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Australian Federal Police - Platypus Journal/Magazine |
AFP part of study group on transnational crime in the Asia-Pacific given greater status
At the invitation of the Australian Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific (CSCAP), the AFP played a major role last year in the establishment of a regional study group on transnational crime.
Former Director of Intelligence and now Special Adviser, Office of the Deputy Commissioner, John McFarlane, was seconded by Commissioner Mick Palmer to the Australian Defence Studies Centre (ADSC) at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra, and among his responsibilities was to convene the CSCAP Study Group on Transnational Crime. The study group held its first meeting in Singapore in March last year and met again in Bangkok in October.
More recently, CSCAP, a ‘second track', or non-governmental, body and a ‘think tank' for one of the most important political and strategic arrangements in which Australia is involved — the ASEAN Regional Forum — decided that the study group's status should be elevated to that of a full working group. Its first meeting in this capacity will be held in Manila as we go to press. Although the current financial crisis in the Asia-Pacific Region is expected to have some impact on attendance at the meeting, it is anticipated that the USA and Japan will become more actively involved in the working group for the first time.
In the following article, John McFarlane writes on the group's development and anticipated future.
In the September 1997, edition of Platypus Magazine, we published an article titled "Regional initiative to help fight the increasing problem of transnational crime" which provided background on CSCAP, the ‘second track' body supporting the ASEAN Regional Forum.
In a time of considerable regional uncertainty over economic, political and even military issues, one of the main advantages of the ‘second track' process in regional security discussions is that it provides a relatively informal forum for discussion.
The process allows leading academics from the many regional security studies institutes to meet with senior officials, acting in their personal capacity, along with influential business leaders and journalists, to discuss and devise ways in which some of the critical tensions of the region might be addressed, without having governments at the ‘first track' level locked into rigid and intractable positions which can so easily aggravate, rather than ameliorate regional tensions.
In a region which has suffered from severe dislocations from wars, internal insurrections, border disputes and related political and economic problems, the establishment of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) on August 8, 1967, has contributed substantially to the stability of the Asia-Pacific. Membership of ASEAN has been extended beyond the original membership of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, to now include Brunei (1984), Vietnam (1995), and Myanmar (Burma) and Laos (1997). Cambodia's application for membership of ASEAN has been put on hold due to its internal political problems.
There is little doubt that ‘the ASEAN way', through the adoption of its consensus approach, has made a substantial contribution to the stability of our region. However, with the absorption of two regional communist countries (Vietnam and Laos) and Burma, the political complexion of ASEAN is changing and it may not always be possible to obtain consensus on key regional issues in the future. When the current problems of economic, social and political change in the Asia-Pacific are taken into account, it is clear that we are living in a region where, and at a time when, new and difficult tensions are emerging and imaginative and innovative ways have to be devised to deal with issues of regional problem solving, confidence building and transparency in bilateral and multilateral relationships, not only in and between the ASEAN nations, but also with neighbouring countries, such as Australia.
This is where CSCAP can perform such a useful role.
The current membership of CSCAP is Australia, Canada, Peoples' Republic of China, European Union (Associate Member), Indonesia, India (Associate Member), Japan, Republic of Korea (South Korea), Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea (North Korea), Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, the United Nations (Associate Member) and the United States of America. Brunei, Laos and Myanmar (Burma) are not currently members of CSCAP.
The most effective work of CSCAP is undertaken through its various working groups, of which there are now five:
Confidence and Security Building Measures (co-chaired by the USA and Singapore); Concepts of Comprehensive and Cooperative Security (co-chaired by Malaysia, China and New Zealand); North Pacific (co-chaired by Japan and Canada); Maritime Cooperation (co-chaired by Indonesia and Australia); Transnational Crime (co-chaired by Australia, the Philippines and Thailand).
In recent years, the various CSCAP working groups have contributed to confidence building measures in relation to regional military acquisitions and exercises; issues of regional environmental, energy, food and water security; and maritime rights-of-way and archipelagic waters.
To gauge the level of interest within CSCAP on transnational crime matters, at its Sixth Steering Committee Meeting in Canberra in December 1996, CSCAP decided to establish a study group as an interim measure to determine whether an additional CSCAP working group was warranted, or whether the study of transnational crime should be subsumed within the work of other existing CSCAP working groups.
It was agreed that the primary objectives of CSCAP involvement in the transnational crime issue would be: to gain a better understanding of and reach agreement on the major transnational crime trends affecting the region as a whole; to consider practical measures which might be adopted to combat transnational crime in the region; to encourage and assist those countries which have recently become engaged in regional security cooperation, and which are concerned about the problem of transnational crime in the region; to endorse the UN and other protocols dealing with transnational crime, particularly in the narcotics area; and to develop laws to assist in regional and international cooperation to counter drug trafficking, money laundering, mutual assistance, extradition and the like.
The CSCAP Study Group on Transnational Crime met for the first time in Singapore in March 1997 and then in Bangkok in October the same year. A total of 32 people from 12 countries attended these meetings, with backgrounds ranging from strategic and policy analysis, political science, sociology, diplomacy, the law, military, and law enforcement.
One of the main outcomes was the identification of 19 ‘crime types' which affected regional security interests. They were: arms trafficking, particularly in small arms; corruption, at all levels; counterfeiting — currency and documentation; crimes of violence, including contract killings, arson and bombings; drug production and trafficking, including amphetamines and ecstasy; environmental crime; extortion, including protection rackets; fraud, including credit card, banking, insurance, passports, visas, documentation, telecommunications and petroleum industry fraud; illegal gambling; illegal immigration, including some aspects of the refugee issue; intellectual property and copyright violations; international corporate and white collar crime; maritime crime, including piracy, charter party fraud, cargo deviations, phantom ships, marine theft, marine pollution (illegal dumping, radioactive waste, etc); money laundering, including property and business investment by transnational organised crime groups; organised crime, including international connections of regional organised crime groups, non-regional organised crime activities (including Nigerian organised crime drug traffickers and confidence tricksters), triads, gangs; paedophile activities; prostitution, where this involves illegal immigration, ‘sex slavery', health issues; smuggling of raw materials, antiques, artefacts, art, icons etc, alcohol and cigarettes, radioactive/fissile materials, gold and precious stones, jewels; technology crimes, including the illicit use of telephones, cyber crime, defamation on the Internet, Internet crime generally and theft over the Internet.
Discussions at the Seventh CSCAP Steering Committee Meeting in Kuala Lumpur in June 1997, led to the study of the impact of terrorism on regional security concerns being added to the study group's work.
At the second meeting of the study group in Bangkok, the list of ‘crime types' was reduced to nine — those most likely to affect regional security and stability.
They were: arms trafficking; counterfeiting; drug production and trafficking; illegal immigration; international corporate/white collar crime; money laundering and related issues; smuggling of nuclear/fissile materials; technology crimes; and terrorism.
Members of the study group have produced or are developing draft papers on the following topics for consideration at the next meeting: Transnational Crime as a Regional Security Issue (Australia); The Strategic Impact of Transnational Crime (India); Money Laundering Methodologies and International and Regional Counter-Measures (Australia); Background Issues on Illegal Immigration (Canada); Proliferation and Smuggling of Light Weapons (India); Technology Crimes (Thailand); Multilateral Initiatives to Combat Transnational Crime (Australia); Factors Contributing to the Expansion or Containment of Transnational Crime within the Region (Singapore); Illicit Production and Trafficking in Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances within the Region (Thailand/Philippines).
Also, Russia has submitted a paper titled ‘Drug Trafficking: The New Threat to Russia from the East', which is being translated into English.
It is proposed that as soon as enough of these papers can be completed and endorsed by the group, they will be published in book form and circulated to members of the ARF, senior policy makers, law enforcement officials, regional strategic analysts, academics, journalists and others with a serious interest in the relationship of transnational crime to Asia-Pacific security interests.
The list of priority ‘crime types' and research projects omits some topics that some members would like to have seen given higher priority, such as the problem of corruption, environmental issues and the impact of fraud and other criminal issues on the current Asian currency meltdown. Some of these issues may be pursued initially at the national level, but it is important that, in opening up a topic like transnational crime for examination by CSCAP, regional political sensitivities should also be taken into account.
The future of the CSCAP's role in relation to transnational crime was discussed at its eighth Steering Committee Meeting in Tokyo in December last year, when it was agreed that the CSCAP Study Group on Transnational Crime should be elevated to full working group status, to be reviewed (along with the status of the other CSCAP working groups) on an annual basis.
The main arguments advanced in support of the elevation of the study group included:
• There is considerable interest and concern at the regional and international levels for the political leadership to be better informed of, and provided with, the appropriate tools to deal with the threat of transnational crime in all its manifestations. This point was illustrated by reference to the proposed United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drugs; the recent initiatives taken by the United Nations Crime Commission in relation to organised and white collar crime; the anti-corruption/bribery initiatives taken by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); the organised crime and money laundering initiatives taken by the G7/P8 leaders; and the expressed interest of both the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and Asia-Pacific Economic Commission (APEC) leaders in being better advised on these issues.
• There is an increasing body of academic study being undertaken, not only within the legal and criminology disciplines, but also by strategic analysts, political scientists, sociologists and futurologists. This statement was illustrated with reference to publications such as Transnational Organised Crime, Low Intensity Conflict and Law Enforcement, Trends in Organised Crime, and Intelligence and National Security.
• Work in this area calls for a greater commitment from CSCAP than the maintenance of a study group status. Our advice was that a number of member countries were holding off active involvement in the group until it was given the status of a CSCAP working group, which implies a longer-term commitment to the assessment of transnational crime by CSCAP.
• Picking up a point made by Co-Chair, Ambassador Nobuo Matsunaga from Japan that CSCAP must pay more attention to economic stability factors within the region, the meeting was reminded that economic stability is strongly linked to transnational crime, particularly when considering the impact of the profits of drug trafficking, money laundering, banking fraud, counterfeiting and corruption.
• The political leadership of almost all countries in the region needed to be better informed of the nature and extent of the transnational crime threat to the region, and the regional and global responses under development to counter the transnational crime threat. We expressed the view that CSCAP was in a unique position to contribute in this area.
• The following areas were listed as where CSCAP could add value to the understanding of the transnational crime threat: providing a strategic setting for law enforcement practitioners to better understand the impact of their work; articulating the transnational crime threat and counter-measures to the political leadership of the region; developing an improved sense of regionalism through the recognition that the transnational crime threats which affect our region know no state borders; what we are doing complements the more operationally-oriented exchanges undertaken in the INTERPOL and ASEANAPOL contexts; it recognises transnational crime as one of the new security issues which should be integrated into the assessment of the regional security agenda.
• It responds to the requirements of the ARF and political leadership to be better advised of the transnational crime threat.
It was agreed that the success of the new working group would depend on its research papers meeting the following criteria: they must have a significant regional security component; they should have some relevance to the relationship between countries in the region; and they should contain some guidance on the positive approaches which can be taken to deal with the identified criminal threat.
The papers also should contribute to the understanding of the regional security outlook.
At a time when many of the comfortable assumptions relating to the security and stability of the Asia-Pacific region are under challenge, the steering committee's guidance on the priorities of the working group are welcomed.
Indications are that the current serious financial situation in the Asia-Pacific region may have an impact on attendance at CSCAP meetings this year, (the latest scheduled for Manila from May 23-24 with the Professor of Political Science at the University of the Philippines, Dr Carolina Hernandez, as Chair).
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URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AUFPPlatypus/1998/21.html