Inner City Press
Global Inner Cities Report - February 28, 2006
Empty Words on Money Laundering and Narcotics, from the UN, Georgia and
Equatorial Guinea
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee, Inner City Press U.N. Correspondent
UNITED NATIONS, Feb.
28 – The International Narcotics Control Board released its 2005 annual report
on Tuesday, during an embargoed briefing by retired U.S. diplomat and Board
member Melvyn Levitsky. Asked by Inner City Press if the Board has taken a
position on statements about coca by Bolivia’s new president Evo Morales, Mr.
Levitsky responded that while the report ends with November 2005, Bolivia is a
signatory to treaties that cover coca, and that the twenty five year opt-out for
medical uses is not applicable. Mr. Levitsky confirmed that opium production in
Afghanistan has increased since 2001, and ascribed this to areas of the country
being outside of government control. The question arose, if the military
firepower currently supporting the government of Hamid Karzai can’t or won’t
turn the tide on opium production, it will be difficult to see anti-drug goals
of the Board realized.
Earlier
in the briefing Mr. Levitsky had said that Afghan production is moving through
Iran and “Russia;” asked to clarify, he said trafficking would have to move
through the “former Soviet republics” of Central Asia in order to get to Russia.
The report, in its 552nd paragraph on page 79, states
that “Turkmenistan, whose extensive borders with Afghanistan, the Islamic
Republic of Iran, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are inadequately controlled,
continues to be used as a transit country by trackers of Afghan opiates.”
Also
reported, but not connected, is the Board’s note a page earlier that “current
legislation in Armenia, Georgia and Turkmenistan is insufficient to deal with
the problem of money laundering; the Board urges the Governments of those
countries to remedy the situation without delay.”
Interviewed
after the briefing by Inner City Press, Mr. Levitsky said that money laundering
is not in the mandate of the International Narcotics Control Board. “We don’t
have a section that monitors flows,” he said. Asked if the Board provides
narcotic-specific information to the Financial Action Task Force, Mr.Levitsky
shook his head and mentioned changes in Swiss and even Russian banking secrecy
laws, but nothing about Turkmenistan, much less Georgia.
Georgia’s
permanent representative to the UN, Revaz Adamia, confirmed in a Feb. 1 press
briefing quotes by National Bank of Georgia president Roman Gotsiridze regarding
Russian banks money laundering in Abkhazia. Mr. Adamia spoke of money
laundering for “terrorism,” and said that he would more get more specifics from
the National Bank of Georgia. While such information has yet to be provided, in
Tbilisi Mr. Gotsiridze has said more, being quoted in a Rustavi-2 TV report on
February 23 that
“The National Bank has asked the FATF to
examine illegal activities of Russian commercial banks in Abkhazia. Here is a
list of the Russian commercial banks that have been illegally operating in
Abkhazia and laundering massive amounts of black money. It is not ruled out that
there may be even more serious violations, for example financing of terrorism,
going on in this uncontrolled area. Banks operating in Abkhazia are illegal and
unlicensed banking establishments. The Russian legislation itself prohibits any
economic relations with unlicensed organizations.”
Inner
City Press on Feb. 28 posed written questions to Georgia’s mission to the UN;
the questions were not responded to by deadline.
International Narcotics
Control Board briefer
Footnote on a footnote: The report states that “Equatorial Guinea remains the
only State in Africa that is not yet a party to any of the three main
international drug control treaties” (page 42). The Secretary-General on Feb. 27
met with the long-time president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema
Mbasogo, and afterwards
hailed him. One wonders if the topics of money laundering came up...
On the Web: http://www.incb.org/incb/en/annual_report.html
A related previous
Inner City Press report --
Abkhazia: Cleansing and
(Money) Laundering, Says Georgia, Even Terror’s Haven
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee, Inner City Press U.N. Correspondent
UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 1 -- The situation in
Abkhazia should be internationalized, said Georgia’s ambassador to the
United Nations, Revaz Adamia, on February 1. Briefing reporters at the
UN Headquarters, Mr. Adamia characterized the plight of ethnic Georgians
in Abkhazia as one of ethnic cleansing and even genocide. He cited a
figure of 10,000 dead (as well as 100 Russian soldiers killed). His
prepared remarks referred to “de facto annexation” and that “acquisition
of property in the conflict zones, including property of refugees and
IDPs, by the Russian entities is underway at full steam.”
As Inner City Press reported in
December, the President of Georgia's National Bank Roman Gotsiridze has
accused Russian banks in Abkhazia of money laundering and of financing
terrorism. At the Feb. 1 UN briefing, Mr. Adamia responded to
questioning by reiterating the allegation, and specifying that the
perpetrator of particular terror attacks in Turkey is living in
Abkhazia, “he has a shelter there.” Mr. Adamia promised to provide Inner
City Press with further information and evidence; watch this space.
On January 31, the
Security Council
extended
the UN Observer
Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) until March 31. The mission consists of 122
military observers and 13 civilian police officers.
After the
briefing, in an interview with Inner City Press, Ambassador Adamia
provided an update on the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline. He stated that
the Georgian section pipe is full of oil, but that this is not yet the
case in Turkey. He stated that Turkmenistan wants to use the BTC
pipeline, but that the Kremlin for now is blocking it. This, Adamia
said, makes more likely the construction of an underwater trans-Caspian
pipeline. Pipe dream? Rose (revolution) colored glasses? Only time will
tell.
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reports are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.org -
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