By H.E. Ms. Vestine Nahimana, Ambassador of the Republic of Burundi to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. On the occasion of the lifting of sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran which effect, we all know, economically and politically asphyxiated the country, the Embassy of the Republic of Burundi in The Hague welcomes this decision and congratulates the Iranian people for the patience and the endurance which they displayed throughout the period of the international sanctions. The pain endured by the Iranian people is the same pain that Burundians are currently unjustly facing. Some countries, in particular, the European Union countries and the United States of America have unfortunately relied on false information, and a misreading of the political and security situation in Burundi to impose unjust economic sanctions against the people of Burundi. The purpose of these sanctions, we know, are likely to weaken the national economy and that of the entire economic community which Burundi is one of the state parties. The Embassy of the Republic of Burundi in The Hague also deplores the violent attitude of the radical Burundi opposition which organizes and uses terrorist attacks as a means of political expression. These terrorist attacks include the throwing of grenades against civilians in public places and conducting sporadic attacks on police and Military personnel and installations. In the same context, the Burundi Embassy in The Hague strongly condemns the attitude of some foreign media and international organizations that through the propagation of false reports manipulate and incite national and international public opinion against Burundi and breeds hatred and violence among the people of Burundi. One example among many of the hateful culture of lies intended to manipulate international public opinion against Burundi and incite violence among its people is the recent widely televised video of a despicably violent attack against some civilians somewhere in West Africa by the French television channel France 3, portraying it to be a video of alleged violations perpetrated against civilian opposition members in Burundi. Pursuing this campaign of hate and lies against Burundi, Amnesty International, recently released a flawed and unscientific report alleging that its reading and analysis of it satellite images recorded over Burundi established the presence of mass graves in a predominantly agricultural area where soil and sand can be found. Any objective, independent and fair minded human rights investigator would have verified the satellite images through a site visit rather than make conclusory findings that insult, ignore and abuses the agricultural activities of the Burundian people under unjustified international sanctions. The choice and the date of their publication clearly shows that the NGO wanted to influence the deliberations of the African Heads of States who met in Addis Ababa during the 26th African Union Summit to endorse the decision to send an African protection and prevention force to Burundi without the consent of the government and people of Burundi. Fortunately, African Head of States like the Members of the UN Security Council relying on credible information available to them, have come to agree with the Government of Burundi which is convinced that the solution to Burundi’s political problems cannot and will never be military nor will come from unjust economic sanctions. Burundi welcomes the fact that the international community is beginning to discover that the source of the insecurity afflicting Burundi is Rwanda. Information available to the government of Burundi and credible information from some media (France 24) and investigative reports by some International Experts, including UN Experts have confirmed that Rwanda which is a neighboring country to Burundi recruits, trains and arms Burundian citizens including minors in the MAHAMA Refugees Camp in Rwanda and sends them into to the territory of Burundi to commit armed attacks against civilians, security and military targets.. We know that some countries and some components of the international community have suspended or even stopped economic cooperation in order to force the democratically elected institutions by the sovereign people of Burundi and validated by the national and sub-regional judicial powers to submit and hand over power to anti-democratic Burundian forces. On the basis of credible information pointing to unprovoked acts of hostility and destabilization sponsored by Rwanda and executed by the violent opposition as the direct causes of the violence in Burundi, the Burundi Embassy in The Hague urges the countries which suspended economic cooperation with Burundi to review their positions. The Burundian Government is willing to conduct an open dialogue with its economic partners on all issues relevant to their bilateral cooperation. Finally the Embassy of the Republic of Burundi in The Hague informs the international community that the leitmotiv of the Government of Burundi is dialogue. In this regard, the Embassy of the Republic of Burundi informs the international community that the inter-Burundian dialogue is ongoing in all provinces of Burundi. The ongoing Inter-Burundi dialogue will be extended to the members of Burundian diaspora for them to participate in this inclusive dialogue. Through this inter-Burundian dialogue, the people of Burundi hope to find a definite solution to the recurrent political problems that arise at the eve every election held in Burundi.

Bemba case: Trial Chamber III to deliver its verdict on 21 March 2016 in open Court Trial Chamber III of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued on February 2 an order scheduling the hearing to deliver the verdict in the case The Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo on Monday 21 March 2016, at 14:00 (The Hague local time), in open session. The Chamber is composed of Judges Sylvia Steiner (Brazil), presiding, Joyce Aluoch (Kenya) and Kuniko Ozaki (Japan). The session will be transmitted live through the ICC website. The verdict will be read out in public and will either acquit or convict the accused. The accused before the ICC is presumed innocent. While the Prosecution must prove the guilt of the accused, the Trial Chamber will convict the accused only if it is satisfied that the charges have been proven beyond reasonable doubt. The three judges ensure the fairness of the trial and that the rights of both parties and of the victims are respected. In response to the verdict, the various parties will be able to appeal the decision before the ICC’s Appeals Chamber. The trial in the Bemba case started on 22 November 2010 and the submission of evidence in the case was closed on 7 April 2014. Mr Bemba is allegedly criminally responsible, as a military commander, for two counts of crimes against humanity (murder and rape) and three counts of war crimes (murder, rape and pillaging) allegedly committed in the context of the situation in Central African Republic in 2002-2003. Information: www.icc-cpi.int  

On the picture the first Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans and President Jean-Claude Juncker.

European Commission presented an Action Plan to strengthen the fight against the financing of terrorism.

The recent terrorist attacks in the European Union and beyond demonstrate the need for a strong coordinated European response to combatting terrorism.

The European Agenda for Security had identified a number of areas to improve the fight against terrorist financing. On 2 February in Strasbourg, a comprehensive Action Plan delivered a strong and swift response to the current challenges, building on existing EU rules and complementing them where necessary.

First Vice-President Frans Timmermans, said: “We have to cut off the resources that terrorists use to carry out their heinous crimes. By detecting and disrupting the financing of terrorist networks, we can reduce their ability to travel, to buy weapons and explosives, to plot attacks and to spread hate and fear online.

In the coming months the Commission will update and develop EU rules and tools through well-designed measures to tackle emerging threats and help national authorities to step up the fight against terrorist financing and cooperate better, in full respect of fundamental rights. It’s crucial that we work together on terrorist financing to deliver results and protect European citizens’ security”

Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis, in charge of the Euro and Social Dialogue, said: “With today’s Action Plan we are moving swiftly to clamp down on terrorist financing, starting with legislative proposals in the coming months. We must cut off-terrorists’ access to funds, enable authorities to better track financial flows to prevent devastating attacks such as those in Paris last year, and ensure that money laundering and terrorist financing is sanctioned in all Member States.

We want to improve the oversight of the many financial means used by terrorists, from cash and cultural artifacts to virtual currencies and anonymous pre-paid cards, while avoiding unnecessary obstacles to the functioning of payments and financial markets for ordinary, law-abiding citizens.”

The Action Plan will focus on two main strands of action:

• Tracing terrorists through financial movements and preventing them from moving funds or other assets;
• Disrupting the sources of revenue used by terrorist organizations, by targeting their capacity to raise funds.

Preventing the movement of funds and identifying terrorist funding

Terrorists are involved in a variety of both licit and illicit activities to finance terrorist acts. Tracking financial flows can help to identify and pursue terrorist networks. New financial tools and payment modes create new vulnerabilities that need to be addressed. Closing off options for terrorism funding is crucial for security, but measures in this field may also touch on the lives and the economic activity of citizens and companies throughout the EU.

This is why the Commission’s proposals will balance the need to increase security with the need to protect fundamental rights, including data protection, and economic freedoms.

The adoption of the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Package in May 2015 represented a significant step in improving the effectiveness of the EU’s efforts to combat the laundering of money from criminal activities and to counter the financing of terrorist activities. It must now be implemented swiftly by Member States.

The Commission is calling on Member States to commit to do this by the end of 2016. In December 2015, the Commission proposed a Directive on combatting terrorism which criminalises terrorist financing and the funding of recruitment, training and travel for terrorism purposes. The Commission is now proposing further ways to tackle the abuse of the financial system for terrorist financing purposes.

We will propose a number of targeted amendments to the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive at the latest by the end of the second quarter of 2016, in the following areas:

• Ensuring a high level of safeguards for financial flows from high risk third countries: The Commission will amend the Directive to include a list of all compulsory checks (due diligence measures) that financial institutions should carry out on financial flows from countries having strategic deficiencies in their national anti-money laundering and terrorist financing regimes. Applying the same measures in all Member States will avoid having loopholes in Europe, where terrorists could run operations through countries with lower levels of protection;
• Enhancing the powers of EU Financial Intelligence Units and facilitating their cooperation: the scope of information accessible by the Financial Intelligence Units will be widened, in line with the latest international standards;
• Centralised national bank and payment account registers or central data retrieval systems in all Member States: the Directive will be amended to give Financial Intelligence Units easier and faster access to information on the holders of bank and payment accounts;
• Tackling terrorist financing risks linked to virtual currencies: to prevent their abuse for money laundering and terrorist financing purposes, the Commission proposes to bring virtual currency exchange platforms under the scope of the Anti-Money Laundering Directive, so that these platforms have to apply customer due diligence controls when exchanging virtual for real currencies, ending the anonymity associated with such exchanges;
• Tackling risks linked to anonymous pre-paid instruments (e.g. pre-paid cards): the Commission proposes to lower thresholds for identification and widening customer verification requirements. Due account will be taken of proportionality, in particular with regard to the use of these cards by financially vulnerable citizens.

Other measures will include:

• Improving the efficiency of the EU’s transposition of UN asset freezing measures and improve the accessibility of UN listings to EU financial institutions and economic operators by the end of 2016. The Commission will also assess the need for a specific EU regime for the freezing of terrorist assets;
• Criminalising money laundering: a comprehensive common definition of money laundering offences and sanctions across the EU will avoid obstacles to cross-border judicial and police cooperation to tackle money laundering;
• Limiting risks linked to cash payments: through a legislative proposal on illicit cash movements, the Commission will extend the scope of the existing regulation to include cash shipped by freight or post and to allow authorities to act upon lower amounts of cash where there are suspicions of illicit activity;
• Assessing additional measures to track terrorism financing: the Commission will explore the need for a complementary EU system for tracking terrorist financing, for example to cover intra-EU payments which are not captured by the EU-US Terrorism Financing Tracking Programme (TFTP).

Disrupting the sources of revenue of terrorist organisations

Illicit trade from occupied areas is currently a primary source of revenue for terrorist organisations, including trade in cultural goods and the illicit wildlife trade. They can also gain from trade in legal goods.

The Commission and the European External Action Service will provide technical assistance to Middle East and North African countries to fight against the trafficking of cultural goods and provide support to third countries to comply with United Nations Security Council Resolutions in this field. Countries in the Middle East, North Africa and South East Asia will also receive support to improve the fight against terrorism financing.

In 2017 the Commission will table a legislative proposal to reinforce the powers of customs authorities to address terrorism financing through trade in goods, for example by tackling illegal gains through dissimulation of trade transactions, misrepresentation of the value of goods and fictitious invoicing.

Another proposal will address the illicit trade in cultural goods to extend the scope of the current legislation to a wider number of countries.

Next steps

The Action Plan lists a number of concrete measures that will be put into practice by the Commission immediately. Others will follow in the months to come. All the actions presented today should be carried out by the end of 2017 (see detailed timeline in factsheet).

Background

The European Agenda on Security underlined the need for measures to address terrorist financing in a more effective and comprehensive manner. Steps taken over the past year include the introduction of criminal sanctions for the financing of terrorism through a proposal for a Directive on combating terrorism, and the European Union’s signature of the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism.

The conclusions of the Justice and Home Affairs Council on 20 November, the Economic and Financial Affairs Council of 8 December as well as of the European Council of 18 December 2015 stressed the need to further intensify the work in this field. At the same time, the resolution passed by the United Nations Security Council on 17 December 2015, more specifically targeting funding to Da’esh and extending the former “Al Qaeda” sanction regime, showed a deep global consensus to act against terrorist financing.

Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades and Prime Minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras.   First Cyprus-Israel-Greece tripartite meeting in Nicosia On 28 January 2016. President Nicos Anastasiades, the Prime Minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras and the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu presided over the first Cyprus-Greece-Israel Trilateral Summit in Nicosia. A joint declaration was adopted forming the foundation of the cooperation between the three countries, including, inter alia, in the fields of energy, tourism, research and technology, the environment, water management, terrorism and migration. Within the framework of the summit a Memorandum of Understanding for Cooperation in the field of Water Resources Management among the three countries was signed by the three respective ministers of Agriculture. In remarks to the press after the trilateral meeting, President Anastasiades highlighted that “the objective of the trilateral cooperation is the promotion of peace, stability and security in the Eastern Mediterranean, through the substantive and practical strengthening of our joint ventures in all the fields of cooperation and therefore it was not and it is not possible for this cooperation of ours to be directed against any other country.”

Characterizing the Joint Declaration that was adopted by the three countries a really historic document, the President also remarked that the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding in the field of Water Resources Management, is a tangible and practical example and step of the cooperation between the three countries. On his part the Israeli Prime Minister pointed out, inter alia, that during the Trilateral Meeting the leaders discussed the issue of natural gas “and we decided to explore this in a very audacious way, to form a trilateral Committee between Greece, Cyprus and Israel to plan the possibility of a pipeline that would take our common resources of gas and export it to Europe via Greece. A pipeline from Israel, Cyprus through Greece to Europe. This goes along side our other plans vis-à-vis the exploitation of the energy recourses. The second thing that we are embarking on is creating an interconnecting underwater cable to connect the electricity grids of Israel, Cyprus and later on Greece.”  Mr Netanyahu concluded that “We can pledge that our trilateral cooperation will help bring the blessings of progress not only to the citizens of our three democracies but also perhaps to the wider region by helping stability, security, prosperity and peace.”  In his own remarks, the Greek Prime Minister said that “we had today a very substantive discussion: we agreed on the opportunities and the possibilities for a close cooperation; we identified fields of common interest where we can implement joint programs in order to have immediate, practical results; we agreed on the formation of a tripartite joint working and coordinating group with regard to the critical field of energy; we agreed to press on with energy networks that will strengthen the energy security of our countries, but also that of the broader region.” Photography by  the Press and Information Office – Republic of Cyprus.