PRESS BRIEFING BY PINO ARLACCHI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF DRUG CONTROL, CRIME PREVENTION

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING BY PINO ARLACCHI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF DRUG CONTROL, CRIME PREVENTION

Pino Arlacchi, Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, at a Headquarters press briefing today, said that the Office was organizing a symposium to consider universal jurisdiction in prosecuting Internet crime.

Responding to questions, he told a correspondent that the symposium would be held in Palermo, Italy, at the end of this year, on the occasion of the signature of the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. The Convention would be approved next month in Vienna.

He said the idea was to consider making Internet crime a third category to which universal jurisdiction could be applied. Although it currently applied only to crimes against humanity and genocide, the treaty of Rome, which established the International Criminal Court, left space open for other categories of crime that would be subject to universal jurisdiction.

Internet crime and money laundering, he said, were two very important examples of modern criminal activities that could not easily be challenged through traditional instruments based on national jurisdictions. They were already so globalized that they could be considered as subjects for universal jurisdiction.

Mr. Arlacchi told another journalist that the Internet's impact on drug trafficking, as strictly defined, was minimal. However, the medium was increasingly important in exchanging information on how to expand the market and in providing extremely dangerous information on how to manufacture or find drugs. The Office was considering the adoption of an instrument to stop the expansion of the unlawful flow of information.

The Office was increasingly worried about the use of Web sites and the Internet for propaganda, he said. But, it was part of the wider problem of criminal use of the Internet. Jurisdiction was the most difficult issue in seeking a long-term strategy to combat Internet crime. Being a truly global activity, it was extremely difficult to root a case in a precise jurisdiction.

A correspondent asked about Mr. Arlacchi's discussions with the authorities in Colombia.

The Executive Director replied that the Office fully supported President Pastrana's efforts to sort out that country's crisis, both in the area of narcotic control and in building a peace agreement with insurgent groups. Colombian production of coca had increased substantially last year, he noted.

Mr. Arlacchi said the agency had partially succeeded in getting a larger share of a proposed $1 billion United States aid package committed to alternative development. If the United States Senate approved the package, a sizeable portion -- an estimated $150 million -- would be devoted entirely to supporting

Arlacchi Briefing - 2 - 22 June 2000

alternative development projects in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. In addition, the impact of the Office’s pilot projects aimed at reducing coca cultivation had been quite satisfactory.

Another correspondent asked what progress had been made regarding drug control in Central Asia, particularly Afghanistan. Had the Office received cooperation from the Taliban authorities there?

Mr. Arlacchi replied that cooperation had been very limited and discussions with the authorities had lasted three years. The agency had developed a two- pronged strategy involving the creation of strong border control measures around Afghanistan, and the provision of direct assistance to farmers inside the country.

In addition, he said, the agency was working on a regional action plan that would incorporate those elements and win the support of all the countries bordering Afghanistan. As a result of dramatic increases in addiction rates, those countries were now prepared to cooperate fully with the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, which had not been the case before. They were now fully aware of the problems arising from poppy cultivation in Afghanistan.

How high was the level of drug trafficking in Sierra Leone? another journalist asked.

The Executive Director said the country was not a major drug trafficking country. Narcotics were in the picture because of their extensive use by soldiers and child combatants.

What effect had the presence of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops had on the drug routes in the Balkans, from Turkey to Western Europe via Kosovo? another correspondent asked.

Mr. Arlacchi said there had been a dramatic increase in the trafficking of drugs and weapons, as well as prostitution, because of the growth of organized crime in the region. One of the undesired results of the crises in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania was the fact that criminal organizations linked to corrupt politicians had an increasingly important role in both illegal activities and in intercepting part of the internal aid arriving in the region. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Albania received billions of dollars in international aid every year.

Another correspondent asked for Mr. Arlacchi's reaction to the recent deaths in England of 58 people involved in illegal trafficking. Did that event indicate an increase in illegal human trafficking? Were drug trafficking gangs also involved in human trafficking?

The Executive Director described the deaths as unfortunate, but it was just one in a long list of similar events. However, it had brought into focus the issue of who was organizing the trafficking. The Office was fully committed to creating a "map" of the criminal organizations behind the business, but its information was still insufficient.

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