OCCRP Weekly News Roundup
This week: Tweets for Transparency and Coding 4 Country, Smuggling in Kosovo, Immunity in Italy, Mammals in Mexico, and more…
Bloggers and tweeters this week have been focused on new media’s role in the global fight against corruption. On Wednesday, the US and Brazil unveiled the Open Government Partnership, with eight countries publishing their tailor-made approaches to stamping out corruption and encouraging government transparency. The launch event was sponsored by Google and held at their NYC offices.
As OCCRP reported earlier this week, 46 governments pledged to create their own detailed plans for using new technologies to promote civic engagement and transparent public services. Governments will submit their own detailed plans and then conduct progress reports by the next meeting in March 2012.
Russia won’t be participating in the event (and neither will most former Soviet countries), but they will be hosting a crossborder code-a-thon on Saturday, the US Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle announced last week on his bilingual blog. Held simultaneously in Moscow and Washington, DC, participants in “Code4Country” will be called on to create open source programs that will improve the daily lives of citizens.
One example Beyrle gives is creating platforms for constituents to assess their government’s ability to meet their needs:
One example of a problem and a proposed solution is a Regional Government Evaluation application -- a tool that would allow citizens to rate the efficiency and transparency of regional and state government services, agencies, even governors.
Technology companies Yandex and Google will also be supplying volunteers to advise coders.
Civil society organizations all over the world are looking to use new media to combat corruption and enhance transparency. In Zambia, voters posted allegations of electoral fraud on Facebook and Twitter. In Bulgaria, a new web platform has been created in advance of elections, and prospective voters have already been reporting instances of vote-buying on a new web portal and via TV broadcasts.
In India, citizens can post instances of government graft or bribe solicitations at Ipaidabribe.com. The New York Times last week set up a feature on their blog, “I didn’t pay a bribe,” which features stories of Indians who chose not to pay bribes to receive public services.
Governments are also employing technology to digitize court documents, use the Internet to streamline registration for property deeds and procurement contracts. The Wall Street Journal describes Kenya’s multi-faceted approach in an interview with Bitange Ndemo, permanent secretary of Kenya’s information and communications ministry.
Kosovo: Border Smuggling and House Arrest for Parliamentarian
Kosovo remains locked in a dispute with Serbia over control of its northern border. The border territory has in essence become a duty free zone, writes Balkan Insight, because it is not under the de facto control of the Kosovo government. Serbian tax authorities have announced a tax on petroleum, telecommunications, and vehicles to be paid when travelers enter Serbia.
Until this point, producers were not responsible for paying value added taxes (VAT), lowering the costs of all goods and making it an attractive spot for smugglers. Balkan Insight says illicit activity has burgeoned between North Kosovo and the Serbian border towns of Raska and Novi Pazar.
Serbia’s move, however, has alarmed the government in Kosovo and the European Union.
From Balkan Insight:
While Serbia says the move is intended to clamp down on smugglers and tax cheats, the fact that the move was a unilateral one by Belgrade has caused alarm in Kosovo and in the EU, where some see it as step towards formal partition or annexation.
With this as a backdrop, Kosovo’s former transport minister and current parliamentarian Fatmir Limaj has been placed under house arrest for one month over to allegations of war crimes, The Associated Press reports. Limaj was indicted for war crimes committed in 1999 at an improvised detention center. The decision came after a Tuesday ruling by Kosovo’s Constitutional Court which ruled that parliamentarians do not have immunity. Limaj was acquitted in 2005 of charges of war crimes by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
Immunity in Italy
Instead of asking its Constitutional Court whether an MP and an aide to the former Economic Minister should receive immunity, Italy put the case of Marco Milanese, a former aide accused of corruption, to secret ballot in the country’s parliament. In a surprisingly close decision, the lower parliament voted 312 to 205 in favor of immunity for Milanese.
The outcome is seen as a key indicator of the strength of Prime Minister Berlusconi’s coalition at a time when he is facing charges for embezzlement, corruption, bribery and tax fraud and Standard and Poor’s decision to lower his country’s credit rating.
A Naples court identified Milanese as part of a corruption probe, alleging that he received cash from a businessman in exchange for sharing classified information about an ongoing investigation. However, Parliament must approve all requests to arrest a legislator. Milanese denies the allegations, and Parliament voted down the judge’s request
Romania and Bulgaria: In Europe, But Still Not Allowed to Travel There
Romania and Bulgaria are fuming after their second chance for admission to the borderless European Schengen travel zone was rejected by the Netherlands and Finland, who said neither government had sufficiently tacked organized crime and corruption, despite meeting all of the official criteria.
Romanian and Bulgarian officials blamed populism in the Netherlands and Finland for their woes.
The EU’s two newest members may not be able to travel freely in the European Union, but they can console themselves online: Romania and Bulgaria place second and third respectively in the world for internet speed. Perhaps that’s why organized crime groups have been able to download such massive amounts of child pornography, credit card numbers, and illicit copies of moviess.
Until Romanians and Bulgarians can roam the European roads, the information superhighway will have to do.
Serbia’s Prime Minister Mirko Cvetković announced Friday that Serbia has fulfilled all conditions necessary to qualify for candidate status in the European Union. He admitted that the EU can still decide whether or not it will impose more conditions for candidacy.
The political situation has progressed far since the 2003 assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.. Testimony made public this week from a man convicted with taking part in the murder alleges that top level officials, including then-Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, knew about the plan.
Serbian authorities are also investigating five witnesses in the case for perjury in the 2007 trial.
Indeed, Serbia has come far, but now it just has the small problem of Kosovo to solve.
Mexican Cartel Bosses Enjoy Creature Comforts
Mexican officials who have been vexed by cartel violence are grappling with another type of cartel fallout: exotic ‘wild’ animals who have been left orphaned by their owners’ arrests. In addition to confiscating property and assets when a drug kingpin is arrested, authorities have captured 5,500 illegal animals and plants in July alone. Among the collection are lions, tigers, parrots, peacocks, ostriches and monkeys from criminals’ estates, which are now being held in a makeshift zoo, Al Jazeera says.
“The traffickers see themselves as the top predators in their food chain and they want to have other top predators in their zoos," Arthur Jeon, co-editor of Global Animal magazine, told Al Jazeera. "They are probably thinking it is the law of the jungle. It is a weird, twisted way of showing how macho they are, and a bad cliché.”
Many of the creatures are not native to Mexico and cannot simply be released in the wild, leaving the government with the costly responsibility of taking care of the animals. Now animal rights activists are joining the fray in the fight against cartels:“The war is a great tragedy for humans as well as animals,” Delcianna Winders, a spokeswoman with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) told Al Jazeera.
At least the Mexican government can now redirect some of its funding from state-owned zoos to catching drug dons.
