Posted on 12/09/2003 6:58:26 PM PST by NormsRevenge
MERIDA, Mexico -
Top officials from around the globe signed the first worldwide anti-corruption treaty Tuesday, a move that may open banks in money havens to more scrutiny and allow some poor countries to recover billions of looted dollars.
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) and Mexican President Vicente Fox (news - web sites) were among the first to sign the U.N. Convention Against Corruption, a pact that requires countries to aid in investigations and return money to wherever it was stolen or embezzled from.
The convention, expected to be signed by more than 100 nations over the next three days, will put both rich and poor nations on more equal footing when it comes to tracing and returning scandal-tainted money that often winds up in wealthy banking capitals.
Corruption "is a tax on the poor," Ashcroft said in this colonial city, 620 miles east of Mexico City. "It steals from the needy to enrich the wealthy. Corruption must end."
Of most interest to the United States are provisions requiring other countries to open up money laundering investigations, expedite extraditions and prevent the establishment of phantom banks with little legitimate business.
While the pact doesn't require countries to repeal banking secrecy laws or the immunity from prosecution granted to some politicians as part of their tenure in office, it does require safeguards so that politicians can be held accountable for their acts and banking records can be examined.
The treaty got significant support in the developed world, and the United Nations (news - web sites) stressed that corruption is not just a problem of developing nations. The pact requires signatories to fight theft in the corporate sector and punish domestic companies that pay bribes in other nations.
"Bribery ... was simply a part of human nature, a trivial issue, a necessary oil to lubricate the wheels of business or even promoted as a normal expense to be deducted from taxes at home," Ashcroft said, describing attitudes prevalent just a decade ago.
Now, Ashcroft said, corruption "jeopardizes free markets and sustainable development. It provides sanctuary to the global forces of terror."
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) said in written statement that the pact will "promote the transparency and accountability of the international business community."
"This is a major breakthrough," Annan said of the pact. "It will help tackle a pressing problem for many developing countries, where corrupt elites have looted billions of dollars that are desperately needed by new governments to redress the economic and social problems inflicted on their societies."
The treaty also requires governments to enact laws against corruption, protect whistle-blowers and assist other countries in detecting illicit funds.
That could help poor nations like Mexico and Nigeria recover looted money kept in banks in Switzerland and the United States.
Nigeria has spent more than four years trying to recover $2.2 billion taken by late Nigerian dictator Gen. Sani Abacha.
And after six years of haggling over $9 million in bribes deposited by a former Mexican prosecutor in a U.S. bank, the United States turned over less than one-tenth of that amount to Mexico.
Not everyone supported the treaty. About 100 anti-globalization activists scuffled with police at a barricade several blocks from the meeting site, waving banners saying "The U.N. Globalizes Corruption."
The treaty will take effect once ratified by the congresses of at least 30 signatory countries.
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On the Net:
www.un.org
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| Tue Dec 9, 3:43 PM ET |
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Anti globalization protesters cut their hands in front of security guards outside of the United Nations (news - web sites) Convention Against Corruption in Merida, Mexico, Tuesday, Dec. 9 2003. Top officials from around the globe gathered Tuesday to sign the first worldwide anti-corruption treaty, a move that may open banks in money-havens to more scrutiny and allow some poor countries to recover billions of looted dollars. (AP Photo/ Marco Ugarte) |
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