RI urged to ratify UN graft convention

RI urged to ratify UN graft convention

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In the months following the downfall of former president Soeharto
in May 1998, the government sent a special team to look for
stolen money allegedly stashed away by the former dictator in
Europe. The team returned home empty handed.

Many doubted that the team was actually serious about its
work. But if it was, and it still failed to come up with the
goods, what could be done?

One possible solution may be provided by a new United Nations
convention, after it comes into effect.

A senior UN official suggested on Wednesday that Indonesia
soon ratify the UN Convention Against Corruption, which
introduces a new concept of asset recovery in a bid to boost the
anticorruption drive around the world.

UN Office on Drugs and Crime's senior crime prevention and
criminal justice officer Dmitri Vlassis said that the
introduction of the rules on asset recovery provided hope for
those countries facing problems with corrupt leaders who had
transferred their ill-gotten gains abroad.

"If the convention was implemented, it would be much more
difficult for corrupt leaders to find a place to hide the
proceeds of their crimes," he told reporters on the sidelines of
a two-day seminar organized by the foreign affairs ministry.

Vlassis hoped Indonesia would have the political will to
ratify and implement the convention, given the fact that
Indonesia was originally one of its proponents.

"Indonesia invested greatly in its negotiation. We hope it
will continue to demonstrate political will, especially now. We
at the UN are ready to help as much as we can," he said.

Mutual legal assistance and cooperation between countries is
mandatory in asset recovery cases under the convention, Vlassis
said.

Indonesia, which signed the convention in December, is one of
111 signatory countries. Six of them -- Kenya, Nigeria, Mexico,
El Savador, Namibia and Sri Lanka -- have ratified the
convention.

The convention is due to take effect in December 2005 after 30
countries have signed it. The UN will oversee the implementation
of the convention.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirajuda has said that the
government was hoping to submit a bill ratifying the convention
to the House of Representatives for deliberation soon.

"We have faced some administrative difficulties, but we will
soon finish it and submit it to the House," he said without
elaborating.

Criminal law expert at the University of Indonesia Harkristuti
Harkrisnowo said that the convention contained some breakthroughs
as it provided a mechanism for asset recovery, including a
provions that bank secrecy could not be used as an excuse to
thwart the process.

"We have yet to introduce legislation to enable the state to
recover illicit funds," she said.

Predicting that it would not be easy to implement the
convention in Indonesia, Hakristuti suggested that the government
and the House put in place the necessary ancillary regulations to
make the convention effective here.

"We badly need it because high-profile corruptors have stolen
huge amounts of money from the people and laundered it abroad. We
need to get it back to develop the country," she said.

The new convention covers corruption in both the private and
governmental sectors.

Selected provisions of the UN Convention against Corruption:

Article 40: Bank Secrecy
Each State Party shall ensure that, in the case of domestic
criminal investigations of offenses established in accordance
with this Convention, there are appropriate mechanisms available
within its domestic legal system to overcome obstacles that may
arise out of the application of bank secrecy laws.

Article 51: General Provisions
The return of assets pursuant to this chapter is a fundamental of
the Convention and State Parties shall afford one another the
widest measure of cooperation and assistance in this regard.