Madam Chairperson,
Since this is the first occasion that I am taking the floor to address the 12th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention & Criminal Justice, I would at the outset, like to avail myself of this opportunity to sincerely thank the authorities of the host country, Brazil for the warm hospitality accorded to all of us delegates and participants since our arrival in Salvador and the excellent arrangements made in organizing this important Congress.
I also wish to thank the UN Office on Drugs & Crime (UNODC) in Vienna for the elaborate preparatory work that has been so meticulously undertaken in this regard.
I would like to associate myself with the sentiments expressed by distinguished delegates who took the floor earlier on in the initial meetings of Committee I, to convey on behalf of the Government & the People of Sri Lanka, our profound condolences to the Government & the People of Poland as well as members of the bereaved families, on the terrible plane crash tragedy last Saturday in Russia, which claimed the lives of the President of Poland and his entire entourage.
Madam Chair,
I have the honour to speak today on behalf of my country, Sri Lanka on the twin agenda items under consideration by this Committee, namely ‘International Cooperation to address money laundering, based on relevant United Nations and other instruments’ and secondly, ‘Practical approaches to strengthening international cooperation in fighting crime related problems’.
As we are all well aware of the inextricable and close nexus between terror groups and criminal gangs in carrying out their illicit activities, including narcotics smuggling, human trafficking, gun running, extortion, kidnapping, hijacking and even seemingly innocuous fund-raising by charities and fronts of terror groups, as well as credit card frauds and money laundering to name but a few of the host of trans-national organized crimes, the need for concerted international cooperation to take counter measures cannot be over emphasized.
Since the early 1980s, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a terrorist group banned not only in Sri Lanka, but by a number of countries, including India, the United Kingdom, the USA, Canada and the EU, had been involved in large scale smuggling of drugs, such as heroin and cannabis in bulk from producing areas in Asia to consumer destinations in Europe. The proceeds of these illicit activities and related money laundering helped the LTTE to finance its savage and brutal terror campaign in Sri Lanka which had as its objective, the carving out of an ethnically cleansed separate Tamil State in the North and the East of the country.
To the relief of all peace loving people in Sri Lanka, as indeed friends in the international community, under the leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in his capacity as the Commander-in -Chief of the Armed Forces, the three armed forces after a military campaign, which commenced in August 2006, completely vanquished the LTTE’s military and political leadership in May 2009. It must be remembered that successive governments of Sri Lanka since the 1980s had unsuccessfully tried to engage the LTTE in negotiations to arrive at a political solution to address their perceived grievances. The LTTE had always used the respite offered by ceasefires during these abortive talks to re-arm and re-group, and launch fresh attacks on Government Forces and civilian targets. Sri Lanka has suffered immensely in the last three decades in terms of the thousands of civilian casualties and massive damage to its economic infrastructure due to the LTTE’s terror campaign, which also threatened the very existence of democracy in the country.
Sri Lanka is the oldest democracy in Asia. Irrespective of gender, race, religion or other criteria, the people of Sri Lanka have enjoyed universal adult franchise continuously since 1931. Meanwhile, the LTTE, during the course of its war on the Sri Lankan State, had virtually eliminated all dissenting voices within the Tamil community, claiming to be the sole representative of the Tamil people. Hence, had the LTTE succeeded in its diabolical objective, the democratic tradition that is so deeply rooted in the psyche of the people of Sri Lanka would have been the first casualty. Mercifully, the three armed forces of the country, strictly adhering to the “zero civilian casualty doctrine” proclaimed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa succeeded in ridding Sri Lanka of the menace of terrorism once and for all.
Madam Chair,
However, we cannot remain complacent; notwithstanding the elimination of the LTTE leadership in Sri Lanka, it is a well known fact that the international network of the LTTE is very much intact and active. It is alive and kicking in the shape of various fronts, ostensibly proclaiming to be charities, refugee relief, human rights, social welfare and other civic organizations purporting to champion benevolent causes, particularly in countries hosting large Sri Lankan Tamil communities. Even as I speak today, a number of vessels belonging to the LTTE’s shipping fleet, hitherto involved in drug trafficking and gun running, are engaged in the lucrative business of human trafficking.
We estimate today that the LTTE network abroad has amassed assets worth anything between US$ 3 billion and US$ 5 billion through its vast range of illegal and nefarious activities over the last three decades but has increasingly used money laundering techniques to convert these assets into legitimate money by turning to retail and wholesale trading, imports and exports, shipping and other lawful enterprises.
I believe, it is incumbent upon Member States particularly in countries in which the LTTE and its various front organizations continue to operate with impunity, to pro-actively go after the ill-gotten assets of the LTTE and seize such assets and repatriate the proceeds to Sri Lanka. These funds could be applied in an equitable manner by the Government to compensate the thousands of families who have been victimized by the LTTE in its three decade long terror spree as well as to rebuild the war ravaged infrastructure of the North and East of Sri Lanka.
Madam Chair,
I would now like to give a synopsis of the measures taken by Sri Lanka to combat money laundering, with particular emphasis on the role and functions of the Finance Intelligence Unit (FIU), which operates under the aegis of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
Money laundering has been criminalized by domestic legislation in Sri Lanka, and since 2006 the Finance Intelligence Unit has been conducting its operations in terms of the statutory provisions of the Financial Transactions Reporting Act (FTRA) No. 6 of 2006. The main functions of the FIU include the collection and receipt of information on financial transactions that may relate to money laundering, terrorist financing and other unlawful activities defined in the FTRA, conducting investigations into suspicious financial transactions, dissemination of information and details of investigations to relevant regulatory and law enforcement authorities to institute legal/enforcement action, issue of directives/ regulations on Know Your Customer and Customer Due Diligence (KYC/CDD) and suspicious transactions to prevent offences covered in the relevant statute.
As in the previous years, under the requirements imposed by the FIU, licensed commercial banks (LCBs), licensed specialized banks (LSBs), registered finance companies (RFCs), stock brokering firms (SBs) and insurance companies (ICs) continued to report cash transactions and electronic funds transfers subject to the specified reporting threshold of Rs. 1 million and above on its equivalent in foreign currencies.
The “LankaFIN”, the IT System designed to analyse information/data reported by reporting institutions was expanded using a web based interface and permitted the LCBs, LSBs and RFCs to submit data on cash transactions, electronic fund transfers and suspicious transactions online to the FIU with effect from 1 July and 1 December 2009, respectively. The FIU continued to analyse the information/data reported by the reporting institutions by using the LankaFIN system and it also enabled the FIU to scrutinize over 1.6 million transactions during the year and to examine 272 suspicious transactions. In addition, the reporting institutions have submitted reports on 111 suspicious transactions. After conducting preliminary investigations, 31 suspicious transactions were referred to the law enforcement agencies and 8 such transactions reported to the regulatory authorities, for further investigation. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Police is currently engaged in investigation of the cases referred to law enforcement agencies.
The FIU obtained membership of the Egmont Group in May 2009. This would enable the FIU of Sri Lanka to develop vital relationships to facilitate exchange of financial intelligence with other FIUs in this 116 member body and foster global partnerships in combating money laundering and terrorist financing. Since money laundering and terrorist financing are often globally organized, global cooperation of FIUs is a key strategy to deal with such activities.
Sri Lanka, as a member country of Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), attended its 12th annual meeting held in Australia in July 2009. Further, the FIU attended the 12th APG Annual Typologies Workshop in Cambodia in October 2009 to discuss various new methods, strategies and trends of worldwide money laundering and financing of terrorism.
Also, last year, four Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) were signed with the Indonesian Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, the Anti-Money Laundering Council of the Republic of the Philippines, the Financial Information Unit of Nepal Rastra Bank and the Financial Intelligence Unit of National Bank of Cambodia for exchanging of information relating to Financial Intelligence and suspicious transactions.
Information sharing with a number of jurisdictions including Denmark, India, Nigeria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Mauritius and several Egmont member countries was also undertaken in 2009.
Madam Chair,
We have heard today, distinguished delegates representing several Member States enumerate the slew of UN Conventions, Protocols, other international and regional instruments that they have signed, to combat terrorism, money laundering and other trans-national organized crimes. Sri Lanka herself has signed and ratified 12 of the UN Conventions relating to combating terrorism.
But, Madam Chair, what good is the mere signing, ratification and indeed the enactment of enabling domestic legislation of this plethora of international conventions, protocols and other legally binding instruments by Member States of the UN, if they lack the political will to translate their commitment in a tangible and meaningful manner by affording assistance to other nations who face the challenges of terrorism and trans-national organized crimes ?
This morning, I was heartened to listen to the interventions of some Member States, notably the representatives of China, the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan. They spoke of the need for States to extend support and cooperation to requesting States in relation to extradition and repatriation of confiscated assets, even in the absence of bilateral treaties or agreements on extradition and mutual legal assistance in criminal matters. But, what is most intriguing is the reluctance of States to accede to the demands of requesting States, for example to extradite terrorist or criminal suspects who have been indicted for offences, or for the forfeiture and repatriation of the ill-gotten assets of terrorist organizations and or criminal syndicates operating in their territories, when they do have legally binding bilateral agreements. As the distinguished delegate of the Russian Federation pointed out, the processing of such requests is also inordinately delayed in the receiving country to the extent that some of these offences get time barred for prosecution in the requesting State.
Madam Chair,
Hence, if Member States do not exercise their political will to render meaningful and tangible assistance and cooperation to requesting States, their professed commitment to combating international terrorism and trans-national organized crimes would amount to nothing more than pious pronouncements and paying lip service to eliminating these evils which have plagued our contemporary world. In this regard, I wish to strongly endorse the sentiments expressed by the distinguished delegate of the Philippines who spoke earlier and underscored the urgent need for international cooperation to fight money laundering and other trans-national organized crimes.
Madam Chair,
Without such cooperation, which can only be manifested, if Member States genuinely exercise their political will to assist each other, the global fight against international terrorism and trans-national organized crimes, is doomed to fail.
Thank you
