http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=49655#.VJW0vV4AAA
Adopting resolution, Security Council urges fight against nexus of
transnational crime, terrorism
Transnational Organized Crime in Eastern Africa: A Threat Assessment.
Credit: UNODC
19 December 2014 – Amid a proliferation of well-funded and
well-organized transnational criminal activities in Africa, the Middle
East and beyond, the United Nations Security Council today adopted a
resolution spotlighting its concern over the ties between cross-border
crime and terrorism and called on UN Member States to ramp up efforts
in combatting the two activities.
In today’s unanimously adopted resolution, the 15-member Council said
it is “gravely concerned” by the financing obtained by terrorist
groups through illicit activities – such as the trafficking of drugs,
people, arms and artefacts – and reaffirmed the international
community’s need to supress the monetary lifeline which keeps the
terrorist threats active.
Delivering his remarks to the Council, Jeffrey Feltman, UN
Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, said that the world had
been reminded yet again this week “why we must not tire in our efforts
to counter terrorism, following the despicable attack on a school in
Pakistan by the Taliban.”
He emphasized that the need for urgent action to address terrorism and
its transnational linkages is regrettably well illustrated, for
example by the intensification of Boko Haram activities across the
Lake Chad Basin region of Central Africa. In the Secretary-General's
recent visits to Africa, he was constantly reminded that terrorism and
cross-border crime cannot be addressed separately, Mr. Feltman told
the Council.
“Efforts to combat terrorism will not bear fruit unless we combine law
enforcement actions with measures to strengthen good governance, rule
of law and human rights,” he said, stressing that “we will not uproot
the ideologies that lead to violence if we do not win over hearts and
minds.”
Also addressing the Council, Ambassador Tete Antonio, the
representative of the African Union to the UN, acknowledged that
cross-border criminal activities in Africa contributed to the onset of
conflicts and further complicated management and resolution efforts.
Vast swathes of ungoverned territory – in northern Mali and across the
Sahel belt as well as in Central Africa and in Somalia – provide
criminal and terrorist groups with a “deadly convergence” point where
they could thrive undisturbed.
In the Sahel – a vast expanse of territory stretching from Mauritania
to Eritrea, including Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria,
Senegal and Sudan – the Ambassador explained that drug and arms
trafficking, human smuggling, kidnapping-for-ransom, and illicit
proliferation of arms and money laundering had become “intimately
intertwined” with the financing of terrorist groups such as Boko Haram
and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
In addition, he said, kidnapping-for-ransom in the Sahel had become
“an integral financing model” for the spread of terrorist activities
in Africa and globally.
At the same time, a limited government presence in northern Mali had
spawned an environment conducive for cross-border trafficking whereas
in Central Africa, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a known militant
group accused of numerous human rights violations, fuelled its
operations through the poaching of elephants and illegal trade in
ivory.
“The African Union has not remained idle in the face of these
threats,” Mr. Antonio told the delegates. Nonetheless, he remarked,
greater efforts should be made to encourage collaboration between
neighbouring states sharing such threats along their borders and
strengthen early warning mechanisms to clamp down on any potential
situations of conflict that could be exploited by terrorist groups.
Recognizing the nexus of criminal and terrorist activities, the new
Security Council resolution stressed the need for Member States “to
work collectively to prevent and combat terrorism in all its forms and
manifestations” and called upon the international community to
strengthen border management.
The text also stressed the importance of strengthening trans-regional
and international cooperation on a basis of “a common and shared
responsibility to counter the world drug problem and related criminal
activities,” adding its encouragement for Member States to block and
prevent terrorist groups from benefitting from transnational organized
crime.
“The porous African borders have long served to bring communities
together, facilitate trade, and have contributed to the prosperity and
the enriching diversity of our people. But porous need not translate
into threats and risks of crime and terrorism,” Mr. Antonio continued.
“There is therefore a need for innovative, collaborative and inclusive
approaches that are led by the concerned states, based on confidence
and transparency among them, and without hindrances nor restrictions
on legal cross-border flows of people and trade.”
Received on Sat Dec 20 2014 - 12:47:21 EST