4.12.00 Organized crime gone global, NWO style Not wishing to miss out on the cash to be made from global operations, organized crime groups are said to be going "global" in a big way lately. But they're just playing catch-up with the REALLY big criminal enterprises like the BUSH Crime Syndicate, which has been operating on a global basis for MANY years now. NewsHawk® Inc. +++++++++++++++ + + + + + + + + Organized crime on globalization bandwagon United Press International - April 10, 2000 19:22 VIENNA, April 10 (UPI) -- Organized crime has "jumped on the bandwagon of globalization to create trans-national criminal networks," U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frchette Monday told a U.N. crime conference in Vienna. Echoing her concern, Undersecretary General Pino Arlacchi, executive director of the U.N. Office of Drug Control and Crime Prevention said, "Our task is to examine how, in the face of a globalized threat from organized crime, we can guarantee to the peoples of the world a life under a Rule of Law." Added Arlacchi, "I mean the right to a life free of violence and intimidation, the right to basic services on an equal footing with all other people, the right to freedom and dignity." Frchette opened the Tenth U.N. Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders. "As trade barriers fall and data circulates around the world at the touch of a button, new opportunities abound for increased prosperity, better information and education and increased involvement of citizens in many areas," she said, explaining, some of those who realize they have a lot to gain in the digital age are from what Secretary-General Kofi Annan calls, "uncivil society." "To them, opening borders means it is easier to traffic in women and children for forced labor and prostitution, to smuggle drugs and arms, and to escape justice," she said. "Open economies man more business to extract bribes from and new shares of illegal markets to be won. Technological progress means new opportunities for child pornography, falsification of documents and money laundering." Frchette said misuses of new technology bring with them "unprecedented challenges for law enforcement officials and legislators, who struggle to keep abreast of highly specialized criminals and grapple with incredibly complex jurisdictional and legal issues." She said those challenges have lead to a recognition that "No country alone can cope successfully with the growth of transnational crime." The deputy secretary-general said, issues that were traditionally considered the preserve of nations, "Must now be addressed in multilateral settings" where joint strategies can be agreed on. "If criminals are going global, those fighting them must also launch a global effort and create effective networks of technical, legal and judicial cooperation or they will always be one step behind," Frchette said. "People choose to abide by the rules, " Arlacchi said. "Some of them also decide, if they can get away with it, not to abide the law. The rule of law must be seen as something broad, a concept linked to the political culture, a concept that goes beyond legislation. It reflects the social contract that binds state and society together." Said, Arlacchi "The new frontier for the defense of our states and societies, is, in many cases no longer the state border. It is against crime in all its forms and manifestations, and especially against transnational organized crime, that we have to build new and better fences." Arlacchi said the mission of those at the congress is to help strengthen the rule of law in the world. Said the undersecretary-general, "Other international bodies deal with the global economy or with issues of war and peace. Our business is to help secure that justice is done in the world, that crime does not go unpunished, that we cannot hide behind international borders in safe havens. Some forces of crime have taken on global dimensions that we must, as Madame Frechette stated, now think of global solutions." -- Copyright 2000 by United Press International. All rights reserved.
