The Club of Madrid was launched following the Conference on Democratic Transition and Consolidation (CDTC), held in Madrid, Spain, in October 2001. At that unprecedented gathering, 35 heads of state and government from Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa met with more than 100 of the world's most respected scholars and policy experts to discuss the problems of building democracy from both a theoretical and practical point of view. The CDTC looked at eight core issues, including constitutional design, the legislature and its relations with the executive, the judiciary and its relations with the executive, anti-corruption measures, the role of armed forces and security forces, reform of the state bureaucracy, strengthening of political and social pluralism and of political parties, and economic and social conditions. In four days of intensive discussion between the leaders and experts, the two groups were able to identify areas of agreement and disagreement, and formulate practical recommendations for strengthening democracy around the world. For more on the CDTC, go here.
The Club of Madrid's primary asset is its membership, which includes almost 90 distinguished former heads of state and government of democratic nations. The Club of Madrid seeks to leverage the first-hand experience of its members to assist countries with critical elements of their democratic transition or consolidation. A distinguished group of scholars, former policy makers and political leaders provides additional advice and assistance on a wide range of issues. The Club of Madrid is supported institutionally by the Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior (FRIDE) and the Gorbachev Foundation of North America (GFNA), the original sponsors of the 2001 conference.
Source: Club of Madrid
Wednesday, October 31, 2001
Tuesday, October 30, 2001
ID fraudsters arrested
Five more Home Affairs employees have been arrested for allegedly issuing false birth certificates and identity documents, bringing to 12 the number of officials apprehended since June, the department announced on Tuesday.
Director-general Billy Masetlha said two officials allegedly linked to a Chinese syndicate were arrested in Pretoria in the morning. They allegedly helped process fake identity document applications lodged in the Eastern Cape. Two weeks ago, another three officials were arrested in Pretoria. Nokuzola Funani, Yolanda Mfunzi and Ncomeca Nombembe were charged with fraud, corruption and theft in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court and freed on R1 000 bail. They were due to appear in court again on Tuesday. Funani and Mfunzi were employed at the department's regional office in Pretoria, while Nombembe worked at the identification directorate in head office. They were arrested with a fourth man not employed by the department.
Masetlha said the arrests formed part of a joint investigation by his department, the police and customs officials into corrupt officials. Operation Molopo started in June and had so far identified seven syndicates of different nationalities involved in the issuing of fake birth and identity documents. The investigation was also focusing on those making the applications. "We would like to get them to lead us to the main culprits," Masetlha said. The director-general expressed concern about refugees evading the system by marrying South Africans in order to obtain residence status. Recently, some 300 refugee applications were withdrawn by foreigners who subsequently married local partners.
Masetlha conceded "very little" controls were in place and said special measures should be introduced to tackle the problem of so-called marriages of convenience. This could include measures as used in the US, where married couples of which one partner was a foreigner, were regularly grilled in a bid to establish if they truly lived together as husband and wife.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Director-general Billy Masetlha said two officials allegedly linked to a Chinese syndicate were arrested in Pretoria in the morning. They allegedly helped process fake identity document applications lodged in the Eastern Cape. Two weeks ago, another three officials were arrested in Pretoria. Nokuzola Funani, Yolanda Mfunzi and Ncomeca Nombembe were charged with fraud, corruption and theft in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court and freed on R1 000 bail. They were due to appear in court again on Tuesday. Funani and Mfunzi were employed at the department's regional office in Pretoria, while Nombembe worked at the identification directorate in head office. They were arrested with a fourth man not employed by the department.
Masetlha said the arrests formed part of a joint investigation by his department, the police and customs officials into corrupt officials. Operation Molopo started in June and had so far identified seven syndicates of different nationalities involved in the issuing of fake birth and identity documents. The investigation was also focusing on those making the applications. "We would like to get them to lead us to the main culprits," Masetlha said. The director-general expressed concern about refugees evading the system by marrying South Africans in order to obtain residence status. Recently, some 300 refugee applications were withdrawn by foreigners who subsequently married local partners.
Masetlha conceded "very little" controls were in place and said special measures should be introduced to tackle the problem of so-called marriages of convenience. This could include measures as used in the US, where married couples of which one partner was a foreigner, were regularly grilled in a bid to establish if they truly lived together as husband and wife.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Monday, October 8, 2001
A NATION CHALLENGED: THE BANKER; Italian Arab Is Perplexed By Swiss Raid
As he left his office here the night before the Swiss and Italian police raided it, Youssef M. Nada, 71, shook his head, saying: ''To come to the end of my life, a good life, and be accused of helping terrorists -- it is too much.''
Mr. Nada and his partner Ghaleb Himmat, who spent five hours talking with a reporter this week in their office and in Mr. Nada's tiled hillside mansion across the lake in Campione d'Italia, Italy, do not fit the image of the shadowy unregulated money shifters portrayed by some American officials.
From a building with copper-colored windows, they run an empire that had a Bahamas bank and shares of business throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with cement plants, drydocks, textile and brick factories and a division that trades steel, wheat, oil and other commodities. The lone sign for the sixth-floor office is a red placard with one word, ''NADA.'' All others ''were taken down because of the reporters,'' said a banker from another floor.
The trading screens and offices look typical.
Before the raid, Mr. Nada denied that he had aided Al Qaeda or any other terrorist group. ''It is not true, and I'm sure the U.S. government must know it is not true,'' he said when asked about the allegation.
Mr. Nada said he believed that he was a victim of guilt by association because he is a member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and has had members of Osama bin Laden's immensely wealthy family as clients. ''I have been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood for 50 years,'' he said. ''That is no secret. But it is not a violent organization.''
The group, founded in Egypt in 1928, was banned in 1948 for opposing [Farouk I of Egypt]. It wants Egypt to become an Islamic state. Today it has members in Parliament, and the United States State Department does not list it as terrorist organization.
Mr. Nada, who left Egypt in 1959 and is an Italian citizen, pointed out that a deputy to Mr. bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, wrote a book that attacked the group as infidels because they renounced jihad.
His investment house, Al Taqwa, meaning piety or fear of God, offers 3,000 clients investments in accordance with shariah, or Islamic law. That tenet forbids charging interest or owning anything to do with alcohol, weapons, gambling or adultery.
His chief investment vehicle, Al Taqwa Bank of the Bahamas, which he says he voluntarily liquidated in February, worked like a mutual fund, or mudarabah in Arabic. It made no loans and could not own bonds or, for example, shares in casinos, brewers or weapons manufacturers. But it owned commodities contracts and businesses, many in food and construction materials.
At its height, Mr. Nada said, the bank controlled $220 million in assets, and during its 14-year life investors -- ''mostly Muslims, but also some Christian and Jewish friends'' -- had annual returns of 7 to 14 percent. It closed, he said, because large losses in Indonesia and Malaysia plus news reports that alleged shady dealings started a run by investors. The United States said, however, the Bahamas revoked its charter in April.
An investigation by the Swiss Banking Commission, which included an audit by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, found no evidence of money laundering or allowing other entities to use al-Taqwa as a front, according to the audit.
''What more do you want?'' Mr. Nada asked.
Mark Widmer, a spokesman for the Swiss attorney general, said that there were ''signs and rumors about al-Taqwa for years,'' but that Swiss investigators had never found the ''substantial suspicion'' that courts require for a search warrant. He declined to say what new evidence led to the raid today.
Mr. Nada does not appear to lead a shadowy life. He donates to charity, invited a television crew to his house to meet Muslim women who were wearing head scarves and was for years the Middle East expert at the Pio Manzù Research Center, an organization in Rimini, Italy, affiliated with the United Nations.
SOurce: New York Times
Mr. Nada and his partner Ghaleb Himmat, who spent five hours talking with a reporter this week in their office and in Mr. Nada's tiled hillside mansion across the lake in Campione d'Italia, Italy, do not fit the image of the shadowy unregulated money shifters portrayed by some American officials.
From a building with copper-colored windows, they run an empire that had a Bahamas bank and shares of business throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with cement plants, drydocks, textile and brick factories and a division that trades steel, wheat, oil and other commodities. The lone sign for the sixth-floor office is a red placard with one word, ''NADA.'' All others ''were taken down because of the reporters,'' said a banker from another floor.
The trading screens and offices look typical.
Before the raid, Mr. Nada denied that he had aided Al Qaeda or any other terrorist group. ''It is not true, and I'm sure the U.S. government must know it is not true,'' he said when asked about the allegation.
Mr. Nada said he believed that he was a victim of guilt by association because he is a member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and has had members of Osama bin Laden's immensely wealthy family as clients. ''I have been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood for 50 years,'' he said. ''That is no secret. But it is not a violent organization.''
The group, founded in Egypt in 1928, was banned in 1948 for opposing [Farouk I of Egypt]. It wants Egypt to become an Islamic state. Today it has members in Parliament, and the United States State Department does not list it as terrorist organization.
Mr. Nada, who left Egypt in 1959 and is an Italian citizen, pointed out that a deputy to Mr. bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, wrote a book that attacked the group as infidels because they renounced jihad.
His investment house, Al Taqwa, meaning piety or fear of God, offers 3,000 clients investments in accordance with shariah, or Islamic law. That tenet forbids charging interest or owning anything to do with alcohol, weapons, gambling or adultery.
His chief investment vehicle, Al Taqwa Bank of the Bahamas, which he says he voluntarily liquidated in February, worked like a mutual fund, or mudarabah in Arabic. It made no loans and could not own bonds or, for example, shares in casinos, brewers or weapons manufacturers. But it owned commodities contracts and businesses, many in food and construction materials.
At its height, Mr. Nada said, the bank controlled $220 million in assets, and during its 14-year life investors -- ''mostly Muslims, but also some Christian and Jewish friends'' -- had annual returns of 7 to 14 percent. It closed, he said, because large losses in Indonesia and Malaysia plus news reports that alleged shady dealings started a run by investors. The United States said, however, the Bahamas revoked its charter in April.
An investigation by the Swiss Banking Commission, which included an audit by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, found no evidence of money laundering or allowing other entities to use al-Taqwa as a front, according to the audit.
''What more do you want?'' Mr. Nada asked.
Mark Widmer, a spokesman for the Swiss attorney general, said that there were ''signs and rumors about al-Taqwa for years,'' but that Swiss investigators had never found the ''substantial suspicion'' that courts require for a search warrant. He declined to say what new evidence led to the raid today.
Mr. Nada does not appear to lead a shadowy life. He donates to charity, invited a television crew to his house to meet Muslim women who were wearing head scarves and was for years the Middle East expert at the Pio Manzù Research Center, an organization in Rimini, Italy, affiliated with the United Nations.
SOurce: New York Times
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