Statement by Pino Arlacchi
Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director
to the Regional Conference on Drug Control
in the Caribbean
Havana
9 November 2001
Courtesies to the President of the Parliament of Cuba, Ministers of Interior, Justice, Health and Education of Cuba, Ministers of Caribbean Caribbean, Parliamentrians and representatives of other countries.
It is a great pleasure to be in Havana again. I thank the Cuban authorities for their invitation and congratulate them on their initiative in convening this conference.
The timing of this Conference is very appropriate. The world is preoccupied with the question of human security. Recent events raise many troubling questions about how the security of individual citizens can be ensured.
This is not a new issue for those who work in the drug control field. Drug abuse, drug trafficking, money laundering and other forms of organized crime threaten the health of individuals and communities. The violence that comes with the "drug business" constitutes a very real threat to the security of hundreds of thousands of people.
The problems of drug trafficking and abuse now affect almost every country. No one talks seriously any more about producer countries and consumer countries. Few countries that considered themselves to be only producer or transit countries can now make that claim, as addiction has spilled over into their own societies.
We need look no further than the Caribbean region to see hard evidence of this fact. On the transit side, the region has seen a sharp rise in cocaine traffic in the past two years. Cocaine now generates eighty-five per cent of the income from drug traffic in the Caribbean.
The Caribbean Coordination Mechanism estimates that two-thirds of the total cocaine leaving South America passes through this region. Nearly one-fourth of the cocaine seized in Western Europe transits through the Caribbean.
On a regional basis, the Caribbean has the third highest rate of drug seizures in the world.
The impact of these drugs on the region is tragic. We estimate that one million people in the Caribbean use drugs every year. While the use of crack cocaine continues to decline, cocaine consumption continues unabated, and there is even an increase in consumption of ecstasy and cannabis.
The damage does not stop with the thousands of lives damaged by drug abuse. The organized crime that accompanies drug trafficking brings with it a perversion of the legitimate economy, not to mention violence and intimidation. In extreme cases, the state itself is undermined. We have a serious money laundering problem in the world and in the Caribbean.
In March of last year we launched a Forum against money laundering at a meeting in the Cayman Islands. Offshore banking centres from around the world attended. A number of Caribbean countries became signatories to the Forums minimum standards pledge and have received assistance under the initiative. Prosecution mentors were placed in Jamaica and Antigua/Barbuda, and a Financial Intelligence Unit mentor was posted to Barbados, all for one-year periods.
Our Global Programme against Money Laundering is now looking at the feasibility of establishing a regional Financial Intelligence Unit in the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, to provide support and backstopping to the FIUs in each of the eight Member States of the group.
Our Programme maintains strategic relationships with other regional and international groups working against money laundering. We work very closely with the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force, and the Caribbean Development Bank has funded some of our work in the region.
If we reflect on most forms of organized crime, we note that the purpose is usually to make money. This money can be sought as personal wealth. But it can also be used to finance efforts to achieve power or to intimidate.
Although terrorism is not the subject of this conference, it is no longer possible to maintain artificial boundaries between drug trafficking, organized crime and terrorism. The problem of terrorism is very much on our minds. Terrorism is not the same as organized crime, although there are a number of similarities and links between these phenomena. Among them is the use of money generated by criminal activities.
On September the Eleventh, we were confronted for the first time with truly "catastrophic terrorism". In the weeks since, we have also been confronted for the first time with "biological terrorism".
International terrorism has been catapulted to the top of the international agenda. I am myself part of a new Working Group on the United Nations and Terrorism.
The General Assembly has established a new Counter-Terrorism Committee. A Working Group of the Assemblys Sixth Committee has just concluded its debate on a possible Comprehensive Convention against Terrorism and a Convention against Nuclear Terrorism. This would add to the twelve ant-terrorism conventions that already exist.
I take this opportunity to congratulate the Government of Cuba, which acted on an emergency basis in September to complete ratification on all these anti-terrorism Conventions. This is a fully appropriate reaction to September the Eleventh. It deserves applause and emulation on a global basis.
We all search for responses to the quantum leap taken by international terrorism since September the Eleventh. The vulnerability of open societies to manipulation by criminal undergrounds was demonstrated in a strong way but we should not reconsider the proper balance between freedom and security.
The fanaticism and hatred underlying these atrocities make us realize that secularization and tolerance have powerful enemies. Terrorism polarizes. The great majority of people identify with the victims. But there are sizeable frustrated groups that identify with the aggressors.
Such an embracing of hatred and violence calls for a deeper search for root causes, if we are to succeed in preventing such acts in the future. Understanding is not the same thing as pardoning. We need this understanding to define an effective course of action.
A two-pronged approach is required, aimed simultaneously at:
First, addressing the causes which give rise to terrorist atrocities, and second, using the full power of the law to fight the manifestations of terrorism.
By "full power" I do not mean "draconian law". This would narrow the moral gap that separates uncivil terrorists from civilized political communities.
The last two months have removed any possible doubt that the money from drug trafficking and other organized crime is a destabilizing factor. It has also confirmed the linkages among drug trafficking, organized crime and terrorism.
This new awareness should push us to redouble our efforts on drug control. I have recently had the opportunity to see first hand the efforts of the Cuban authorities. Despite economic constraints, this country has achieved impressive results. The country has a national drug control master plan that emphasizes a balance between measures against supply and against demand.
On the supply side, training has intensified, and outside experts who have observed the specialized police training efforts on drug control have come away favourably impressed. An outside expert will look at the Customs training programme in the coming weeks. Most important, there are results. Cocaine seizures are on an upward curve. The three point one tons seized in the year 2000 constituted a one-third increase over 1999 and more than triple the amount seized in 1998.
The advances in demand reduction are especially encouraging. Fourteen provinces now have their own Drug Councils, which link to the National Drug Council.
Using a train-the-trainers approach, five thousand doctors have been trained in drug abuse prevention. The curriculum has been drawn up for a specialized four-month diploma course in prevention.
The national control system for narcotic drugs, including licit psychotropic drugs and precursors, is being updated and made ready for the potential problems of synthetic drug abuse.
Some of this impressive work has been supported through a modest UNDCP project, but the Cuban authorities deserve the credit for the political will required to adopt sound policies and then apply them on the ground.
Cuban experts have been able to benefit from study tours to Spain, Canada and Colombia, and I take this opportunity to thank these countries and other donors who have helped UNDCP provide assistance to Cuba.
The increased interaction of Cuban experts with their peers in other parts of the region has also been a positive development. International cooperation is essential to successful drug control and related crime.
The scope for international cooperation was enhanced last December by the signature in Palermo of the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. The number of signatories at the time the instrument was opened for signature was one hundred twenty-four an all-time record for a new convention.
Forty ratifications are required for the instrument to come into force. As of now, seven countries have ratified 1. Our assessment shows that the target of forty will be reached before the end of next year. Up to now, no Caribbean states have ratified, although we were encouraged by a recent signing ceremony in New York involving a number of governments from the region.
The momentum towards raising global standards is continuing, as the General Assembly has also decided to pursue a global convention against corruption. Advance work is nearly completed, and the negotiations are expected to begin in January.
As we look to the future, we must now keep in mind the changed situation. Human security cannot be achieved without the Rule of Law. Drug trafficking, organized crime and terrorism deny the Rule of Law. They flourish when the Rule of Law is weak or absent.
None of us have yet fully grasped the implications of the recent change in the global human security situation. This will emerge with time. I am of the view that there will be a lasting impact on the way in which we look at drug control. I would hope that there will be two outcomes:
First, a recognition that the profits from the illicit drug trade are doing far more harm than many people and governments were prepared to admit up to now. This should reinforce our hand as we attempt to address issues like money laundering and international law enforcement cooperation.
Second, and ultimately of greater importance, I would hope that we emerge with a stronger effort in demand reduction. If the market decreases in size, so do the profits.
At the end of the day, drug control is about human beings. All aspects of the work that we do are aimed at the protection of individual human beings and communities form drug abuse, wherever they might be, whoever they might be, your family or my family.
We need to keep this in mind. It is the motivation for law enforcement in interdicting the flow of the substances. It is the reason we have international conventions. It is the reason we are here today.
As this Conference looks at present and future strategies for drug control in the Caribbean, there will be a need to realize that the human security situation has changed. But the vulnerability to drug abuse has not disappeared. If anything, it has increased. As a result, let us all increase our efforts.
Thank you.