May 14-18, 2001
Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Summary
A Conference Corruption within Security Forces: a Threat to
National Security was held on May 14-18, 2001 in
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. The conference was sponsored by
the George C. Marshall European Center for Security
Studies, the US
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Bundeskriminalamt (BKA).
The purpose of the conference was to
provide forum for senior executive governmental officials,
parliamentarians, academics, and heads of non-governmental
organizations to exchange information and views on aspects of
organized crime that pose a potential threat to the national
security and regional stability. This year's conference was focused
on corruption of governmental officials and processes within
security forces: law enforcement, customs and border control, and
military services. This conference was the second in a series of
conferences hosted by the Marshall Center, the FBI, and the BKA to
examine the threat that organized crime poses to national security
and regional stability.
The objectives of the forum were
to:
- Evaluate the threat that corruption within
security forces poses to development of democratic processes and
institutions; and its impact on force protection, national
security, and regional stability.
- Determine what is required for the early and
successful identification and containment of corruption within the
security forces.
- Review the effectiveness of measures that
have been used to date to combat and contain corruption within
security forces.
- Propose measures and processes that should be
implemented domestically and transnationally to eliminate
corruption within the security forces.
More than 160 participants from 19 countries and
international organizations attended the conference. Among them
were Mr. John Brandolino - US Department of State, Mr. Michael DeFeo - Assistant
Director of the FBI, Mr. John M. Barton - Assistant of the US
Attorney, Ms. Johanna DeWinter - Deputy Coordinator of the Global
Forum on Corruption II, The Netherlands, Mr. Frederic Wehrle -
Anticorruption Division of OECD, Dr. Eric Rudenshiold
- OSCE, Ms. Mirela Gruentner - representative of the Office of High
Representative (OHR) Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ms. Gwen L. McClure - Head
of the Organized Crime Projects of Interpol, Mr. Rik N. Seaman -
Director of the Central & East European Law Initiative of the
American Bar Association (ABA/CEELI), Mr. Drago Kos - Vice Chairman
of GRECO,
Major General Vladimir Makarov - Deputy Head of Chief Directorate
Combating Economic Crime of the Ministry of Interior, Russia, Judge
Milton Mollen - Chair, City of New York, Mr. Robert Ciaffa - US
Department of Justice, Dr. Alan White - Defense Criminal
Investigative Service of the US Department of Defense, Mr.
Hans-Ulrich Benra - German Ministry of Defense, Mr. Pierre Conesa -
Special Advisor of the Minister of Defense, France, university
professors from Colgate University, American University,
Inter-American Defense College, United States, Keele University,
United Kingdom, and many others.
The participants expressed their views and
discussed the following main topics:
- Corruption within Security Forces: Defining
and Identifying the Problem Cross-Border Corruption:
Causes, Effects and Challenges for Reform,
Corruption within Law Enforcement and Border Control,
Corruption within the Military;
- Investigating and Prosecuting Corruption
within Security Forces;
- Fighting Corruption within the State: Rule
and Role of Law,
What is to be Done: Fighting Corruption within Security Forces
with Law,
Combating Corruption in Governmental Agencies: Rule and Role of
Law,
Building the Legal Infrastructure and Coordinating Key
Organizations;
- Fighting Corruption with Remedies other than
Law,
- Fighting Corruption Together: Taking the
First Steps.
The Transnational Dimension of Corruption and the
Need for Cooperation and Legal Harmonization
Two Plenary Panels of Specialists, Working groups
and Case Study Discussions within them, Open discussions and
exchange of information on the above main topics were organized in
the framework of the conference. Three parallel Workshops and
series of presentations and discussions within their framework were
also held. The topics included:
- Workshop I - Building an Open
Society,
- Workshop II - Developing Good People,
and
- Workshop III - Governmental Checks and
Balances.
Participating in panels and workshops as speakers
and commentators throughout the conference were representatives of
Bundeskriminalamt Germany, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),
German Ministry of Interior, German Customs Service, German
Ministry of Defense, US Customs Service, US Department of Defense,
US Department of Justice, US Department of State, US Agency for
International Development, Bulgarian Ministry of Defense, Coalition
2000, the Center for the Study of Democracy.
Keynote Speaker of the conference was Mr. Max-Peter
Ratzel - Head of the Department of Organized Crime in Federal
Criminal Investigation Bureau of Germany (Bundeskriminalamt).
Moderator of the Conference was M.E. Bowman from the Federal Bureau
of Investigation (FBI).
At the conference Bulgaria was represented by the
Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Defense, the Supreme Cassation
Prosecutor's Office, Sofia District Court and Sofia District
Governor's Office, as well as the Center for the Study of Democracy
and representatives of the anticorruption initiative Coalition
2000.
Dr. Ognian Shentov, CSD President, made a
presentation on the topic Corruption within Law Enforcement and
Border Control. He addressed corruption within agencies
responsible for law enforcement and border control: how and why
these organizations are a target for corruption, the range of
activities in which they have become implicated, the effect of
corruption on law enforcement and the control of borders and the
impact on society and on regional stability. Mr. Alexander Stoyanov
expert of Coalition 2000 took part in the discussion on the
topic Investigating and Prosecuting Corruption within Security
Forces. He presented the techniques used by Coalition
2000 for monitoring corruption in Bulgaria. Among the speakers
on the topic Fighting Corruption within the State: Rule and Role
of Law was Ms. Nelly Koutzkova, Chair of Sofia District Court,
who stressed on the legal issues associated with combating
corruption and especially the Parliament's role in building a legal
infrastructure. Dr. Maria Yordanova, theCSD Law Program Head, Ms.
Alexenia Dimitrova, Investigative Journalist of 24 Chassa
Daily, as well as Mr. Plamen Petkov, Secretary General of the
Ministry of Defense, took part in the discussion on the topic
Fighting Corruption with Remedies Other than Law (Building an
Open Society and Developing Good People). They presented the
role of Bulgarian nongovernmental organizations and governmental
institutions in developing and implementing a comprehensive action
plan to combat corruption, the role of the media and investigative
reporting to uncover corruption, as well as the importance of
established trust-based public-policy partnership in Bulgaria.
At the conference CSD participants had meetings with
representatives of international organizations and national
agencies, and useful contacts were established. A regional
Conference on corruption as a follow up of the corruption
conference in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in May 2001 will be held in
March 2002 in Sofia jointly by Marshall Center and CSD. The
possibility to organize anticorruption training for representatives
of security forces and other law enforcement agencies in Bulgaria
was discussed with German senior officials from Bundeskriminalamt
(Mr. Claus-Peter Holz, Leader of the Section Corruption, Weapons
Crime, Environmental Crime), Ministry of Defense and Bundeswehr. Mr. Guido Mathes, Head of Department in
the Bundeswehr Academie for Information & Communication paid
special attention to CSD work on the establishment of the ombudsman
institution in Bulgaria and proposed assistance in its future
activities on the issue.
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