to help this extraordinary transition that is taking place in Ukraine. And both of us are committed to doing our part to support the efforts of people in Ukraine who have spoken out on their own with passion for their ability to have pluralistic, democratic future.
This is not a zero-sum game. It is not a West versus East. It should not be. It is not a Russia or the United States or other choices. This is about the people of Ukraine and Ukrainians making their choice about their future. And we want to work with Russia, with other countries, with everybody available to make sure this is peaceful from this day forward, because obviously the terrible violence that took place in the Maidan was a shock to everybody in the world. So we’re committed to that effort and we hope everybody else will be as committed as we are.
Before I say any further words about this, I might just to ask William if he wants to say a couple words about Ukraine also, and then we’ll come back.
FOREIGN SECRETARY HAGUE: Well, thank you very much, indeed, John. And thank you all for joining us here today. And it is a great pleasure to be here, as always, with Secretary Kerry. It is, indeed – I had forgotten it was a year today since you came to London on your first visit, and I gave you a sword with which you manage your staff. You gave me some cowboy boots – (laughter) – with which I manage my staff. (Laughter.) So this was a very good reciprocal gift.
And we’ve had some very good talks today, and we will come in a moment to this subject, which I feel very passionately about and on which we are solidly committed to work together over the coming years between the United Kingdom and the United States.
But as Secretary Kerry has just said, we are both not only witnessing but actively speaking to those who’ve taken part in the – this extraordinary transition, as he has said, in Ukraine. I think we’re clear from our talks today that we see this in exactly the same way. This is about the rights of a free people, a free, democratic Ukraine to make their own decisions.
And we don’t see it in a zero-sum way in international affairs. Our national interests are in the people of Ukraine being able to make their own decisions about their future. And so we encourage them to form an inclusive government that enables a new political consensus to take shape in their country, to change a political culture, where corruption has been pervasive, to hold free elections, as they have decided in May, that are fair to everyone in their country.
It is urgent to prepare financial support, but urgent also that they are – they prepare themselves to meet the necessary conditions for that financial support. And we’ve discussed some of the potential details of that today. I will have meetings with the International Monetary Fund here in Washington tomorrow. And we’ve both had discussions with the foreign minister of Russia, Foreign Minister Lavrov, over recent days about this, seeking to work with Russia on this subject. So I welcome the opportunity to have discussions about this and many other issues with Secretary Kerry today.
But of course, we want to go on to the subject of today’s meeting, and I look forward to our discussion about that. Thank you, John.
SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you, William, very, very much.
Turning to the subject of today’s meeting, there’s really no way to adequately describe the depths of depravity and the extraordinary violence of rape as a tool of war, as violence against women as a tool of intimidation, coercion, submission, and power. And I think that those of us who have known about this for a long time are disturbed by the levels at which this is used as exactly that kind of tool in too many parts of the world.
I know William, who I said is the leader, he has traveled extensively, he’s been to Darfur, he’s been to Goma, he’s seen hospitals in which women are laid out on gurneys telling stories of having been raped like animals, and he feels this issue passionately. I attended a conference with him in London that he organized with the G-8 when we were there, and we were joined by a terrific advocate on this, Angelina Jolie, who eloquently spoke of what is happening in so many places.
This is an issue that I really became aware of, actually, here in our country – not in that form, obviously, but I was a prosecutor, and I started the first rape counseling/victim witness assistance program in our county back in the late-1970s, and nobody had heard of it. Nobody knew what it was – what victim witness meant or how you deal with this. And subsequently in the Senate I was proud to join then-Senator Joe Biden in the passage of the Violence Against Women Act, which he authored, and after that was very pleased to bring the International Violence Against Women Act before the – the treaty before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and ultimately through the Senate.
So I have seen this also, personally, in ways around the world in too many places of conflict. And today, we’re making certain something additional; even though we’ve been aware of it, we haven’t sent yet an embassy-wide message, which I am sending today, that no one, and I mean no one at the highest level of military or governance, who has presided over or engaged in or knew of or conducted these kinds of attacks, is ever going to receive a visa to travel into the United States of America from this day forward. We’re not going to allow that. (Applause.) And every embassy will engage – every embassy and post will be alert to this and to report any of these kinds of incidences, but most importantly there has to be a price attached, and that’s one of the things we need to do.
The way we will make a difference on this issue is, frankly, by heeding the example of people who’ve gone before us who broke the back of slavery and other oppressive acts that were being applied to the life of people in various times in history. William Wilberforce, historic figure in Great Britain, stood up against slavery and set an example for people elsewhere. And it was that example that helped us ultimately to break the back of Jim Crow in the United States when people learned that you needed to put yourselves on the line, and you needed to take risks as a matter of moral conscience in order to be able to make the difference.
That’s really what we’re going to have to summon here, is that kind of moral commitment to fighting back against and holding accountable those people who engage in these kinds of activities on a global basis. So as I said earlier, there is no more committed leader globally than my colleague William Hague, and we’re honored – honored to have here today the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General Zainab Bangura. I’m very, very grateful for her being here today. Particularly grateful to Cathy Russell who is our Assistant Secretary for Global Women’s – Special Representative for Global Women’s Affairs who has helped put this together. And I appreciate Anne Richard who is here, and as our assistant secretary, she has played a key role in all of this and decided not to add numbers to our panel, but we’re deeply appreciative to her commitment and leadership for this. And I’m so honored that Katharine Weymouth has taken time off from The Washington Post’s duties to come over here today to actually be the host of the panel, which I will give up momentarily.
But I do want to introduce my good colleague, about whom I’ve said a fair amount in terms of his leadership on this, but we’re really happy to have him here today to take part in this event. William, thank you. (Applause.)
FOREIGN SECRETARY HAGUE: Thank you very much, John. Thank you very much, and I applaud the commitment of Secretary Kerry and of the United States of America on this subject. I believe that the sort of measure that he just announced, that clarity and clear measure on visas for anyone wishing to enter the United States, is exactly the sort of thing that governments should be doing all over the world as we bring our various powers together in order to tackle this subject.
And as you’ve heard it’s a subject I feel very strongly about that started for me back in – about eight years ago visiting Darfur and visiting camps of displaced people and hearing about how they were raped every time they went out for firewood. And I’ve seen many other examples around the world, now. And then when Angelina Jolie made her film, The Land of Blood and Honey, about events in Bosnia in the 1990s, she and I decided to create the campaign – the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict campaign. It is a subject we cannot and should not ignore, because now we know about it. We now know things that were previously – because they were out of sight of most people in the world, were out of mind as well.
But now the extent of warzone rape has been documented in Bosnia, in Colombia, in Guatemala, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Liberia, in many continents of the world. And what would it say about our societies and our civilizations if we knew those things and chose to do nothing about it? It’s a moral responsibility, but it’s also about preventing conflict, about helping communities to work together after conflict that is a fundamental part of conflict prevention, as well as a crucial moral cause of our times. And great work has been done on this subject by people like Zainab Bangura at the UN and by NGOs all over the world.
But I felt two years ago that what had been missing from this was some of the major governments of the world really throwing their weight behind it. And so I decided to throw the weight of the United Kingdom behind – we have one of the biggest diplomatic networks in the world. We have one of the biggest development budgets in the world. We are a country, particularly it’s when we work – when we work with the United States and others, that can move the dial in international affairs. And so we are setting out to create international action on this, and we have made agreements with the G8 foreign ministers that Secretary Kerry took part in last April. I took it to the UN Security Council in June, and we strengthened the tools available to the United Nations. And we held a meeting at the General Assembly last year, where now 140 countries in the world, as a result of that, have signed my declaration on ending sexual violence.
I’m going to host in London in June a global summit on this issue, which will be like no summit ever before. It is going to go on around the clock, around the world. It is going to be open to the public. It is going to communicate digitally with people in every continent of the world. We are going to involve militaries, judiciaries. We’re going to ask governments to take practical steps to end sexual violence, to do the sort of thing we’ve done now of deploying teams of experts to areas that help to gather the evidence and make sure prosecutions can take place. And we’re going to do even more than that. We are going to set about changing global attitudes on this subject so that the stigma that has always been attached to the victims to the victims of these crimes is attached to the perpetrator instead.
It is an ambitious agenda, but it really can be done. And I know there are sometimes quiet cynics who say, “Well, isn’t this just part of war?” Well, we have rules of even war in other respects. We have Geneva conventions about the treatment of prisoners of war. We have conventions and rules about subjects from landmines to cluster munitions. We need to have accepted rules on this subject as well. And there are people who say, “Well, it’s too big and too difficult a subject to do anything about,” or they perhaps think that even if they don’t say it. But no campaign would ever have succeeded against slavery or against racial discrimination or anything else if anybody started out with that thought in their minds that it was impossible.
And so it is now possible to do something on this subject to take practical actions at many levels and to change the entire global attitude on this subject, and our objective should be nothing less than that. And in that spirit, and I am waging this campaign, and I look forward to, without saying anything more at this point, to hearing your views and questions about that. Thank you very much indeed. (Applause.)
MS. WEYMOUTH: Thank you both, Secretary Hague and Foreign – I’m sorry, Secretary Hague and Secretary Kerry.
Let me start with you, Special Representative Bangura. Secretary Hague referred to the stigma of women who are abused sexually during conflict and seeking to remove that stigma and put that stigma on the perpetrator, something that we would all like to see, but we know that there are strong cultural pulls. In many cultures, women don’t want to report rapes, they don’t want to get an abortion, they’re forced to marry the rapist. Can you talk a little bit about what you are doing about those issues and what you think that the governments can do about those issues?
MS. BANGURA: Thank you very much. And I have to congratulate the two great gentlemen. And I think when I took this job, the first thing the Secretary-General said to me, “If you want to succeed, you have to have men on your side.” So I can say in the United Nations, I’m the luckiest woman, because at least I have men who have stood up and say, we will support you. That is very important.
What we have been able to do with the support of the United States and the United Kingdom, like the foreign secretary said, we’ve got the global legal framework. By various resolutions in the Security Council, we’ve got all the tools. And the challenge is why, the foreign secretaries (inaudible) conference, is actually how do we make sure at the national level the governments take ownership and responsibility and implement the decision that we have agreed at the United Nations? And I think we have succeeded within the last one year. The momentum developed by the initiative launch by foreign secretary, which saw it at the G8’s – the foreign ministers at the G8 actually adopted a declaration, and there are now 140 countries.
So the political momentum has been created, which has helped us at a national level to have firm commitment. We have signed a joint framework with the DRC, with (inaudible). When I visited DRC for the first time, visited together with Foreign Secretary Hague, and were able to see President Kabila. I think with the pressure that we’ve been able to put on those leaders, we’ve got firm political commitment from them in writing. We’re working now with a team of experts in my office to ensure that we build their capacity, we have this commitment interpreted into firm, concrete action at the national level. And I think that’s where the next phase of this mandate is. So I can tell you that we have done – been very extremely successful with the DRC, with Somalia, even with the Central Africa. Now with Resolution 2106, we’re putting it as part of peace agreements in mediation, so it’s also been included in most of the negotiations that are going in peace agreement – is ceasefire violation.
So I think we’ve done tremendously well, and I think it’s making sure that we implement it on the ground at the national level where the crimes are being committed. So I want to congratulate you, Secretary of State Hague and Kerry with this decision you’ve taken now with making so people who commit this crime are not given visa. These are all part of the tools and the support we need, because once we’re able to identify the people, we need to name and shame them. We need to let them understand that wherever they are, whoever they are, we will go after them and we’ll get them.
MS. WEYMOUTH: So let me pick up on that. Secretary Kerry, you’ve just announced this new rule regarding visas, which implies that these are people who have been found to have committed crimes. We know that one of the challenges is getting the information out. Taking the crisis that’s happening right now on the ground in Syria, we know we’re having trouble getting reports, that we don’t have firm reports, we know abuse is happening. What is the role of the U.S. Government or the British Government or any government during a conflict like that?
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, I think there are several roles. One is – first of all, our first role now, which we’re working on, is really to create a greater awareness and to have more people in the world, more governments particularly, recognize their responsibility. You’ve got to create accountability. If you have impunity, it’s very difficult to make progress in this. So our response – I mean, our – hopefully our collective leadership can bring governments to hold people accountable.
You need a massive education effort. You’ve got to go out and people have to be aware that this is something you can – I’m not going to tell you you can wipe it out and prevent it altogether. But boy, can you create a different attitude in people about the accountability, the hierarchy, the consequences. And in organized kinds of campaigns, like a place in Syria, where you have an army and you’ve got greater capacity to have a discipline within the ranks, you can make a difference.
In some places in the world today, you don’t have that. You have young kids carrying guns, you have 16, 17, 18-year-olds, 12-year-olds in some cases. And to some degree, there’s a cultural attitude that encourages that kind of behavior as – literally as an instrument of winning and of intimidating people. In those cases, it’s going to take longer, but we can make a difference.
I’ll give you an example. In the Great Lakes region, we have just – in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where M23 was active, in the Kampala Accord, which Special Envoy Russ Feingold and Mary Robinson from the United Nations and others were engaged in helping to negotiate, we have a section in there that specifically talks about accountability and prevention of rape as a tool of – and holding people accountable in M23 for these acts.
So that accountability starts to become known. And as a consequence of that, you have some measure of deterrence. I can’t tell you how much yet, but the key is eliminating impunity, educating people ahead of time, having consequences up and down the chain.
MS. WEYMOUTH: Thank you. Did you want to add something?
FOREIGN SECRETARY HAGUE: And just to add to what Secretary Kerry has said as an example to that, the UK in the Syria conflict has trained human rights activists to document such crimes and to gather evidence of such crimes. I mentioned earlier we have created a team – I’ve created a team of 70 experts. These are doctors, forensic experts, gender-based violence experts. Some of them have deployed to the Syrian border, again, to help the gathering of evidence so that one day prosecutions can take place and people can start to become aware of that.
And in the decision we took recently to bring into the United Kingdom some of the Syrian refugees, a small number relative to the total of course, but to be able to bring some of them into the United Kingdom, we are giving priority to those who have been vulnerable to violence, including sexual violence. And then we will also be able to arrange medical care for them.
So there is a whole string of things that countries can do. Even as we try now and when we haven’t succeeded in resolving the conflict and ending the conflict, which is our overriding priority, there are things we can do in the meantime to try to help people who are victims of sexual violence in a conflict such as Syria now.
MS. WEYMOUTH: Thank you. Ambassador Russell --
AMBASSADOR RUSSELL: Can I make --
MS. WEYMOUTH: Yeah. Go ahead.
AMBASSADOR RUSSELL: I just --
MS. WEYMOUTH: I think it’s on.
AMBASSADOR RUSSELL: I’d like to make one point, which is that one thing is in –
SECRETARY KERRY: Pull it up closer, Cathy.
AMBASSADOR RUSSELL: -- if you look at World War I, I think then five percent of the casualties were people who were civilians. And now, when you look at conflicts, we’re up to 90 percent of the casualties are civilians. And so we’re dealing with situations that are so different from situations that we’ve seen in the past. And of course, women and children are almost always more likely to be victims in these conflicts.
And so we’ve seen certainly situations where both secretaries described, where women are intentionally victims and where rape is used a strategic decision on the part of commanders to really go in and either try to move communities out, try to pillage, try to terrorize, try to brutalize communities. And I think we’re all trying to adjust to how to deal with that. I think the biggest challenge we all are facing is that a lot of these commanders who do this, individual soldiers, are doing it with just unbelievable impunity. And we’re all struggling to address that.
And I think the biggest challenge is we can – and the United States does this, the UK does this, we provide a lot of services for victims. But we’re all interested in figuring how to avoid it in the first place. And I think one of the challenges is trying to make sure that people understand that there will be consequences for this.
One of the things that we’ve come up or that we’re supporting are mobile courts that have been very effective in the DRC. Because now there have been prosecutions in The Hague, which have been effective, but they’re – they take a long time to get done and we do very few of them just because of the nature of the tribunals for Rwanda cases, Yugoslavia cases. But for these DRC cases, we have judges or Congolese prosecutors, judges who go out and they travel around, and they hear the cases in the communities. It takes two weeks for a case to be heard, and justice is meted out immediately. People see the justice happen in front of them. People who have committed these cases, who never believed they would be prosecuted, are prosecuted.
That sort of thing makes a difference. It builds up the sort of trust in the judicial system. It builds up the infrastructure, so there is justice and there’s a possibility that there will be kind of a judicial system maybe that will work in the future. And I think those are the sorts of things that ultimately will have some impact.
And I think what we’re looking to do is to find places where we can sort of build up these societies so that they’ll have sort of rule of law, respect for law, so that ultimately we won’t be in a situation where we’re trying to deal with survivors, deal with services for survivors, but we’re having a place where they respect the rule of law and we don’t have these situations in the first place.
MS. WEYMOUTH: And is there a difference in the way we ought to address – there’s the violence that happens during a conflict and then there’s the violence that happens post-conflict. We know in Darfur some of the women were raped going to get firewood and water from refugee camps. Is there a difference in the way that we ought to address those?
AMBASSADOR RUSSELL: Well, I mean, I would just say if you don’t address it during the conflict, there is a lack of respect for law and there is an increase in violence. I mean, we see it in Sierra Leone where you – where that – you have that brutality. When the conflict is over, it continues.
MS. WEYMOUTH: Yeah.
AMBASSADOR RUSSELL: And if it’s not dealt with and there aren’t sort of some services built up and there aren’t punishments, then it just continues into the post-conflict area, post-conflict.
MS. WEYMOUTH: Did you want to add to that?
MS. BANGURA: Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I think the challenges are the same, whether in conflict or post-conflict. Today as we speak, we have 50,000 women in Bosnia that were raped during the conflicts in Bosnia. And if you don’t deal with them, there is a problem that reconciliation becomes very difficult. But I think the most challenging, it’s that these issues are integrated into communities when not addressed.
MS. WEYMOUTH: Yeah, yeah.
MS. BANGURA: We have the incident of Liberia today as I speak to you. My youngest victim is from Liberia, three months old. And a report was done by Save The Children: 90 percent of those who were sexually abused were children. So once you don’t address it during a conflict, it gets integrated into community life. It becomes a much bigger problem for you to deal with.
MS. WEYMOUTH: And apart from governments, what is the role that men can play? I mean men in the communities. Because we’re talking about women being abused here, but we know men and boys are also abused in smaller numbers, but they are. But apart from those victims, what is the role of men in these communities?
MS. BANGURA: I think the important issue is that most of this community live under traditional rules and regulation. You have traditional leaders who are controlled by men religious leaders. So they are the gatekeepers, we call them. So they are the one who normally control these communities and they give the instructions. I mean, in the case of Libya, for example, we have – a religious leader gave a fatwa that when you rape somebody, you are forced to marry the perpetrator. So because the men make the laws and because this is a crime that is commanded --
MS. WEYMOUTH: Right.
MS. BANGURA: -- it is important that you give the command to stop it.
MS. WEYMOUTH: Yes.
MS. BANGURA: So the only people who can give the command to stop it are the men. So they have a very critical role to play.
MS. WEYMOUTH: And there are some examples, are there not, of conflicts that did not have sexual and violence as a hallmark?
MS. BANGURA: Well, very few, if there’s any --
MS. WEYMOUTH: But they’re – yeah.
MS. BANGURA: -- because all the conflicts we are dealing with you, you might not be able to see it or read it, but when you go deeper and you look for it, you find out that sexual violence has taken place. And that’s a surprise thing we get with now, because once you get involved in it and you start talking, you start looking deeper into it. And I think the problem is because of the stigma of a culture of silence and the stigma associated with it. So there’s a reluctance for people to report and to deal with it if they don’t have the support and the support is coming.
MS. WEYMOUTH: Secretary Hague, you mentioned the team of experts that you have built in the UK. Can you talk a little bit about the work that they’ve done and the successes they’ve had?
FOREIGN SECRETARY HAGUE: Well, they are – as I say, in the UK we’ve assembled a team of more than 70 experts. We will send them on – we will deploy them to half a dozen different places in the course of this year. And then they have the necessary skills to support local organizations and local administrations in the gathering of evidence. Because here, the crucial thing is the shattering of impunity. Now, that is what we have to achieve. That is in line with Secretary Kerry’s remarks, in line with what Zainab Bangura has just been saying. This is the crucial ingredient so that people know they will not get away with it.
And for that, you need the experts, you need the lawyers, you need the doctors, you need the forensic experts. And we need something now that I hope we can add to this, which is agreed international standards for the investigation and documentation of these crimes so that information can be shared, so that the gathering of evidence is of sufficient quality.
And one of my objectives for the global summit in June is for us to agree an international protocol on the documentation and investigation of such crimes so that such evidence can be more easily shared and used all over the world. It won’t be a new body of international law, but it will be an agreed way of trying to implement the laws that exist against these crimes. So that is the way we’re going to follow up the creation of the team of experts.
MS. WEYMOUTH: So at your summit in June, part of the role will be to get the world’s attention to this issue?
FOREIGN SECRETARY HAGUE: It is. We have to get the world – to change the attitude, to change the stigma in every part of the world, we have to get the world’s attention. And we are increasingly getting the world’s attention, but I hope it will be another big step forward in that when we hold the global summit in June.
But it won’t just be about attention. It will be about agreeing the international protocol. It will be asking the countries involved to build this into their military training, into the – I’ve just been to Colombia last week where many crimes of sexual violence have taken place during the decades of conflict in Colombia. And the defense ministry in Colombia is now adopting a protocol on sexual violence into its military training so that exactly what Zainab has been saying to armies all over the world is – will happen then. And she makes quite a forceful job of it when she tells them that they must not do these things anymore.
So that we’ll be asking armies, we’ll be asking judiciaries to build this into their thinking. So that the summit is about changing global attitudes, but it’s also about a whole set of practical actions, some of which we can take internationally and some of which we need national governments to take.
MS. WEYMOUTH: Special Representative Bangura, we were talking outside about your first visit to the United States. Can you mention that?
MS. BANGURA: I started – as you know, I started my career as a human rights activist, as a women’s rights activist, but I actually got inspired by the visits I made in the United States as the program International Visitors Program. And I think – I had studied political science at the university – (cheers and applause). I had studied political science at the university, but I was not in a democratic state. At this time, we had a military government in Sierra Leone. So for about two to three decades, we had had continuously one (inaudible) military government, and then I was invited to participate in this program.
At the end of the program, I made a decision. I said I think the future of my country is actually being a democratic state. I went to the American Embassy on my return to brief the ambassador, and I said to her I want to work on democracy. She looked at me and she said, “Are you crazy?” (Laughter.) Yeah. I said, “No, I will.” And so that’s how I started. I got my first grant from the United States, $25,000, and I started treating women in the American Embassy. They provided a venue for me. And that’s how we took the women to the streets to fight for democracy.
So after three decades, we won. We became a democratic state. Today, we’ve had all our three elections, successive elections, and it’s one of the fast-growing economies in the world. So I think that influence – influence greatly and greatly help me and my country. So I was never the same person. I quitted my job as an insurance executive and that’s it. (Laughter.)
AMBASSADOR RUSSELL: So see where this can lead you?
MS. BANGURA: For the rest of my life, I’m working on democracy and human rights.
MS. WEYMOUTH: You’ve accomplished great things since then. (Applause.) We have about five minutes left. Secretary Kerry, you wrote in an op-ed on International Women’s Day – and I love this as a woman – “No country can get ahead if it leaves half of its people behind.” So there is education, there is enforcement. Do you think it makes a difference to have women in the military creating policy, in positions of government, in addition to those measures?
SECRETARY KERRY: Oh, sure. I mean, absolutely, of course it does. When I came to the United States Senate, there was one woman. And I watched this transition. I think we got up to 20-something, whatever the number was. Extraordinary, extraordinary difference to the quality of our caucuses, to the quality of debate, to the points of view that were brought forward. I mean, it’s hard for me to imagine how it was the way it was for as long as it was, but it’s hard for a lot of people to imagine it the way it is today, too.
We’ve got a long way to go. We still have a glass ceiling in the United States. And if we still have a glass ceiling on something as straightforward as employment and equal jobs, equal pay for that job, imagine the sort of push it’s going to take to get people to deal with something they’re as uneasy with as sex and sexual violence. A lot of people don’t understand that rape is used as a tool in war. Many people say, well, no, it’s just – it happens or people dismiss it. You can’t. We can’t allow people to do that.
And so women being a part of this dialogue at the highest levels will help bring a level of both personal experience and credibility and reality to the debate that, for better or worse, as hard as men try to or want to, is always going to be hard for them to be able to do. So it makes all the difference in the world. And I think the key here, though, remains getting people to understand what is happening, how impactful it is on a society, and how crushing it is to the capacity of that society to ever sort of break out and be culturally whole and come into modernity.
And so there’s a big education role that has to take place now to get people to understand, number one, that this is an issue worth caring about; and then, to jump from the caring about it to what do you actually do to make a difference. And if you don’t create accountability up and down the chain, you won’t make that difference. So we have to keep pushing on the education front. We have to keep pushing on the governance regulatory enforcement front. And that’s how, ultimately, we’re going to make a difference.
But I think one of the biggest ways to make a difference is holding people accountable in these very visible conflicts now, like Syria or like the Central African Republic or a number of other places. We do that; that’s going to do more to send a message than any other single thing, probably.
FOREIGN SECRETARY HAGUE: And just to add a final word from me on that, this is an immensely important subject in itself, and we’ve all said how crucial it is, but it is a part of an even bigger picture relevant to your question. And I will argue in a speech I’ll make in a few hours’ time in Georgetown that the even bigger picture is that the great strategic prize of the 21st century is the full economic and social and economic empowerment of women everywhere. And that has got to be our goal. (Applause.)
MS. WEYMOUTH: I think we can all applaud that. (Applause.) Thank you all so much.
SECRETARY KERRY: On that note, folks, I think Katharine has yielded back. Cathy, do you want to wrap it up for us? You’re all set?
Well, let me just say to everybody I know this is scratching the surface, but it’s clear from Williams’s announcement about this conference that he’s going to have in London and his own speech this afternoon and other efforts that we will continue, we’re going to stay at this. And we’re going to continue to try to create accountability where there isn’t any, end the impunity that as you heard from Cathy and from Zainab, that’s the key here. We have to end the impunity. And that will come when all of you help us to create accountability.
So thank you all for being here today. Appreciate it. (Applause.)
Discussion on Ending and Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Situations
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Catherine M. Russell
Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues
Benjamin Franklin Room
Washington, DC
February 25, 2014
SECRETARY KERRY: Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you very, very much for joining us here. We’re really honored to have all of you.
But also, I’m privileged to have Foreign Secretary William Hague here today. He has really been the leader on this issue, not just a leader, but the leader. And I was privileged to be with him in London – as a matter of fact, today is the anniversary of my leaving on my first trip as Secretary of State, and my first stop was in London, where I received a magnificent naval sword given to me by the Secretary, which I keep down in my office to manage the staff with. (Laughter.) And the – now some 350,000 miles later, the secretary’s coming back to visit us here, and we’re very honored to have him here. And I’m delighted to take part with him in this initiative and in these initiatives that we’re engaged in to deal with the problem of sexual violence in conflict.
Let me just say at the outset – and I think William wants to join me in saying a word in a few moments when I introduce him – we are all watching – and not just watching, but deeply engaged in trying to help this extraordinary transition that is taking place in Ukraine. And both of us are committed to doing our part to support the efforts of people in Ukraine who have spoken out on their own with passion for their ability to have pluralistic, democratic future.
This is not a zero-sum game. It is not a West versus East. It should not be. It is not a Russia or the United States or other choices. This is about the people of Ukraine and Ukrainians making their choice about their future. And we want to work with Russia, with other countries, with everybody available to make sure this is peaceful from this day forward, because obviously the terrible violence that took place in the Maidan was a shock to everybody in the world. So we’re committed to that effort and we hope everybody else will be as committed as we are.
Before I say any further words about this, I might just to ask William if he wants to say a couple words about Ukraine also, and then we’ll come back.
FOREIGN SECRETARY HAGUE: Well, thank you very much, indeed, John. And thank you all for joining us here today. And it is a great pleasure to be here, as always, with Secretary Kerry. It is, indeed – I had forgotten it was a year today since you came to London on your first visit, and I gave you a sword with which you manage your staff. You gave me some cowboy boots – (laughter) – with which I manage my staff. (Laughter.) So this was a very good reciprocal gift.
And we’ve had some very good talks today, and we will come in a moment to this subject, which I feel very passionately about and on which we are solidly committed to work together over the coming years between the United Kingdom and the United States.
But as Secretary Kerry has just said, we are both not only witnessing but actively speaking to those who’ve taken part in the – this extraordinary transition, as he has said, in Ukraine. I think we’re clear from our talks today that we see this in exactly the same way. This is about the rights of a free people, a free, democratic Ukraine to make their own decisions.
And we don’t see it in a zero-sum way in international affairs. Our national interests are in the people of Ukraine being able to make their own decisions about their future. And so we encourage them to form an inclusive government that enables a new political consensus to take shape in their country, to change a political culture, where corruption has been pervasive, to hold free elections, as they have decided in May, that are fair to everyone in their country.
It is urgent to prepare financial support, but urgent also that they are – they prepare themselves to meet the necessary conditions for that financial support. And we’ve discussed some of the potential details of that today. I will have meetings with the International Monetary Fund here in Washington tomorrow. And we’ve both had discussions with the foreign minister of Russia, Foreign Minister Lavrov, over recent days about this, seeking to work with Russia on this subject. So I welcome the opportunity to have discussions about this and many other issues with Secretary Kerry today.
But of course, we want to go on to the subject of today’s meeting, and I look forward to our discussion about that. Thank you, John.
SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you, William, very, very much.
Turning to the subject of today’s meeting, there’s really no way to adequately describe the depths of depravity and the extraordinary violence of rape as a tool of war, as violence against women as a tool of intimidation, coercion, submission, and power. And I think that those of us who have known about this for a long time are disturbed by the levels at which this is used as exactly that kind of tool in too many parts of the world.
I know William, who I said is the leader, he has traveled extensively, he’s been to Darfur, he’s been to Goma, he’s seen hospitals in which women are laid out on gurneys telling stories of having been raped like animals, and he feels this issue passionately. I attended a conference with him in London that he organized with the G-8 when we were there, and we were joined by a terrific advocate on this, Angelina Jolie, who eloquently spoke of what is happening in so many places.
This is an issue that I really became aware of, actually, here in our country – not in that form, obviously, but I was a prosecutor, and I started the first rape counseling/victim witness assistance program in our county back in the late-1970s, and nobody had heard of it. Nobody knew what it was – what victim witness meant or how you deal with this. And subsequently in the Senate I was proud to join then-Senator Joe Biden in the passage of the Violence Against Women Act, which he authored, and after that was very pleased to bring the International Violence Against Women Act before the – the treaty before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and ultimately through the Senate.
So I have seen this also, personally, in ways around the world in too many places of conflict. And today, we’re making certain something additional; even though we’ve been aware of it, we haven’t sent yet an embassy-wide message, which I am sending today, that no one, and I mean no one at the highest level of military or governance, who has presided over or engaged in or knew of or conducted these kinds of attacks, is ever going to receive a visa to travel into the United States of America from this day forward. We’re not going to allow that. (Applause.) And every embassy will engage – every embassy and post will be alert to this and to report any of these kinds of incidences, but most importantly there has to be a price attached, and that’s one of the things we need to do.
The way we will make a difference on this issue is, frankly, by heeding the example of people who’ve gone before us who broke the back of slavery and other oppressive acts that were being applied to the life of people in various times in history. William Wilberforce, historic figure in Great Britain, stood up against slavery and set an example for people elsewhere. And it was that example that helped us ultimately to break the back of Jim Crow in the United States when people learned that you needed to put yourselves on the line, and you needed to take risks as a matter of moral conscience in order to be able to make the difference.
That’s really what we’re going to have to summon here, is that kind of moral commitment to fighting back against and holding accountable those people who engage in these kinds of activities on a global basis. So as I said earlier, there is no more committed leader globally than my colleague William Hague, and we’re honored – honored to have here today the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General Zainab Bangura. I’m very, very grateful for her being here today. Particularly grateful to Cathy Russell who is our Assistant Secretary for Global Women’s – Special Representative for Global Women’s Affairs who has helped put this together. And I appreciate Anne Richard who is here, and as our assistant secretary, she has played a key role in all of this and decided not to add numbers to our panel, but we’re deeply appreciative to her commitment and leadership for this. And I’m so honored that Katharine Weymouth has taken time off from The Washington Post’s duties to come over here today to actually be the host of the panel, which I will give up momentarily.
But I do want to introduce my good colleague, about whom I’ve said a fair amount in terms of his leadership on this, but we’re really happy to have him here today to take part in this event. William, thank you. (Applause.)
FOREIGN SECRETARY HAGUE: Thank you very much, John. Thank you very much, and I applaud the commitment of Secretary Kerry and of the United States of America on this subject. I believe that the sort of measure that he just announced, that clarity and clear measure on visas for anyone wishing to enter the United States, is exactly the sort of thing that governments should be doing all over the world as we bring our various powers together in order to tackle this subject.
And as you’ve heard it’s a subject I feel very strongly about that started for me back in – about eight years ago visiting Darfur and visiting camps of displaced people and hearing about how they were raped every time they went out for firewood. And I’ve seen many other examples around the world, now. And then when Angelina Jolie made her film, The Land of Blood and Honey, about events in Bosnia in the 1990s, she and I decided to create the campaign – the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict campaign. It is a subject we cannot and should not ignore, because now we know about it. We now know things that were previously – because they were out of sight of most people in the world, were out of mind as well.
But now the extent of warzone rape has been documented in Bosnia, in Colombia, in Guatemala, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Liberia, in many continents of the world. And what would it say about our societies and our civilizations if we knew those things and chose to do nothing about it? It’s a moral responsibility, but it’s also about preventing conflict, about helping communities to work together after conflict that is a fundamental part of conflict prevention, as well as a crucial moral cause of our times. And great work has been done on this subject by people like Zainab Bangura at the UN and by NGOs all over the world.
But I felt two years ago that what had been missing from this was some of the major governments of the world really throwing their weight behind it. And so I decided to throw the weight of the United Kingdom behind – we have one of the biggest diplomatic networks in the world. We have one of the biggest development budgets in the world. We are a country, particularly it’s when we work – when we work with the United States and others, that can move the dial in international affairs. And so we are setting out to create international action on this, and we have made agreements with the G8 foreign ministers that Secretary Kerry took part in last April. I took it to the UN Security Council in June, and we strengthened the tools available to the United Nations. And we held a meeting at the General Assembly last year, where now 140 countries in the world, as a result of that, have signed my declaration on ending sexual violence.
I’m going to host in London in June a global summit on this issue, which will be like no summit ever before. It is going to go on around the clock, around the world. It is going to be open to the public. It is going to communicate digitally with people in every continent of the world. We are going to involve militaries, judiciaries. We’re going to ask governments to take practical steps to end sexual violence, to do the sort of thing we’ve done now of deploying teams of experts to areas that help to gather the evidence and make sure prosecutions can take place. And we’re going to do even more than that. We are going to set about changing global attitudes on this subject so that the stigma that has always been attached to the victims to the victims of these crimes is attached to the perpetrator instead.
It is an ambitious agenda, but it really can be done. And I know there are sometimes quiet cynics who say, “Well, isn’t this just part of war?” Well, we have rules of even war in other respects. We have Geneva conventions about the treatment of prisoners of war. We have conventions and rules about subjects from landmines to cluster munitions. We need to have accepted rules on this subject as well. And there are people who say, “Well, it’s too big and too difficult a subject to do anything about,” or they perhaps think that even if they don’t say it. But no campaign would ever have succeeded against slavery or against racial discrimination or anything else if anybody started out with that thought in their minds that it was impossible.
And so it is now possible to do something on this subject to take practical actions at many levels and to change the entire global attitude on this subject, and our objective should be nothing less than that. And in that spirit, and I am waging this campaign, and I look forward to, without saying anything more at this point, to hearing your views and questions about that. Thank you very much indeed. (Applause.)
MS. WEYMOUTH: Thank you both, Secretary Hague and Foreign – I’m sorry, Secretary Hague and Secretary Kerry.
Let me start with you, Special Representative Bangura. Secretary Hague referred to the stigma of women who are abused sexually during conflict and seeking to remove that stigma and put that stigma on the perpetrator, something that we would all like to see, but we know that there are strong cultural pulls. In many cultures, women don’t want to report rapes, they don’t want to get an abortion, they’re forced to marry the rapist. Can you talk a little bit about what you are doing about those issues and what you think that the governments can do about those issues?
MS. BANGURA: Thank you very much. And I have to congratulate the two great gentlemen. And I think when I took this job, the first thing the Secretary-General said to me, “If you want to succeed, you have to have men on your side.” So I can say in the United Nations, I’m the luckiest woman, because at least I have men who have stood up and say, we will support you. That is very important.
What we have been able to do with the support of the United States and the United Kingdom, like the foreign secretary said, we’ve got the global legal framework. By various resolutions in the Security Council, we’ve got all the tools. And the challenge is why, the foreign secretaries (inaudible) conference, is actually how do we make sure at the national level the governments take ownership and responsibility and implement the decision that we have agreed at the United Nations? And I think we have succeeded within the last one year. The momentum developed by the initiative launch by foreign secretary, which saw it at the G8’s – the foreign ministers at the G8 actually adopted a declaration, and there are now 140 countries.
So the political momentum has been created, which has helped us at a national level to have firm commitment. We have signed a joint framework with the DRC, with (inaudible). When I visited DRC for the first time, visited together with Foreign Secretary Hague, and were able to see President Kabila. I think with the pressure that we’ve been able to put on those leaders, we’ve got firm political commitment from them in writing. We’re working now with a team of experts in my office to ensure that we build their capacity, we have this commitment interpreted into firm, concrete action at the national level. And I think that’s where the next phase of this mandate is. So I can tell you that we have done – been very extremely successful with the DRC, with Somalia, even with the Central Africa. Now with Resolution 2106, we’re putting it as part of peace agreements in mediation, so it’s also been included in most of the negotiations that are going in peace agreement – is ceasefire violation.
So I think we’ve done tremendously well, and I think it’s making sure that we implement it on the ground at the national level where the crimes are being committed. So I want to congratulate you, Secretary of State Hague and Kerry with this decision you’ve taken now with making so people who commit this crime are not given visa. These are all part of the tools and the support we need, because once we’re able to identify the people, we need to name and shame them. We need to let them understand that wherever they are, whoever they are, we will go after them and we’ll get them.
MS. WEYMOUTH: So let me pick up on that. Secretary Kerry, you’ve just announced this new rule regarding visas, which implies that these are people who have been found to have committed crimes. We know that one of the challenges is getting the information out. Taking the crisis that’s happening right now on the ground in Syria, we know we’re having trouble getting reports, that we don’t have firm reports, we know abuse is happening. What is the role of the U.S. Government or the British Government or any government during a conflict like that?
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, I think there are several roles. One is – first of all, our first role now, which we’re working on, is really to create a greater awareness and to have more people in the world, more governments particularly, recognize their responsibility. You’ve got to create accountability. If you have impunity, it’s very difficult to make progress in this. So our response – I mean, our – hopefully our collective leadership can bring governments to hold people accountable.
You need a massive education effort. You’ve got to go out and people have to be aware that this is something you can – I’m not going to tell you you can wipe it out and prevent it altogether. But boy, can you create a different attitude in people about the accountability, the hierarchy, the consequences. And in organized kinds of campaigns, like a place in Syria, where you have an army and you’ve got greater capacity to have a discipline within the ranks, you can make a difference.
In some places in the world today, you don’t have that. You have young kids carrying guns, you have 16, 17, 18-year-olds, 12-year-olds in some cases. And to some degree, there’s a cultural attitude that encourages that kind of behavior as – literally as an instrument of winning and of intimidating people. In those cases, it’s going to take longer, but we can make a difference.
I’ll give you an example. In the Great Lakes region, we have just – in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where M23 was active, in the Kampala Accord, which Special Envoy Russ Feingold and Mary Robinson from the United Nations and others were engaged in helping to negotiate, we have a section in there that specifically talks about accountability and prevention of rape as a tool of – and holding people accountable in M23 for these acts.
So that accountability starts to become known. And as a consequence of that, you have some measure of deterrence. I can’t tell you how much yet, but the key is eliminating impunity, educating people ahead of time, having consequences up and down the chain.
MS. WEYMOUTH: Thank you. Did you want to add something?
FOREIGN SECRETARY HAGUE: And just to add to what Secretary Kerry has said as an example to that, the UK in the Syria conflict has trained human rights activists to document such crimes and to gather evidence of such crimes. I mentioned earlier we have created a team – I’ve created a team of 70 experts. These are doctors, forensic experts, gender-based violence experts. Some of them have deployed to the Syrian border, again, to help the gathering of evidence so that one day prosecutions can take place and people can start to become aware of that.
And in the decision we took recently to bring into the United Kingdom some of the Syrian refugees, a small number relative to the total of course, but to be able to bring some of them into the United Kingdom, we are giving priority to those who have been vulnerable to violence, including sexual violence. And then we will also be able to arrange medical care for them.
So there is a whole string of things that countries can do. Even as we try now and when we haven’t succeeded in resolving the conflict and ending the conflict, which is our overriding priority, there are things we can do in the meantime to try to help people who are victims of sexual violence in a conflict such as Syria now.
MS. WEYMOUTH: Thank you. Ambassador Russell --
AMBASSADOR RUSSELL: Can I make --
MS. WEYMOUTH: Yeah. Go ahead.
AMBASSADOR RUSSELL: I just --
MS. WEYMOUTH: I think it’s on.
AMBASSADOR RUSSELL: I’d like to make one point, which is that one thing is in –
SECRETARY KERRY: Pull it up closer, Cathy.
AMBASSADOR RUSSELL: -- if you look at World War I, I think then five percent of the casualties were people who were civilians. And now, when you look at conflicts, we’re up to 90 percent of the casualties are civilians. And so we’re dealing with situations that are so different from situations that we’ve seen in the past. And of course, women and children are almost always more likely to be victims in these conflicts.
And so we’ve seen certainly situations where both secretaries described, where women are intentionally victims and where rape is used a strategic decision on the part of commanders to really go in and either try to move communities out, try to pillage, try to terrorize, try to brutalize communities. And I think we’re all trying to adjust to how to deal with that. I think the biggest challenge we all are facing is that a lot of these commanders who do this, individual soldiers, are doing it with just unbelievable impunity. And we’re all struggling to address that.
And I think the biggest challenge is we can – and the United States does this, the UK does this, we provide a lot of services for victims. But we’re all interested in figuring how to avoid it in the first place. And I think one of the challenges is trying to make sure that people understand that there will be consequences for this.
One of the things that we’ve come up or that we’re supporting are mobile courts that have been very effective in the DRC. Because now there have been prosecutions in The Hague, which have been effective, but they’re – they take a long time to get done and we do very few of them just because of the nature of the tribunals for Rwanda cases, Yugoslavia cases. But for these DRC cases, we have judges or Congolese prosecutors, judges who go out and they travel around, and they hear the cases in the communities. It takes two weeks for a case to be heard, and justice is meted out immediately. People see the justice happen in front of them. People who have committed these cases, who never believed they would be prosecuted, are prosecuted.
That sort of thing makes a difference. It builds up the sort of trust in the judicial system. It builds up the infrastructure, so there is justice and there’s a possibility that there will be kind of a judicial system maybe that will work in the future. And I think those are the sorts of things that ultimately will have some impact.
And I think what we’re looking to do is to find places where we can sort of build up these societies so that they’ll have sort of rule of law, respect for law, so that ultimately we won’t be in a situation where we’re trying to deal with survivors, deal with services for survivors, but we’re having a place where they respect the rule of law and we don’t have these situations in the first place.
MS. WEYMOUTH: And is there a difference in the way we ought to address – there’s the violence that happens during a conflict and then there’s the violence that happens post-conflict. We know in Darfur some of the women were raped going to get firewood and water from refugee camps. Is there a difference in the way that we ought to address those?
AMBASSADOR RUSSELL: Well, I mean, I would just say if you don’t address it during the conflict, there is a lack of respect for law and there is an increase in violence. I mean, we see it in Sierra Leone where you – where that – you have that brutality. When the conflict is over, it continues.
MS. WEYMOUTH: Yeah.
AMBASSADOR RUSSELL: And if it’s not dealt with and there aren’t sort of some services built up and there aren’t punishments, then it just continues into the post-conflict area, post-conflict.
MS. WEYMOUTH: Did you want to add to that?
MS. BANGURA: Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I think the challenges are the same, whether in conflict or post-conflict. Today as we speak, we have 50,000 women in Bosnia that were raped during the conflicts in Bosnia. And if you don’t deal with them, there is a problem that reconciliation becomes very difficult. But I think the most challenging, it’s that these issues are integrated into communities when not addressed.
MS. WEYMOUTH: Yeah, yeah.
MS. BANGURA: We have the incident of Liberia today as I speak to you. My youngest victim is from Liberia, three months old. And a report was done by Save The Children: 90 percent of those who were sexually abused were children. So once you don’t address it during a conflict, it gets integrated into community life. It becomes a much bigger problem for you to deal with.
MS. WEYMOUTH: And apart from governments, what is the role that men can play? I mean men in the communities. Because we’re talking about women being abused here, but we know men and boys are also abused in smaller numbers, but they are. But apart from those victims, what is the role of men in these communities?
MS. BANGURA: I think the important issue is that most of this community live under traditional rules and regulation. You have traditional leaders who are controlled by men religious leaders. So they are the gatekeepers, we call them. So they are the one who normally control these communities and they give the instructions. I mean, in the case of Libya, for example, we have – a religious leader gave a fatwa that when you rape somebody, you are forced to marry the perpetrator. So because the men make the laws and because this is a crime that is commanded --
MS. WEYMOUTH: Right.
MS. BANGURA: -- it is important that you give the command to stop it.
MS. WEYMOUTH: Yes.
MS. BANGURA: So the only people who can give the command to stop it are the men. So they have a very critical role to play.
MS. WEYMOUTH: And there are some examples, are there not, of conflicts that did not have sexual and violence as a hallmark?
MS. BANGURA: Well, very few, if there’s any --
MS. WEYMOUTH: But they’re – yeah.
MS. BANGURA: -- because all the conflicts we are dealing with you, you might not be able to see it or read it, but when you go deeper and you look for it, you find out that sexual violence has taken place. And that’s a surprise thing we get with now, because once you get involved in it and you start talking, you start looking deeper into it. And I think the problem is because of the stigma of a culture of silence and the stigma associated with it. So there’s a reluctance for people to report and to deal with it if they don’t have the support and the support is coming.
MS. WEYMOUTH: Secretary Hague, you mentioned the team of experts that you have built in the UK. Can you talk a little bit about the work that they’ve done and the successes they’ve had?
FOREIGN SECRETARY HAGUE: Well, they are – as I say, in the UK we’ve assembled a team of more than 70 experts. We will send them on – we will deploy them to half a dozen different places in the course of this year. And then they have the necessary skills to support local organizations and local administrations in the gathering of evidence. Because here, the crucial thing is the shattering of impunity. Now, that is what we have to achieve. That is in line with Secretary Kerry’s remarks, in line with what Zainab Bangura has just been saying. This is the crucial ingredient so that people know they will not get away with it.
And for that, you need the experts, you need the lawyers, you need the doctors, you need the forensic experts. And we need something now that I hope we can add to this, which is agreed international standards for the investigation and documentation of these crimes so that information can be shared, so that the gathering of evidence is of sufficient quality.
And one of my objectives for the global summit in June is for us to agree an international protocol on the documentation and investigation of such crimes so that such evidence can be more easily shared and used all over the world. It won’t be a new body of international law, but it will be an agreed way of trying to implement the laws that exist against these crimes. So that is the way we’re going to follow up the creation of the team of experts.
MS. WEYMOUTH: So at your summit in June, part of the role will be to get the world’s attention to this issue?
FOREIGN SECRETARY HAGUE: It is. We have to get the world – to change the attitude, to change the stigma in every part of the world, we have to get the world’s attention. And we are increasingly getting the world’s attention, but I hope it will be another big step forward in that when we hold the global summit in June.
But it won’t just be about attention. It will be about agreeing the international protocol. It will be asking the countries involved to build this into their military training, into the – I’ve just been to Colombia last week where many crimes of sexual violence have taken place during the decades of conflict in Colombia. And the defense ministry in Colombia is now adopting a protocol on sexual violence into its military training so that exactly what Zainab has been saying to armies all over the world is – will happen then. And she makes quite a forceful job of it when she tells them that they must not do these things anymore.
So that we’ll be asking armies, we’ll be asking judiciaries to build this into their thinking. So that the summit is about changing global attitudes, but it’s also about a whole set of practical actions, some of which we can take internationally and some of which we need national governments to take.
MS. WEYMOUTH: Special Representative Bangura, we were talking outside about your first visit to the United States. Can you mention that?
MS. BANGURA: I started – as you know, I started my career as a human rights activist, as a women’s rights activist, but I actually got inspired by the visits I made in the United States as the program International Visitors Program. And I think – I had studied political science at the university – (cheers and applause). I had studied political science at the university, but I was not in a democratic state. At this time, we had a military government in Sierra Leone. So for about two to three decades, we had had continuously one (inaudible) military government, and then I was invited to participate in this program.
At the end of the program, I made a decision. I said I think the future of my country is actually being a democratic state. I went to the American Embassy on my return to brief the ambassador, and I said to her I want to work on democracy. She looked at me and she said, “Are you crazy?” (Laughter.) Yeah. I said, “No, I will.” And so that’s how I started. I got my first grant from the United States, $25,000, and I started treating women in the American Embassy. They provided a venue for me. And that’s how we took the women to the streets to fight for democracy.
So after three decades, we won. We became a democratic state. Today, we’ve had all our three elections, successive elections, and it’s one of the fast-growing economies in the world. So I think that influence – influence greatly and greatly help me and my country. So I was never the same person. I quitted my job as an insurance executive and that’s it. (Laughter.)
AMBASSADOR RUSSELL: So see where this can lead you?
MS. BANGURA: For the rest of my life, I’m working on democracy and human rights.
MS. WEYMOUTH: You’ve accomplished great things since then. (Applause.) We have about five minutes left. Secretary Kerry, you wrote in an op-ed on International Women’s Day – and I love this as a woman – “No country can get ahead if it leaves half of its people behind.” So there is education, there is enforcement. Do you think it makes a difference to have women in the military creating policy, in positions of government, in addition to those measures?
SECRETARY KERRY: Oh, sure. I mean, absolutely, of course it does. When I came to the United States Senate, there was one woman. And I watched this transition. I think we got up to 20-something, whatever the number was. Extraordinary, extraordinary difference to the quality of our caucuses, to the quality of debate, to the points of view that were brought forward. I mean, it’s hard for me to imagine how it was the way it was for as long as it was, but it’s hard for a lot of people to imagine it the way it is today, too.
We’ve got a long way to go. We still have a glass ceiling in the United States. And if we still have a glass ceiling on something as straightforward as employment and equal jobs, equal pay for that job, imagine the sort of push it’s going to take to get people to deal with something they’re as uneasy with as sex and sexual violence. A lot of people don’t understand that rape is used as a tool in war. Many people say, well, no, it’s just – it happens or people dismiss it. You can’t. We can’t allow people to do that.
And so women being a part of this dialogue at the highest levels will help bring a level of both personal experience and credibility and reality to the debate that, for better or worse, as hard as men try to or want to, is always going to be hard for them to be able to do. So it makes all the difference in the world. And I think the key here, though, remains getting people to understand what is happening, how impactful it is on a society, and how crushing it is to the capacity of that society to ever sort of break out and be culturally whole and come into modernity.
And so there’s a big education role that has to take place now to get people to understand, number one, that this is an issue worth caring about; and then, to jump from the caring about it to what do you actually do to make a difference. And if you don’t create accountability up and down the chain, you won’t make that difference. So we have to keep pushing on the education front. We have to keep pushing on the governance regulatory enforcement front. And that’s how, ultimately, we’re going to make a difference.
But I think one of the biggest ways to make a difference is holding people accountable in these very visible conflicts now, like Syria or like the Central African Republic or a number of other places. We do that; that’s going to do more to send a message than any other single thing, probably.
FOREIGN SECRETARY HAGUE: And just to add a final word from me on that, this is an immensely important subject in itself, and we’ve all said how crucial it is, but it is a part of an even bigger picture relevant to your question. And I will argue in a speech I’ll make in a few hours’ time in Georgetown that the even bigger picture is that the great strategic prize of the 21st century is the full economic and social and economic empowerment of women everywhere. And that has got to be our goal. (Applause.)
MS. WEYMOUTH: I think we can all applaud that. (Applause.) Thank you all so much.
SECRETARY KERRY: On that note, folks, I think Katharine has yielded back. Cathy, do you want to wrap it up for us? You’re all set?
Well, let me just say to everybody I know this is scratching the surface, but it’s clear from Williams’s announcement about this conference that he’s going to have in London and his own speech this afternoon and other efforts that we will continue, we’re going to stay at this. And we’re going to continue to try to create accountability where there isn’t any, end the impunity that as you heard from Cathy and from Zainab, that’s the key here. We have to end the impunity. And that will come when all of you help us to create accountability.
So thank you all for being here today. Appreciate it. (Applause.)
FTC SAYS CONSUMERS LOST MILLIONS FROM HOME BUSINESS SCAM
FROM: FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
FTC Halts Multi-Million Dollar Work-From-Home Business Coaching Scheme
Consumers Lost Thousands of Dollars Each After Being Told They Could Earn Income Through Online Businesses
At the Federal Trade Commission’s request, a federal court entered a temporary restraining order halting a deceptive work-from-home scheme that conned millions of dollars from consumers by falsely telling them they could easily earn thousands of dollars a month by purchasing bogus business coaching services and establishing their own Internet businesses. According to the FTC, consumers who bought into the scheme lost thousands – sometimes tens of thousands – of dollars each, most of it through racking up huge credit card charges at the defendants’ urging.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Utah froze the assets of the defendants, who did business under a variety of names, including Essent Media, LLC, Net Training, LLC, YES International, Coaching Department, and Apply Knowledge, and appointed a temporary receiver to take control of the operations, pending the outcome of a preliminary injunction hearing set for March 20, 2014. The FTC seeks to put a permanent stop to the operations and return money to consumers.
“This case halts a massive scam that bilked consumers out of millions for useless work-at-home kits and business coaching services,” said Jessica Rich, Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The defendants duped consumers into thinking they could earn thousands working from home. Protecting consumers from such pernicious schemes remains a top priority.”
According to the FTC’s complaint, the defendants’ websites told numerous false “rags to riches” stories, using photos – obtained from stock photo agencies – of supposed users of the defendants’ services, and made false and unsubstantiated claims about how much money consumers could earn. The defendants’ scheme had three inter-connected phases. In the first phase, the defendants used deceptive emails and websites to induce consumers to purchase relatively inexpensive work-at-home kits. They sold these kits, which typically cost from $37 to $99, with claims such as:
If You Can Spare 60 Minutes A Day, We Can Offer You a Certified, Proven And Guaranteed Home Job To Make $379/Day From Home!
“Important: Read my full report now as only 15 people are accepted into this program per city at any given time . . . because of the personal support given to each new member to ensure everyone’s quick financial success. Don’t hesitate . . . this page is taken down (literally) when the limit is reached, so read on . . .
But instead of showing consumers how to earn this income, the websites tried to sell them more products or services. In the second phase of their scheme, the defendants promised consumers that they would earn thousands of dollars a month using defendants’ coaching program to assist them in establishing their own online businesses. The defendants also encouraged consumers to put the entire cost of the program, generally from $3,000 to $12,000, on their credit card, claiming they would be able to pay it off within a few months. In the third phase of their scheme, the defendants pretended to provide consumers with the promised “coaching” services, while pitching yet additional costly add-on services such as business formation, website design, website development, accounting and tax filing services, and drop-shipping services, none of which proved helpful.
According to the FTC, most people who bought the defendants’ services did not get a functional online business, earned little or no money, and ended up heavily in debt.
The FTC has alleged that the defendants violated the FTC Act by misrepresenting likely earnings and the nature of their services and also violated the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule by misrepresenting material aspects of their investment opportunities.
The corporate defendants are Apply Knowledge LLC, also doing business as Apply Knowledge Institute and Coaching Department; Dahm International LLC; Dominion of Virgo Investments Inc.; eCommerce Support LLC; Essent Media Inc.; eVertex Solutions LLC; EVI LLC, also d/b/a Members Learning Center; Nemrow Consulting LLC; Novus North LLC, also d/b/a Mymentoring, Yes International LLC, and Your Ecommerce Support International LLC; Purple Buffalo LLC, also d/b/a Netmarketing; Supplier Source LLC; 365DailyFit LLC, also d/b/a Net Training; Vensure International LLC; and VI Education LLC.
The individual defendants are David Gregory Bevan, Jessica Bjarnson, Phillip Edward Gannuscia, Chad Huntsman, Scott Nemrow, Jeffrey Nicol, Thomas J. Riskas III, Babata Sonnenberg, and Ken Sonnenberg.
The Commission vote authorizing the staff to file the complaint was 4-0. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. On February 11, 2014, the court issued the temporary restraining order against the defendants.
FTC Halts Multi-Million Dollar Work-From-Home Business Coaching Scheme
Consumers Lost Thousands of Dollars Each After Being Told They Could Earn Income Through Online Businesses
At the Federal Trade Commission’s request, a federal court entered a temporary restraining order halting a deceptive work-from-home scheme that conned millions of dollars from consumers by falsely telling them they could easily earn thousands of dollars a month by purchasing bogus business coaching services and establishing their own Internet businesses. According to the FTC, consumers who bought into the scheme lost thousands – sometimes tens of thousands – of dollars each, most of it through racking up huge credit card charges at the defendants’ urging.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Utah froze the assets of the defendants, who did business under a variety of names, including Essent Media, LLC, Net Training, LLC, YES International, Coaching Department, and Apply Knowledge, and appointed a temporary receiver to take control of the operations, pending the outcome of a preliminary injunction hearing set for March 20, 2014. The FTC seeks to put a permanent stop to the operations and return money to consumers.
“This case halts a massive scam that bilked consumers out of millions for useless work-at-home kits and business coaching services,” said Jessica Rich, Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The defendants duped consumers into thinking they could earn thousands working from home. Protecting consumers from such pernicious schemes remains a top priority.”
According to the FTC’s complaint, the defendants’ websites told numerous false “rags to riches” stories, using photos – obtained from stock photo agencies – of supposed users of the defendants’ services, and made false and unsubstantiated claims about how much money consumers could earn. The defendants’ scheme had three inter-connected phases. In the first phase, the defendants used deceptive emails and websites to induce consumers to purchase relatively inexpensive work-at-home kits. They sold these kits, which typically cost from $37 to $99, with claims such as:
If You Can Spare 60 Minutes A Day, We Can Offer You a Certified, Proven And Guaranteed Home Job To Make $379/Day From Home!
“Important: Read my full report now as only 15 people are accepted into this program per city at any given time . . . because of the personal support given to each new member to ensure everyone’s quick financial success. Don’t hesitate . . . this page is taken down (literally) when the limit is reached, so read on . . .
But instead of showing consumers how to earn this income, the websites tried to sell them more products or services. In the second phase of their scheme, the defendants promised consumers that they would earn thousands of dollars a month using defendants’ coaching program to assist them in establishing their own online businesses. The defendants also encouraged consumers to put the entire cost of the program, generally from $3,000 to $12,000, on their credit card, claiming they would be able to pay it off within a few months. In the third phase of their scheme, the defendants pretended to provide consumers with the promised “coaching” services, while pitching yet additional costly add-on services such as business formation, website design, website development, accounting and tax filing services, and drop-shipping services, none of which proved helpful.
According to the FTC, most people who bought the defendants’ services did not get a functional online business, earned little or no money, and ended up heavily in debt.
The FTC has alleged that the defendants violated the FTC Act by misrepresenting likely earnings and the nature of their services and also violated the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule by misrepresenting material aspects of their investment opportunities.
The corporate defendants are Apply Knowledge LLC, also doing business as Apply Knowledge Institute and Coaching Department; Dahm International LLC; Dominion of Virgo Investments Inc.; eCommerce Support LLC; Essent Media Inc.; eVertex Solutions LLC; EVI LLC, also d/b/a Members Learning Center; Nemrow Consulting LLC; Novus North LLC, also d/b/a Mymentoring, Yes International LLC, and Your Ecommerce Support International LLC; Purple Buffalo LLC, also d/b/a Netmarketing; Supplier Source LLC; 365DailyFit LLC, also d/b/a Net Training; Vensure International LLC; and VI Education LLC.
The individual defendants are David Gregory Bevan, Jessica Bjarnson, Phillip Edward Gannuscia, Chad Huntsman, Scott Nemrow, Jeffrey Nicol, Thomas J. Riskas III, Babata Sonnenberg, and Ken Sonnenberg.
The Commission vote authorizing the staff to file the complaint was 4-0. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. On February 11, 2014, the court issued the temporary restraining order against the defendants.
OVERFISHING AND CORAL KILLING-SPONGES
FROM: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Overfishing of Caribbean coral reefs favors coral-killing sponges
Caribbean-wide study shows protected coral reefs dominated by sponges with chemical defenses
Scientists had already demonstrated that overfishing removes angelfish and parrotfish that feed on sponges growing on coral reefs--sponges that sometimes smother the reefs. That research was conducted off Key Largo, Fla.
Now, new research by the same team of ecologists suggests that removing these predators by overfishing alters sponge communities across the Caribbean.
Results of the research, by Joseph Pawlik and Tse-Lynn Loh of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, are published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
"In fact," says Pawlik, "healthy coral reefs need predatory fish--they keep sponge growth down."
The biologists studied 109 species of sponges at 69 Caribbean sites; the 10 most common species made up 51 percent of the sponge cover on the reefs.
"Sponges are now the main habitat-forming organisms on Caribbean coral reefs," says Pawlik.
Reefs in the Cayman Islands and Bonaire--designated as off-limits to fishing--mostly have slow-growing sponges that manufacture chemicals that taste bad to predatory fish.
Fish numbers are higher near these reefs. Predatory fish there feast on fast-growing, "chemically undefended" sponges. What's left? Only bad-tasting, but slow-growing, sponges.
Overfished reefs, such as those off Jamaica and Martinique, are dominated by fast-growing, better-tasting sponges. "The problem," says Pawlik, "is that there are too few fish around to eat them." So the sponges quickly take over the reefs.
"It's been a challenge for marine ecologists to show how chemical defenses influence the structure of ocean communities," says David Garrison, a program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Ocean Sciences, which funded the research.
"With this clever study, Pawlik and Loh demonstrate that having--or not having--chemical defenses structures sponge communities on Caribbean coral reefs."
The results support the need for marine protected areas to aid in coral reef recovery, believes Pawlik.
"Overfishing of Caribbean coral reefs, particularly by fish trapping, removes sponge predators," write Loh and Pawlik in their paper. "It's likely to result in greater competition for space between faster-growing palatable sponges and endangered reef-building corals."
The researchers also identified "the bad-tasting molecule used by the most common chemically-defended sponge species," says Pawlik. "It's a compound named fistularin 3."
Similar chemical compounds defend some plants from insects or grazers (deer, for example) in onshore ecosystems, "but the complexity of those ecosystems makes it difficult to detect the advantage of chemical defenses across large areas," says Pawlik.
When it comes to sponges, the view of what's happening is more direct, he says. "The possibility of being eaten by a fish may be the only thing a reef sponge has to worry about."
And what happens to reef sponges may be critical to the future of the Caribbean's corals.
-NSF-
Overfishing of Caribbean coral reefs favors coral-killing sponges
Caribbean-wide study shows protected coral reefs dominated by sponges with chemical defenses
Scientists had already demonstrated that overfishing removes angelfish and parrotfish that feed on sponges growing on coral reefs--sponges that sometimes smother the reefs. That research was conducted off Key Largo, Fla.
Now, new research by the same team of ecologists suggests that removing these predators by overfishing alters sponge communities across the Caribbean.
Results of the research, by Joseph Pawlik and Tse-Lynn Loh of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, are published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
"In fact," says Pawlik, "healthy coral reefs need predatory fish--they keep sponge growth down."
The biologists studied 109 species of sponges at 69 Caribbean sites; the 10 most common species made up 51 percent of the sponge cover on the reefs.
"Sponges are now the main habitat-forming organisms on Caribbean coral reefs," says Pawlik.
Reefs in the Cayman Islands and Bonaire--designated as off-limits to fishing--mostly have slow-growing sponges that manufacture chemicals that taste bad to predatory fish.
Fish numbers are higher near these reefs. Predatory fish there feast on fast-growing, "chemically undefended" sponges. What's left? Only bad-tasting, but slow-growing, sponges.
Overfished reefs, such as those off Jamaica and Martinique, are dominated by fast-growing, better-tasting sponges. "The problem," says Pawlik, "is that there are too few fish around to eat them." So the sponges quickly take over the reefs.
"It's been a challenge for marine ecologists to show how chemical defenses influence the structure of ocean communities," says David Garrison, a program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Ocean Sciences, which funded the research.
"With this clever study, Pawlik and Loh demonstrate that having--or not having--chemical defenses structures sponge communities on Caribbean coral reefs."
The results support the need for marine protected areas to aid in coral reef recovery, believes Pawlik.
"Overfishing of Caribbean coral reefs, particularly by fish trapping, removes sponge predators," write Loh and Pawlik in their paper. "It's likely to result in greater competition for space between faster-growing palatable sponges and endangered reef-building corals."
The researchers also identified "the bad-tasting molecule used by the most common chemically-defended sponge species," says Pawlik. "It's a compound named fistularin 3."
Similar chemical compounds defend some plants from insects or grazers (deer, for example) in onshore ecosystems, "but the complexity of those ecosystems makes it difficult to detect the advantage of chemical defenses across large areas," says Pawlik.
When it comes to sponges, the view of what's happening is more direct, he says. "The possibility of being eaten by a fish may be the only thing a reef sponge has to worry about."
And what happens to reef sponges may be critical to the future of the Caribbean's corals.
-NSF-
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
WHITE HOUSE STATEMENT ON UKRAINE
FROM: THE WHITE HOUSE
Statement by the Press Secretary on Ukraine
The United States strongly supports Ukrainian leaders’ ongoing work to form an inclusive, multiparty government to represent all the people of Ukraine as they prepare for May elections, and to restore order, stability, and unity to the country. As the process moves forward, the United States again calls on all parties in Ukraine and in the region to support reconciliation and the country’s return to political and economic health, and will work with the international community in building an economic assistance package based upon Ukraine’s achievements in crafting a unity government. An inclusive, broad-based government committed to reconciliation and to economic reform is the necessary foundation for international assistance. We call on Ukraine’s leaders to do their utmost to protect the security and human rights of all their citizens, including the rights of minorities, to recommit to honor the state’s international obligations, and to avoid divisive policies. We urge outside actors in the region to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, to end provocative rhetoric and actions, to support democratically established transitional governing structures, and to use their influence in support of unity, peace, and an inclusive path forward. We remind all governments of their political commitments to transparency about military activities under the Vienna Document 2011 and other OSCE principles designed to ensure peace and security in the Euro-Atlantic region.
Statement by the Press Secretary on Ukraine
The United States strongly supports Ukrainian leaders’ ongoing work to form an inclusive, multiparty government to represent all the people of Ukraine as they prepare for May elections, and to restore order, stability, and unity to the country. As the process moves forward, the United States again calls on all parties in Ukraine and in the region to support reconciliation and the country’s return to political and economic health, and will work with the international community in building an economic assistance package based upon Ukraine’s achievements in crafting a unity government. An inclusive, broad-based government committed to reconciliation and to economic reform is the necessary foundation for international assistance. We call on Ukraine’s leaders to do their utmost to protect the security and human rights of all their citizens, including the rights of minorities, to recommit to honor the state’s international obligations, and to avoid divisive policies. We urge outside actors in the region to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, to end provocative rhetoric and actions, to support democratically established transitional governing structures, and to use their influence in support of unity, peace, and an inclusive path forward. We remind all governments of their political commitments to transparency about military activities under the Vienna Document 2011 and other OSCE principles designed to ensure peace and security in the Euro-Atlantic region.
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.
U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT CONTRACTS FOR FEBRUARY 26, 2014
FROM: U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
CONTRACTS
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY
BAE Systems, Aerospace & Defense Group, Phoenix, Ariz., has been awarded a maximum $79,972,510 modification (P00102) exercising the second option year on a one-year base contract (SPM1C1-12-D-1027) with three one-year option periods for improved outer tactical vests and individual repair kits. This is a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. Locations of performance are Arizona and Pennsylvania with a Feb. 27, 2015 performance completion date. Using military services are Army and Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 through fiscal 2015 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.
Tennier Industries*, Boca Raton, Fla., has been awarded a maximum $15,709,270 modification (P00008) exercising the first option year on a one-year base contract (SPM1C1-13-D-1028) with two one-year option periods for extreme cold wet weather trousers. This is a firm-fixed-price contract. Locations of performance are Florida, Pennsylvania, and Georgia with a Feb. 28, 2015 performance completion date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 through fiscal 2015 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.
CORRECTION: The contract awarded Feb. 25, 2014 to Zodiac Aerospace, Alpharetta, Ga., should have read the amount as $7,029,909 and the contract number as SPRPA1-14-C-003W
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE EDUCATION ACTIVITY
Lincoln Public Schools was awarded a $12,016,371 firm-fixed price contract modification exercising the second of four option periods of service contract number HEVAS6-12-C-0001. The contract is for comprehensive education program services, grades pre-kindergarten through eight servicing eligible dependent children of Department of Defense personnel residing on Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts. The period of performance for this option is March 1, 2014 through June 30, 2015. Fiscal 2014 operations and maintenancce funding were obligated. The contracting activity is the DoDEA/Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools, Peachtree City, Ga.
Caesar Rodney School District was awarded an $8,191,180 firm-fixed price contract modification exercising the first of four option periods of service contract number HEVAS6-13-C-0001. The contract is for comprehensive education program services, grades kindergarten through 12 servicing eligible dependent children of Department of Defense personnel residing on Dover Air Force Base, Del. The period of performance for this option is March 1, 2014 through June 30, 2015. Fiscal 2014 operations and maintenancce funding were obligated. The contracting activity for this action is DoDEA/Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools, Peachtree City, Ga.
NAVY
Harris Corp., Palm Bay, Fla., is being awarded an $11,164,184 modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00039-13-C-0001) for Commercial Broadband Satellite Program Force Level Variant (FLV) terminal systems. The Commercial Broadband Satellite Program FLV terminal system is used to provide the Navy with terminal-to-shore, space and terrestrial connectivity to significantly increase throughput of data; improve satellite communications reliability; and provide redundancy for military satellite communications. The FLV terminal systems are deployed on CVN, LPD-17 class and T-AHs ships. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of the contract to an estimated $37,497,686. Work will be performed in Palm Bay, Fla., and is expected to be completed by February 2015. If all options are exercised work could continue until February 2018. Fiscal 2012 shipbuilding and conversion, Navy and fiscal 2013 and 2014 other procurement, Navy funds in the amount of $11,164,184 will be obligated at the time of award. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1). The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, San Diego, Calif., is the contracting activity.
Environmental Management Inc.*, Idaho Falls, Idaho, is being awarded a $21,486,839 modification under a previously awarded firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N40085-10-D-0213) to exercise option four for facilities maintenance and heavy equipment repair services at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, Marine Corps Air Station New River, and other outlying areas in eastern North Carolina. The work to be performed provides for all labor, supervision, management, tools, materials, equipment, facilities, transportation, incidental engineering, and other items necessary. The total contract amount after exercise of this option will be $108,929,969. Work will be performed in Jacksonville, N.C., and work is expected to be completed March 2015. Fiscal 2014 operation and maintenance, Marine Corps contract funds in the amount of $18,673,268 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, Va., is the contracting activity.
CORRECTION: The contract awarded Dec. 20, 2013 to J. Walter Thompson, Atlanta, Ga., (M00264-14-D-0002) should have read the amount as $169,999,999. Task order 0001 should have read the amount was not-to-exceed $77,433,499.
AIR FORCE
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Orlando, Fla., has been awarded a $10,185,912 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification (P00017) for an existing contract (FA8682-12-C-0006) for Joint Air-to-Surface Strategic Missile anti-jam GPS receiver - Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module Version 3 (JAGR-S V3) for development of the JAGR-S V3 and options for V3 Qualification Failure Review Board (FRB), V3 Flight Test FRB, and for the Transit Case Assembly. Work will be performed at Orlando, Fla., and Troy, Ala., and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2016. Fiscal 2014 missile procurement funds in the amount of $10,185,912 will be obligated at time of award. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center/EBJK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity.
*Small Business
CONTRACTS
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY
BAE Systems, Aerospace & Defense Group, Phoenix, Ariz., has been awarded a maximum $79,972,510 modification (P00102) exercising the second option year on a one-year base contract (SPM1C1-12-D-1027) with three one-year option periods for improved outer tactical vests and individual repair kits. This is a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. Locations of performance are Arizona and Pennsylvania with a Feb. 27, 2015 performance completion date. Using military services are Army and Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 through fiscal 2015 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.
Tennier Industries*, Boca Raton, Fla., has been awarded a maximum $15,709,270 modification (P00008) exercising the first option year on a one-year base contract (SPM1C1-13-D-1028) with two one-year option periods for extreme cold wet weather trousers. This is a firm-fixed-price contract. Locations of performance are Florida, Pennsylvania, and Georgia with a Feb. 28, 2015 performance completion date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 through fiscal 2015 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.
CORRECTION: The contract awarded Feb. 25, 2014 to Zodiac Aerospace, Alpharetta, Ga., should have read the amount as $7,029,909 and the contract number as SPRPA1-14-C-003W
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE EDUCATION ACTIVITY
Lincoln Public Schools was awarded a $12,016,371 firm-fixed price contract modification exercising the second of four option periods of service contract number HEVAS6-12-C-0001. The contract is for comprehensive education program services, grades pre-kindergarten through eight servicing eligible dependent children of Department of Defense personnel residing on Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts. The period of performance for this option is March 1, 2014 through June 30, 2015. Fiscal 2014 operations and maintenancce funding were obligated. The contracting activity is the DoDEA/Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools, Peachtree City, Ga.
Caesar Rodney School District was awarded an $8,191,180 firm-fixed price contract modification exercising the first of four option periods of service contract number HEVAS6-13-C-0001. The contract is for comprehensive education program services, grades kindergarten through 12 servicing eligible dependent children of Department of Defense personnel residing on Dover Air Force Base, Del. The period of performance for this option is March 1, 2014 through June 30, 2015. Fiscal 2014 operations and maintenancce funding were obligated. The contracting activity for this action is DoDEA/Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools, Peachtree City, Ga.
NAVY
Harris Corp., Palm Bay, Fla., is being awarded an $11,164,184 modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00039-13-C-0001) for Commercial Broadband Satellite Program Force Level Variant (FLV) terminal systems. The Commercial Broadband Satellite Program FLV terminal system is used to provide the Navy with terminal-to-shore, space and terrestrial connectivity to significantly increase throughput of data; improve satellite communications reliability; and provide redundancy for military satellite communications. The FLV terminal systems are deployed on CVN, LPD-17 class and T-AHs ships. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of the contract to an estimated $37,497,686. Work will be performed in Palm Bay, Fla., and is expected to be completed by February 2015. If all options are exercised work could continue until February 2018. Fiscal 2012 shipbuilding and conversion, Navy and fiscal 2013 and 2014 other procurement, Navy funds in the amount of $11,164,184 will be obligated at the time of award. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1). The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, San Diego, Calif., is the contracting activity.
Environmental Management Inc.*, Idaho Falls, Idaho, is being awarded a $21,486,839 modification under a previously awarded firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N40085-10-D-0213) to exercise option four for facilities maintenance and heavy equipment repair services at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, Marine Corps Air Station New River, and other outlying areas in eastern North Carolina. The work to be performed provides for all labor, supervision, management, tools, materials, equipment, facilities, transportation, incidental engineering, and other items necessary. The total contract amount after exercise of this option will be $108,929,969. Work will be performed in Jacksonville, N.C., and work is expected to be completed March 2015. Fiscal 2014 operation and maintenance, Marine Corps contract funds in the amount of $18,673,268 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, Va., is the contracting activity.
CORRECTION: The contract awarded Dec. 20, 2013 to J. Walter Thompson, Atlanta, Ga., (M00264-14-D-0002) should have read the amount as $169,999,999. Task order 0001 should have read the amount was not-to-exceed $77,433,499.
AIR FORCE
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Orlando, Fla., has been awarded a $10,185,912 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification (P00017) for an existing contract (FA8682-12-C-0006) for Joint Air-to-Surface Strategic Missile anti-jam GPS receiver - Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module Version 3 (JAGR-S V3) for development of the JAGR-S V3 and options for V3 Qualification Failure Review Board (FRB), V3 Flight Test FRB, and for the Transit Case Assembly. Work will be performed at Orlando, Fla., and Troy, Ala., and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2016. Fiscal 2014 missile procurement funds in the amount of $10,185,912 will be obligated at time of award. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center/EBJK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity.
*Small Business
HHS ANNOUNCES RECORD $19.5 BILLION RECOVERED FROM HEALTH CARE FRAUD CASES
FROM: DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
February 26, 2014
Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services announce record-breaking recoveries resulting from joint efforts to combat health care fraud
Government teams recovered $4.3 billion in FY 2013 and $19.2 billion over the last five years
Attorney General Eric Holder and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today released the annual Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control (HCFAC) Program report showing that for every dollar spent on health care-related fraud and abuse investigations through this and other programs in the last three years, the government recovered $8.10. This is the highest three-year average return on investment in the 17-year history of the HCFAC Program.
The government’s health care fraud prevention and enforcement efforts recovered a record-breaking $4.3 billion in taxpayer dollars in Fiscal Year (FY) 2013, up from $4.2 billion in FY 2012, from individuals and companies who attempted to defraud federal health programs serving seniors or who sought payments from taxpayers to which they were not entitled. Over the last five years, the administration’s enforcement efforts have recovered $19.2 billion, up from $9.4 billion over the prior five-year period. Since the inception of the program in1997, the HCFAC Program has returned more than $25.9 billion to the Medicare Trust Funds and treasury.
These recoveries, released today in the annual HCFAC Program report, demonstrate President Obama’s commitment to making the elimination of fraud, waste and abuse, particularly in health care, a top priority for the administration. This is the fifth consecutive year that the program has increased recoveries over the past year, climbing from $2 billion in FY 2008 to over $4 billion every year since FY 2011.
The success of this joint Department of Justice and HHS effort was made possible in part by the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), created in 2009 to prevent fraud, waste and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid and to crack down on individuals and entities that are abusing the system and costing American taxpayers billions of dollars.
“With these extraordinary recoveries, and the record-high rate of return on investment we’ve achieved on our comprehensive health care fraud enforcement efforts, we’re sending a strong message to those who would take advantage of their fellow citizens, target vulnerable populations, and commit fraud on federal health care programs,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “Thanks to initiatives like HEAT, our work to combat fraud has never been more cooperative or more effective. And our unprecedented commitment to holding criminals accountable, and securing remarkable results for American taxpayers, is paying dividends.”
“These impressive recoveries for the American taxpayer are just one aspect of the comprehensive anti-fraud strategy we have implemented since the passage of the Affordable Care Act,” said HHS Secretary Sebelius. “We’ve cracked down on tens of thousands health care providers suspected of Medicare fraud. New enrollment screening techniques are proving effective in preventing high risk providers from getting into the system, and the new computer analytics system that detects and stops fraudulent billing before money ever goes out the door is accomplishing positive results – all of which are adding to savings for the Medicare Trust Fund.”
The new authorities under the Affordable Care Act granted to HHS and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) were instrumental in clamping down on fraudulent activity in health care. In FY 2013, CMS announced the first use of its temporary moratoria authority granted by the Affordable Care Act. The action stopped enrollment of new home health or ambulance enrollments in three fraud hot spots around the country, allowing CMS and its law enforcement partners to remove bad actors from the program while blocking provider entry or re-entry into these already over-supplied markets.
The Justice Department and HHS have improved their coordination through HEAT and are currently operating Medicare Fraud Strike Force teams in nine areas across the country. The strike force teams use advanced data analysis techniques to identify high-billing levels in health care fraud hot spots so that interagency teams can target emerging or migrating schemes as well as chronic fraud by criminals masquerading as health care providers or suppliers. The Justice Department’s enforcement of the civil False Claims Act and the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act has produced similar record-breaking results. These combined efforts coordinated under HEAT have expanded local partnerships and helped educate Medicare beneficiaries about how to protect themselves against fraud.
In Fiscal Year 2013, the strike force secured records in the number of cases filed (137), individuals charged (345), guilty pleas secured (234) and jury trial convictions (46). Beyond these remarkable results, the defendants who were charged and sentenced are facing significant time in prison – an average of 52 months in prison for those sentenced in FY 2013, and an average of 47 months in prison for those sentenced since 2007.
In FY 2013, the Justice Department opened 1,013 new criminal health care fraud investigations involving 1,910 potential defendants, and a total of 718 defendants were convicted of health care fraud-related crimes during the year. The department also opened 1,083 new civil health care fraud investigations.
The strike force coordinated a takedown in May 2013 that resulted in charges by eight strike force cities against 89 individuals, including doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes involving approximately $223 million in false billings. As a part of the May 2013 takedown, HHS also suspended or took other administrative action against 18 providers using authority under the health care law to suspend payments until an investigation is complete.
In FY 2013, the strike force secured records in the number of cases filed (137), individuals charged (345), guilty pleas secured (234) and jury trial convictions (48). Beyond these remarkable results, the defendants who were charged and sentenced are facing significant time in prison – an average of 52 months in prison for those sentenced in FY 2013, and an average of 47 months in prison for those sentenced since 2007.
In March 2011, CMS began an ambitious project to revalidate all 1.5 million Medicare enrolled providers and suppliers under the Affordable Care Act screening requirements. As of September 2013, more than 535,000 providers were subject to the new screening requirements and over 225,000 lost the ability to bill Medicare due to the Affordable Care Act requirements and other proactive initiatives. Since the Affordable Care Act, CMS has also revoked 14,663 providers and suppliers’ ability to bill the Medicare program. These providers were removed from the program because they had felony convictions, were not operational at the address CMS had on file, or were not in compliance with CMS rules.
HHS and the Justice Department are leading historic efforts with the private sector to bring innovation to the fight against health care fraud. In addition to real-time data and information exchanges with the private sector, CMS’ Program Integrity Command Center worked with the HHS Office of the Inspector General and the FBI to conduct 93 missions to detect, investigate, and reduce improper payments in FY 2013.
From May 2013 through August 2013, CMS led an outreach and education campaign targeted to specific communities where Medicare fraud is more prevalent. This multimedia campaign included national television, radio, and print outreach and resulted in an increased awareness of how to detect and report Medicare fraud.
February 26, 2014
Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services announce record-breaking recoveries resulting from joint efforts to combat health care fraud
Government teams recovered $4.3 billion in FY 2013 and $19.2 billion over the last five years
Attorney General Eric Holder and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today released the annual Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control (HCFAC) Program report showing that for every dollar spent on health care-related fraud and abuse investigations through this and other programs in the last three years, the government recovered $8.10. This is the highest three-year average return on investment in the 17-year history of the HCFAC Program.
The government’s health care fraud prevention and enforcement efforts recovered a record-breaking $4.3 billion in taxpayer dollars in Fiscal Year (FY) 2013, up from $4.2 billion in FY 2012, from individuals and companies who attempted to defraud federal health programs serving seniors or who sought payments from taxpayers to which they were not entitled. Over the last five years, the administration’s enforcement efforts have recovered $19.2 billion, up from $9.4 billion over the prior five-year period. Since the inception of the program in1997, the HCFAC Program has returned more than $25.9 billion to the Medicare Trust Funds and treasury.
These recoveries, released today in the annual HCFAC Program report, demonstrate President Obama’s commitment to making the elimination of fraud, waste and abuse, particularly in health care, a top priority for the administration. This is the fifth consecutive year that the program has increased recoveries over the past year, climbing from $2 billion in FY 2008 to over $4 billion every year since FY 2011.
The success of this joint Department of Justice and HHS effort was made possible in part by the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), created in 2009 to prevent fraud, waste and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid and to crack down on individuals and entities that are abusing the system and costing American taxpayers billions of dollars.
“With these extraordinary recoveries, and the record-high rate of return on investment we’ve achieved on our comprehensive health care fraud enforcement efforts, we’re sending a strong message to those who would take advantage of their fellow citizens, target vulnerable populations, and commit fraud on federal health care programs,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “Thanks to initiatives like HEAT, our work to combat fraud has never been more cooperative or more effective. And our unprecedented commitment to holding criminals accountable, and securing remarkable results for American taxpayers, is paying dividends.”
“These impressive recoveries for the American taxpayer are just one aspect of the comprehensive anti-fraud strategy we have implemented since the passage of the Affordable Care Act,” said HHS Secretary Sebelius. “We’ve cracked down on tens of thousands health care providers suspected of Medicare fraud. New enrollment screening techniques are proving effective in preventing high risk providers from getting into the system, and the new computer analytics system that detects and stops fraudulent billing before money ever goes out the door is accomplishing positive results – all of which are adding to savings for the Medicare Trust Fund.”
The new authorities under the Affordable Care Act granted to HHS and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) were instrumental in clamping down on fraudulent activity in health care. In FY 2013, CMS announced the first use of its temporary moratoria authority granted by the Affordable Care Act. The action stopped enrollment of new home health or ambulance enrollments in three fraud hot spots around the country, allowing CMS and its law enforcement partners to remove bad actors from the program while blocking provider entry or re-entry into these already over-supplied markets.
The Justice Department and HHS have improved their coordination through HEAT and are currently operating Medicare Fraud Strike Force teams in nine areas across the country. The strike force teams use advanced data analysis techniques to identify high-billing levels in health care fraud hot spots so that interagency teams can target emerging or migrating schemes as well as chronic fraud by criminals masquerading as health care providers or suppliers. The Justice Department’s enforcement of the civil False Claims Act and the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act has produced similar record-breaking results. These combined efforts coordinated under HEAT have expanded local partnerships and helped educate Medicare beneficiaries about how to protect themselves against fraud.
In Fiscal Year 2013, the strike force secured records in the number of cases filed (137), individuals charged (345), guilty pleas secured (234) and jury trial convictions (46). Beyond these remarkable results, the defendants who were charged and sentenced are facing significant time in prison – an average of 52 months in prison for those sentenced in FY 2013, and an average of 47 months in prison for those sentenced since 2007.
In FY 2013, the Justice Department opened 1,013 new criminal health care fraud investigations involving 1,910 potential defendants, and a total of 718 defendants were convicted of health care fraud-related crimes during the year. The department also opened 1,083 new civil health care fraud investigations.
The strike force coordinated a takedown in May 2013 that resulted in charges by eight strike force cities against 89 individuals, including doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes involving approximately $223 million in false billings. As a part of the May 2013 takedown, HHS also suspended or took other administrative action against 18 providers using authority under the health care law to suspend payments until an investigation is complete.
In FY 2013, the strike force secured records in the number of cases filed (137), individuals charged (345), guilty pleas secured (234) and jury trial convictions (48). Beyond these remarkable results, the defendants who were charged and sentenced are facing significant time in prison – an average of 52 months in prison for those sentenced in FY 2013, and an average of 47 months in prison for those sentenced since 2007.
In March 2011, CMS began an ambitious project to revalidate all 1.5 million Medicare enrolled providers and suppliers under the Affordable Care Act screening requirements. As of September 2013, more than 535,000 providers were subject to the new screening requirements and over 225,000 lost the ability to bill Medicare due to the Affordable Care Act requirements and other proactive initiatives. Since the Affordable Care Act, CMS has also revoked 14,663 providers and suppliers’ ability to bill the Medicare program. These providers were removed from the program because they had felony convictions, were not operational at the address CMS had on file, or were not in compliance with CMS rules.
HHS and the Justice Department are leading historic efforts with the private sector to bring innovation to the fight against health care fraud. In addition to real-time data and information exchanges with the private sector, CMS’ Program Integrity Command Center worked with the HHS Office of the Inspector General and the FBI to conduct 93 missions to detect, investigate, and reduce improper payments in FY 2013.
From May 2013 through August 2013, CMS led an outreach and education campaign targeted to specific communities where Medicare fraud is more prevalent. This multimedia campaign included national television, radio, and print outreach and resulted in an increased awareness of how to detect and report Medicare fraud.
U.S.-GEORGIA STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP COMMISSION PLENARY SESSION REMARKS
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks at the U.S.-Georgia Strategic Partnership Commission Plenary Session
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili
Ben Franklin Room
Washington, DC
February 26, 2014
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, good morning, everybody. It’s my great pleasure and privilege to welcome Prime Minister Garibashvili from Georgia and our esteemed Georgian colleagues. Thank you all for being here with us for this dialogue that will take place today, and we are very happy to participate in the Fourth Strategic Partnership Commission Plenary Session. And we’ve just had a very good bilateral meeting in which we’ve discussed a host of issues ranging from the economic challenges to Georgia, the external challenges to Georgia, and we ranged as far as, obviously, the Association Agreement with Europe and the challenge of Ukraine, and other issues in the region.
We were going to have some very traditional Georgian dancers come in here to celebrate your arrival, but regrettably the swords and daggers wouldn’t get by the Diplomatic Security, so unable to do that. But we are actually very, very pleased to continue this dialogue. I’ve been to Georgia prior to becoming Secretary of State; I look forward to visiting as Secretary of State. And we’ve had a very strong and important relationship focused on many, many issues, but significant – democracy and rule of law and the transition in Georgia to your recent election. And we’re very pleased now to be able to meet here in Washington and continue a conversation which has been ongoing for some period of time.
It’s fitting that we meet together here in the Ben Franklin Room. That’s Ben Franklin up behind us here. He was our first diplomat, the first ambassador to France. He’s the father of the Foreign Service and a really unrivaled innovator. I think you know that. And the reason why he remains one of the most beloved Americans is because of his frontier spirit and his openness and his ingenuity. Frankly, we see that same kind of open spirit and innovation and frontier spirit in what you are engaged in right now in Georgia. And this year we celebrate 12 years of a strong and ever-growing-stronger relationship between Georgia and the United States. We made a lot of progress, but now we need to build on it, and that’s what we talked about a few minutes ago and will continue in the discussion today.
First, I want to congratulate you on Georgia’s free and fair presidential election in 2013. The transparency and the openness of the process were significant, and we applaud it. You have a chance to build on these achievements by demonstrating now a level playing field during your upcoming local elections. And I think everybody knows that democracies benefit from strong political opposition, so we urge all sides to work constructively to advance the dialogue and debate within Georgia, and that’s just going to make your nation stronger. We’re confident of that.
We also want to reiterate U.S. support for Georgia’s participation in the EU’s Eastern Partnership, and we encourage Georgia to sign an Association Agreement with the EU later this year. Today, I am announcing – and let me just say about that that as we do that, as I have said about Ukraine yesterday with Secretary William Hague, we don’t make that urging for the signing of an association as some sort of zero-sum game between the East and West or between us or any other party. We simply want people to be able to exercise their freedom of choice and be able to maximize their economic opportunities. And that doesn’t mean that it can’t also involve engagement with others, as we would hope it would, because we are involved in a global trading regime and a global society, and increasingly is impossible for people to operate in exclusionary ways.
Today, I am announcing additional assistance by the United States to help support Georgia’s European and Euro-Atlantic vision; specifically, to help Georgia achieve visa-free travel with the EU and to mitigate the hardships caused by borderization along the occupied territories. We also commend Georgia’s progress on economic reform, and we urge the government to quickly implement its plans to spur trade and investment, including with the United States. Strict adherence to rule of law and a steadfast commitment to the process will encourage the confidence of investors and it will serve as a catalyst for integration with Europe and enhance Georgia’s international reputation. We urge all Georgians to unite in looking forward and to leave the past in the past.
The United States remains committed to strengthening our trade and investment with Georgia – particularly important as we pursue trade negotiations with the EU. And we also support your efforts to become a regional trade hub, which will require continued infrastructure improvements and sustained regional cooperation.
Our enhanced defense cooperation is ongoing, and we commend Georgia’s contribution as the largest non-NATO troop contributor in Afghanistan, serving alongside United States Marines in Helmand Province and standing ready to contribute to the alliance’s post-2014 mission. We honor the extraordinary sacrifices of Georgian soldiers and their families, and we will continue to work with you to develop the capacity to care and support for your wounded.
We stand by the Bucharest decision and all subsequent decisions that Georgia will become a member of NATO. The United States will work to make sure that Georgia’s progress is acknowledged by all members of this year’s NATO Summit.
We support your reconciliation efforts in an effort to achieve a peaceful and a just resolution to the conflicts of Georgia. The United States remains steadfast in our support for Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. We continue to object to Russia’s occupation, militarization, and borderization of Georgian territory, and we call on Russia to fulfill its obligations under the 2008 ceasefire agreement, including the withdrawal of its forces and free access for humanitarian assistance.
Lastly and most importantly, our relationship is founded on a close connection between our people. Building on your health minister’s participation in the recent Global Health Security Initiative, we look forward to sharing medical best practices in order to promote public health. The United States supports efforts to help preserve Georgia’s rich cultural heritage though the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation and the International Visitor Leadership Program.
Given Georgia’s many achievements in just over two decades and our close and growing cooperation in a large number of areas, I am confident that our relationship will not just endure, but it’s going to grow. It’s going to flourish in the years to come. And as we approach the challenges ahead together, we can take confidence in what we have already achieved together. Our strategic partnership is stronger than ever, thanks in no small part to the work that we have done as part of this commission and the work that we will continue in the discussion today.
So Mr. Prime Minister, it’s my great privilege to welcome you here. Thank you for being with us. We look forward to working with you as you meet the many challenges that you face, and look forward to growing this partnership. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER GARIBASHVILI: Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary. Thank you very much, and I’d like to thank you for your personal engagement and for your personal support to Georgia.
Your Excellency, ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to – and privilege to address the distinguished audience on such an important occasion at the Fourth U.S.-Georgia Strategic Charter Omnibus Plenary Session in the margins of my first visit to United States in this capacity of prime minister of Georgia. I am very honored to underline that the people and the Government of Georgia are in perfect unison in considering the United States of America as our foremost partner.
From the very outset, let me express heartfelt gratitude for your unwavering commitment to the sovereignty, territorial integrity, security, democratic consolidation in NATO and EU membership aspirations of my country. And your support provides a powerful stimulus to our resolve to proceed in the often uphill but honorable task of strengthening democracy, especially in our challenging region, and especially when more than 20 percent of Georgia territory remains under Russian occupation.
Likewise, we are proud to say that Georgia has always stood adamantly next to the United States in every single situation when a strategic decision was required to be a U.S. ally, and we are proud of those decisions. Let me reiterate that we attach critical importance to our strategic partnership with the United States, with the charter as the main framework of our comprehensive, cross-dimensional agenda of cooperation. The virtually all-encompassing nature of all the four working groups – democracy and governance, security and defense, economy and energy, and trade and people-to-people and cultural exchanges – duly reflect up in the range of our cooperative endeavors. Georgia-U.S. relations are being developed in a gradual and consistent manner in these four major areas.
But let me step back to say that we have already achieved substantial progress in all spheres of our bilateral cooperation. While first of all Georgia and the United States enjoy successful cooperation in security and defense, we are actually making progress in fulfilling President Barack Obama’s pledge to bolster our cooperation aimed at enhancing Georgia’s defense capabilities. It is also important that we are consistently broadening scopes of our enhanced defense cooperation. The United States support enables us to significantly progress in defense transformation process. In fact, NATO has been vocal in duly crediting Georgia for successful defense and security reforms, and as a reliable ally and security provider, we remain firm on our full-fledged commitment to the NATO-led ISAF mission in Afghanistan, much like the post-ISAF mission. We will commence our participation in the NATO Response Force in 2015 and in 2016 with the assistance of our American friends.
Herewith, I would like to thank the United States for outstanding support provided to our wounded warriors. This is extremely important for us. As you know, Washington’s political and financial engagement was always critical. We thankfully recall that United States was the first among our close friends to donate one billion U.S. dollars in aid to the people of Georgia after the August 2008 war. Furthermore, we have received a large chunk of investment of $140 million through the second MCC compact, which will be effectively spent on improving the quality of education in science, technology, engineering, and math fields. The United States overall strong support and assistance on these and other numerous occasions continued unabated even during the financial challenges. And for the – for that, we sincerely thank our American friends.
We believe that Georgia’s continued close consultations with United States on the High Level Trade and Investment Dialogue are essential for bolstering bilateral trade and investment, including the possibility of U.S.-Georgia free trade agreement, and for that end, we expect to carry out – carry on our negotiations on the high level. And we will spare no effort to make substantial advancement.
Also, we hope that our American colleagues will be as swift and highly responsive to these as ever. For the moment, we will be consistent in utilizing Georgia’s outstanding potential and realistic aspiration for growth in its transformation into original business, trade, and logistic hub. As you know, the country is blessed with exceptionally advantageous location and potential to turning to the gateway linking Europe with lucrative Chinese markets through the Caspian Sea in the Central Asia regions. And we are devoted to this idea and plan to underpin these ambitions by continuous improvement to our transportation infrastructure and elimination of regulatory bottlenecks to trade via the region.
Let me say that U.S. aid has always played an important role in various directions, and we welcome their latest decision to select Georgia among those 20 countries’ participation in these – in the Science, Technology, Innovation, and Partnership program. And undoubtedly, this is going to further enhance my country’s overall development in the vital areas.
Let me say this offer is well noted and very much appreciated. Our people-to-people relations have already brought about numerous tangible outcomes, one of them being the U.S. decision to further extend the visa validity terms for various categories of Georgian citizens. Moreover, many more young people now intensively benefit from the educational exchange programs, and we’re extremely grateful for that. And while looking ahead, we thank our American partners for these achievements and continue to explore other potential areas of cooperation for further success.
And to conclude, Mr. Secretary, I would like to express my firm confidence that our cooperation will progress further. In addition to many a common interest between our states, we are united first and foremost by the shared values between the two nations. And I do believe that our existing and prospective avenues of partnership are destined to succeed.
Once again, thank you very much.
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, thank you very, very much, Mr. Prime Minister. If you’d just take one minute.
I appreciate – I think our comments mutually dovetail, which is no surprise, and I think we’re on the same track. So hopefully, this economic vision and the security vision that you express is something that we can flesh out a little more in the course of the dialogue that will continue this morning.
Let me just say that I think in my opening comments, I shortchanged our relationship by ten years. I think it’s 22 years, not 12 years, which is more a reflection on my eyesight than on anything else. (Laughter.) But I appreciate --
PRIME MINISTER GARIBASHVILI: Thank you.
SECRETARY KERRY: -- very, very much your being here. I do look forward to getting there. I think we’re trying to figure out some time in the spring, and I think between now and then, we have some work to do and I look forward to doing that with you. So thank you for --
PRIME MINISTER GARIBASHVILI: No, thank you.
SECRETARY KERRY: -- taking the time to be with us today, appreciate it.
I think what we’re going to do now is ask the press if they would take their leave so that we can have the discussion that is going to follow from this, and we thank you all for being here with us.
Remarks at the U.S.-Georgia Strategic Partnership Commission Plenary Session
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili
Ben Franklin Room
Washington, DC
February 26, 2014
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, good morning, everybody. It’s my great pleasure and privilege to welcome Prime Minister Garibashvili from Georgia and our esteemed Georgian colleagues. Thank you all for being here with us for this dialogue that will take place today, and we are very happy to participate in the Fourth Strategic Partnership Commission Plenary Session. And we’ve just had a very good bilateral meeting in which we’ve discussed a host of issues ranging from the economic challenges to Georgia, the external challenges to Georgia, and we ranged as far as, obviously, the Association Agreement with Europe and the challenge of Ukraine, and other issues in the region.
We were going to have some very traditional Georgian dancers come in here to celebrate your arrival, but regrettably the swords and daggers wouldn’t get by the Diplomatic Security, so unable to do that. But we are actually very, very pleased to continue this dialogue. I’ve been to Georgia prior to becoming Secretary of State; I look forward to visiting as Secretary of State. And we’ve had a very strong and important relationship focused on many, many issues, but significant – democracy and rule of law and the transition in Georgia to your recent election. And we’re very pleased now to be able to meet here in Washington and continue a conversation which has been ongoing for some period of time.
It’s fitting that we meet together here in the Ben Franklin Room. That’s Ben Franklin up behind us here. He was our first diplomat, the first ambassador to France. He’s the father of the Foreign Service and a really unrivaled innovator. I think you know that. And the reason why he remains one of the most beloved Americans is because of his frontier spirit and his openness and his ingenuity. Frankly, we see that same kind of open spirit and innovation and frontier spirit in what you are engaged in right now in Georgia. And this year we celebrate 12 years of a strong and ever-growing-stronger relationship between Georgia and the United States. We made a lot of progress, but now we need to build on it, and that’s what we talked about a few minutes ago and will continue in the discussion today.
First, I want to congratulate you on Georgia’s free and fair presidential election in 2013. The transparency and the openness of the process were significant, and we applaud it. You have a chance to build on these achievements by demonstrating now a level playing field during your upcoming local elections. And I think everybody knows that democracies benefit from strong political opposition, so we urge all sides to work constructively to advance the dialogue and debate within Georgia, and that’s just going to make your nation stronger. We’re confident of that.
We also want to reiterate U.S. support for Georgia’s participation in the EU’s Eastern Partnership, and we encourage Georgia to sign an Association Agreement with the EU later this year. Today, I am announcing – and let me just say about that that as we do that, as I have said about Ukraine yesterday with Secretary William Hague, we don’t make that urging for the signing of an association as some sort of zero-sum game between the East and West or between us or any other party. We simply want people to be able to exercise their freedom of choice and be able to maximize their economic opportunities. And that doesn’t mean that it can’t also involve engagement with others, as we would hope it would, because we are involved in a global trading regime and a global society, and increasingly is impossible for people to operate in exclusionary ways.
Today, I am announcing additional assistance by the United States to help support Georgia’s European and Euro-Atlantic vision; specifically, to help Georgia achieve visa-free travel with the EU and to mitigate the hardships caused by borderization along the occupied territories. We also commend Georgia’s progress on economic reform, and we urge the government to quickly implement its plans to spur trade and investment, including with the United States. Strict adherence to rule of law and a steadfast commitment to the process will encourage the confidence of investors and it will serve as a catalyst for integration with Europe and enhance Georgia’s international reputation. We urge all Georgians to unite in looking forward and to leave the past in the past.
The United States remains committed to strengthening our trade and investment with Georgia – particularly important as we pursue trade negotiations with the EU. And we also support your efforts to become a regional trade hub, which will require continued infrastructure improvements and sustained regional cooperation.
Our enhanced defense cooperation is ongoing, and we commend Georgia’s contribution as the largest non-NATO troop contributor in Afghanistan, serving alongside United States Marines in Helmand Province and standing ready to contribute to the alliance’s post-2014 mission. We honor the extraordinary sacrifices of Georgian soldiers and their families, and we will continue to work with you to develop the capacity to care and support for your wounded.
We stand by the Bucharest decision and all subsequent decisions that Georgia will become a member of NATO. The United States will work to make sure that Georgia’s progress is acknowledged by all members of this year’s NATO Summit.
We support your reconciliation efforts in an effort to achieve a peaceful and a just resolution to the conflicts of Georgia. The United States remains steadfast in our support for Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. We continue to object to Russia’s occupation, militarization, and borderization of Georgian territory, and we call on Russia to fulfill its obligations under the 2008 ceasefire agreement, including the withdrawal of its forces and free access for humanitarian assistance.
Lastly and most importantly, our relationship is founded on a close connection between our people. Building on your health minister’s participation in the recent Global Health Security Initiative, we look forward to sharing medical best practices in order to promote public health. The United States supports efforts to help preserve Georgia’s rich cultural heritage though the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation and the International Visitor Leadership Program.
Given Georgia’s many achievements in just over two decades and our close and growing cooperation in a large number of areas, I am confident that our relationship will not just endure, but it’s going to grow. It’s going to flourish in the years to come. And as we approach the challenges ahead together, we can take confidence in what we have already achieved together. Our strategic partnership is stronger than ever, thanks in no small part to the work that we have done as part of this commission and the work that we will continue in the discussion today.
So Mr. Prime Minister, it’s my great privilege to welcome you here. Thank you for being with us. We look forward to working with you as you meet the many challenges that you face, and look forward to growing this partnership. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER GARIBASHVILI: Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary. Thank you very much, and I’d like to thank you for your personal engagement and for your personal support to Georgia.
Your Excellency, ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to – and privilege to address the distinguished audience on such an important occasion at the Fourth U.S.-Georgia Strategic Charter Omnibus Plenary Session in the margins of my first visit to United States in this capacity of prime minister of Georgia. I am very honored to underline that the people and the Government of Georgia are in perfect unison in considering the United States of America as our foremost partner.
From the very outset, let me express heartfelt gratitude for your unwavering commitment to the sovereignty, territorial integrity, security, democratic consolidation in NATO and EU membership aspirations of my country. And your support provides a powerful stimulus to our resolve to proceed in the often uphill but honorable task of strengthening democracy, especially in our challenging region, and especially when more than 20 percent of Georgia territory remains under Russian occupation.
Likewise, we are proud to say that Georgia has always stood adamantly next to the United States in every single situation when a strategic decision was required to be a U.S. ally, and we are proud of those decisions. Let me reiterate that we attach critical importance to our strategic partnership with the United States, with the charter as the main framework of our comprehensive, cross-dimensional agenda of cooperation. The virtually all-encompassing nature of all the four working groups – democracy and governance, security and defense, economy and energy, and trade and people-to-people and cultural exchanges – duly reflect up in the range of our cooperative endeavors. Georgia-U.S. relations are being developed in a gradual and consistent manner in these four major areas.
But let me step back to say that we have already achieved substantial progress in all spheres of our bilateral cooperation. While first of all Georgia and the United States enjoy successful cooperation in security and defense, we are actually making progress in fulfilling President Barack Obama’s pledge to bolster our cooperation aimed at enhancing Georgia’s defense capabilities. It is also important that we are consistently broadening scopes of our enhanced defense cooperation. The United States support enables us to significantly progress in defense transformation process. In fact, NATO has been vocal in duly crediting Georgia for successful defense and security reforms, and as a reliable ally and security provider, we remain firm on our full-fledged commitment to the NATO-led ISAF mission in Afghanistan, much like the post-ISAF mission. We will commence our participation in the NATO Response Force in 2015 and in 2016 with the assistance of our American friends.
Herewith, I would like to thank the United States for outstanding support provided to our wounded warriors. This is extremely important for us. As you know, Washington’s political and financial engagement was always critical. We thankfully recall that United States was the first among our close friends to donate one billion U.S. dollars in aid to the people of Georgia after the August 2008 war. Furthermore, we have received a large chunk of investment of $140 million through the second MCC compact, which will be effectively spent on improving the quality of education in science, technology, engineering, and math fields. The United States overall strong support and assistance on these and other numerous occasions continued unabated even during the financial challenges. And for the – for that, we sincerely thank our American friends.
We believe that Georgia’s continued close consultations with United States on the High Level Trade and Investment Dialogue are essential for bolstering bilateral trade and investment, including the possibility of U.S.-Georgia free trade agreement, and for that end, we expect to carry out – carry on our negotiations on the high level. And we will spare no effort to make substantial advancement.
Also, we hope that our American colleagues will be as swift and highly responsive to these as ever. For the moment, we will be consistent in utilizing Georgia’s outstanding potential and realistic aspiration for growth in its transformation into original business, trade, and logistic hub. As you know, the country is blessed with exceptionally advantageous location and potential to turning to the gateway linking Europe with lucrative Chinese markets through the Caspian Sea in the Central Asia regions. And we are devoted to this idea and plan to underpin these ambitions by continuous improvement to our transportation infrastructure and elimination of regulatory bottlenecks to trade via the region.
Let me say that U.S. aid has always played an important role in various directions, and we welcome their latest decision to select Georgia among those 20 countries’ participation in these – in the Science, Technology, Innovation, and Partnership program. And undoubtedly, this is going to further enhance my country’s overall development in the vital areas.
Let me say this offer is well noted and very much appreciated. Our people-to-people relations have already brought about numerous tangible outcomes, one of them being the U.S. decision to further extend the visa validity terms for various categories of Georgian citizens. Moreover, many more young people now intensively benefit from the educational exchange programs, and we’re extremely grateful for that. And while looking ahead, we thank our American partners for these achievements and continue to explore other potential areas of cooperation for further success.
And to conclude, Mr. Secretary, I would like to express my firm confidence that our cooperation will progress further. In addition to many a common interest between our states, we are united first and foremost by the shared values between the two nations. And I do believe that our existing and prospective avenues of partnership are destined to succeed.
Once again, thank you very much.
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, thank you very, very much, Mr. Prime Minister. If you’d just take one minute.
I appreciate – I think our comments mutually dovetail, which is no surprise, and I think we’re on the same track. So hopefully, this economic vision and the security vision that you express is something that we can flesh out a little more in the course of the dialogue that will continue this morning.
Let me just say that I think in my opening comments, I shortchanged our relationship by ten years. I think it’s 22 years, not 12 years, which is more a reflection on my eyesight than on anything else. (Laughter.) But I appreciate --
PRIME MINISTER GARIBASHVILI: Thank you.
SECRETARY KERRY: -- very, very much your being here. I do look forward to getting there. I think we’re trying to figure out some time in the spring, and I think between now and then, we have some work to do and I look forward to doing that with you. So thank you for --
PRIME MINISTER GARIBASHVILI: No, thank you.
SECRETARY KERRY: -- taking the time to be with us today, appreciate it.
I think what we’re going to do now is ask the press if they would take their leave so that we can have the discussion that is going to follow from this, and we thank you all for being here with us.
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