Crime and Justice International Magazine - Sam Houston State University

As is known, the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001, in the United States led to the significant activation of the struggle against terrorism in many countries of the world. The urgency of this problem in providing security for governments and their people was noted in a number of decisions of the Security Council of the United Nations. Resolution of the Security Council of the United Nations from September, 12, 2001, No. 1368, has called on the international community to increase efforts for the warning and suppression of terrorism, including increasing coordination and the full implementation in national legislation of antiterrorist Conventions and Resolutions of the Security Council.

The subsequent Resolution of the Security Council from September 28, 2001, No. 1373, established that all states are obliged to prevent and stop the financing of terrorist organizations and groups and to make corresponding amendments and additions to national laws. It is worth emphasizing that earlier a similar position of the international community on this question had been included in the Convention on the Suppression of Terrorist Financing of December 9, 1999, entering into force the next year.

Article 2 of that Convention called upon members of the United Nations to:

    (a)    Refrain from providing any form of support, active or passive, to entities or persons involved in terrorist acts, including by suppressing recruitment of members of terrorist groups and eliminating the supply of weapons to terrorists;

    (b)    Take the necessary steps to prevent the commission of terrorist acts, including by providing an early warning to other States through an exchange of information;

    (c)    Deny safe haven to those who finance, plan, support, or commit terrorist acts, or provide safe havens;

    (d)    Prevent those who finance, plan, facilitate or commit terrorist acts from using their respective territories for those purposes against other States or their citizens;

    (e)    Ensure that any person who participates in the financing, planning, preparation or perpetration of terrorist acts or in supporting terrorist acts is brought to justice and ensure that, in addition to any other measures against them, such terrorist acts are established as serious criminal offences in domestic laws and regulations and that the punishment duly reflects the seriousness of such terrorist acts;

    (f)    Afford one another the greatest measure of assistance in connection with criminal investigations or criminal proceedings relating to the financing or support of terrorist acts, including assistance in obtaining evidence in their possession necessary for the proceedings;

    (g)    Prevent the movement of terrorists or terrorist groups by effective border controls and controls on issuance of identity papers and travel documents, and through measures for preventing counterfeiting, forgery or fraudulent use of identity papers and travel documents.

In accordance with the Resolution of the Security Council from September 28, a Committee of the Security Council for fighting terrorism was established to monitor implementation of the Resolution. The committee consists of 5 voting and 10 non-voting members of the Security Council and coordinates its work with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna.

In accordance with the UN General Assembly Resolution of December 2001, 26 states presented reports on the fight against terrorism at the nation-state level. By July 2002, 47 states had requested the assistance of the Committee, including Azerbaijan. The first report within the framework of Azerbaijan’s official reporting on the fight against terrorism, submitted in fulfillment of Article 6 of Resolution 1373, was distributed by the Security Council as an official document in December 2001.1 The second, an additional report of Azerbaijan government, was distributed as the official document of Security Council among members of the Counterterrorist Committee established by Resolution No. 1373 in August, 2002.2 Both reports of the Azerbaijan Republic contain numerous data about actions taken in the fight against terrorism carried out by the appropriate agencies in Azerbaijan in fulfillment of Security Council Resolutions and reflecting the powerful contribution of the Azerbaijan Republic in the fight against international terrorism.

Events on September 11, 2001, and the subsequent Resolutions of Security Council and General Assembly of the United Nations, led to the formation of a broad-based international antiterrorist coalition, as well as increased activity on counter-terrorism at the national level. Without hesitation Azerbaijan joined the antiterrorist coalition and continues to make contributions to the fight against international terrorism, having a clear program of legislative, administrative, and practical measures in this connection.

To carry out their activity, terrorists require a solid financial base. Both individual states and wealthy sponsors provide financial support to terrorists. For example, according to the U.S. Department of State, from 1997-1999 US$100 million was provided to Chechen separatists by private persons. In the opinion of many leading experts, the most important approach is not the destruction of separate leaders of world terrorism (for example, Osama bin Laden), but the blocking of financing.  

Proceeding from this, the government of Azerbaijan allocates a special role to struggle against terrorist financing through the interruption of the flow of money directed to the maintenance of terrorist groups. Azerbaijan was one of few countries of the region that actively responded to Financial Action Task Force (FATF) initiatives. In particular, the movement of financial resources from the country is more tightly controlled and banking laws have been revised and are now as close to international standards as possible.

The decree of the President of Azerbaijan of May, 11, 2002, authorized the “Plan of Measures on Fulfilling Resolutions of the Security Council of the United Nations, No. 1368 from September 12, 2001, No. 1373 from September 28, 2001, and No. 1377 from November 12, 2001.” By this same decree, the appropriate agencies were given the task of implementing certain actions in the fight against terrorist activity and financing of terrorism such as freezing financial and other assets of both physical and legal entities that commit or attempt to commit acts of terrorism. The plan also provided for assistance to members of the antiterrorist coalition in the investigation of criminal cases connected to terrorist activity.

Using both domestic laws and international legal documents, law enforcement agencies of the Azerbaijan Republic undertake all necessary measures in establishing, detaining, and bringing to justice persons guilty in the organization, financing, support, and commission of acts of terrorism.

From 2001-2005, law enforcement and other state agencies of Azerbaijan carried out the following:

    •    For their connections with international terrorist structures, the activities of six “charities” on territory of Azerbaijan, including Al-Haramein (Saudi Arabia), The Fund for the Sick (Kuwait), The International Welfare Fund (USA), and others, were stopped. Twenty two of their employees were expelled from Azerbaijan and two citizens of Egypt were transferred to authorities there;3

    •    Offices of two organizations, Kuwait Fund for the Sick and Qatar Humanitarian Organization, were shut down;4

    •    Mutual assistance with foreign partners in tracking financial activities of terrorist groups continues, revealing various banking structures, nongovernmental organizations and foundations subsidizing them;

    •    In cooperation with Russian law enforcement agencies, the financing of religious extremists was stopped. Twenty-seven active members of an organization based in Dagestan were identified and 9 were detained;5

    •    A new draft law, “On Banks,” was prepared by Azerbaijan in order to prevent the use of funds received through religious, cultural, and charitable activities for terrorism;

    •    According to the decision of the Council of Ministers of Azerbaijan, “On Transporting Currency, Securities, and Other Financial Instruments across the Border,” a document (GA-5) must be issued for currency in an amount greater than US$10,000;

    •    According to an agreement with the National Bank and the Ministry of Taxes of Azerbaijan, the Decree of the Chairman of the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan, No. 013, from February 13, 2002, transporting currency in sums greater than US$50,000 is to be reported to the National Bank and the Ministry of Taxes.6

There are two major factors promoting the support of terrorism. They are a low standard of life of the population in a number of countries with rich minerals, in particular oil and gas, as well as the absence of transparency in oil deals. It is very difficult and sometimes impossible to track where the very suspicious middlemen in such deals send their income. It is thought that an increase in the standard of living will essentially assist in reducing terrorism, and the rigid control over financial earnings will weaken it even more. In fact, it has been noticed for a long time that cutting off the financing also cuts off operations.

Thus, the fight against terrorism should begin with the timely discovery and blocking of financial sources. In essence, the question revolves around the prevention of terrorism at its earliest stages. The political motives of terrorists are closely bound with concrete mercenary interests; for that reason, without considerable financial support they are not capable of carrying out the tasks put before them. The economic basis of such support – the laundering of criminal income through various international financial institutions – is the main reason of regional and global instability.7 Within the framework of antiterrorist activity in the fight against financing terrorism, it is necessary to undertake the following steps:

    •    With a view toward accelerating an exchange of operative information stipulated in Resolution 1373 of the Security Council, in the opinion of many experts in this area it is expedient to create an international database about persons and entities rendering financial support to terrorism and the methods of rendering such support;

    •    It is necessary to organize the regular information interchange about sources of illicit import and export of currency and about customs and other offences in offshore zones;

    •    Carrying out the examination and verification of export-import contracts with a view to preventing theft of currency and their concealment in foreign banks;

    •    Development of a mechanism of information interchange between corresponding law enforcement agencies of various countries concerning a wide range of bank operations on the initiated criminal cases and verifications conducted;

    •    At the center of attention there remains the problem of the interaction and merging of international terrorism, illicit drug trafficking, and transnational organized crime, as these dangerous phenomena are similar, and sometimes utilize common channels of financial support.

State agencies – which according to their functional responsibilities should fight against terrorist financing along with tracking traditional criminal methods of financing terrorist activity (smuggling of monetary resources, counterfeiting credit cards, underground money transfers, etc.) – pay special attention to discovering links of established terrorist groups with nongovernmental organizations (NGO), charities, and international financial institutions. It is necessary to conduct financial investigations regarding NGOs along three lines:

    •    revealing links of NGOs with government sponsors of terrorism;

    •    determining and investigating private NGOs acting as a front for terrorist activities;

    •    investigating known international NGOs with a view toward revealing those among their employees sympathizing with terrorists and assisting them in accessing monetary resources, opening accounts in their name in branches of their organization in various countries.

Taking into account the above-mentioned aspects of the fight against terrorist financing in Azerbaijan, we consider it necessary by means of this article to answer “accusations” which have been reflected in V.A. Karleba’s article from the Krasnodar Legal Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.8 In the article, the author asserts (without giving the source of the information and without references to scientific or other literature) that “Turkish terrorists – ‘grey wolves’ – are operating in Azerbaijan not only under the control of but also with the active participation of the Turkish special services.” This is clearly the prejudiced attitude of the author toward Azerbaijan as these accusations are not included in any research in the specified article and are not connected to financing terrorism and in general. The author goes on to say: “It is noted in Azerbaijan and other countries the unprecedented interest by Chechens in buying up real estate and the creation of joint ventures for the laundering of sponsors’ money. The specified monetary resources transit Azerbaijan…. At present in Azerbaijan there are representatives of practically all the large insurgent groups…. For the transfer of large sums of money in Transcaucasia, accounts in the banks having branches in Baku or supporting correspondent communications with local banks are used, among which are Kredi Libane, ABN-AMRO Bank, M-Bank, and others.” In Azerbaijan, there are neither local nor foreign banks nor their branches under such names. “So, information agencies of Maskhadov and Khattab have been created in Azerbaijan and are trying to transform the international terrorists killing people in the Chechen Republic into fighters for freedom and independence,” etc.

Certainly, similar accusations of Azerbaijan by the author sour relations between our countries, create mutual suspicions, and prevent the formation of a united front in the fight against terrorism and other forms of extremism. It is thought, speaking about terrorism and terrorists, that it is time to refuse double standards. Terrorists have neither racial, national, nor religious belonging. The witness to that may be the accommodation and preparation of insurgents of the Armenian terrorist organization ASALA in special camps in Lebanon and Syria, unprecedented on the cruelty and cynicism of a crime “Islamic jihad” against peaceful tourists in Egypt and explosions in densely-populated places in Pakistan and Indonesia.    

The Azerbaijan Republic also suffers from terror. It is not simply terror, but terror at an interstate level. Soon it will be 20 years since Armenia, under the far-fetched pretext “protection of Armenian population of Karabakh,” occupied more than 20% of territory of sovereign Azerbaijan Republic, having transformed about 1 million people into refugees. On occupied territories, where there is no control by the state or the international community, members of various international terrorist organizations find shelter, transfer illicit weapons and drugs, and launder criminal proceeds. (8) Azerbaijan resolutely condemns all forms and displays of terrorism and aggressive separatism, carrying troubles to thousand people.

Mahammad Imanli is Doctor of Law Science at Baku State University in Azerbaijan. Shahin Nasrullayev is a student in the law department of Baku State.

Notes

    1.    Achievements of Azerbaijan Republic in struggle against terrorism, Proceedings of Azerbaijan Republic for 2001-2002 on the execution of Resolution 1373 (2001) Security Council of United Nations, Baku, 2003, pp.8-12.

    2.    Achievements of Azerbaijan Republic in struggle against terrorism, Proceedings of Azerbaijan Republic for 2001-2002 on the execution of Resolution 1373 (2001) Security Council of United Nations, Baku, 2003, pp.26-29.

    3.    Ya. Kremlovskaya, “Pattern of Successful Counteraction to Terrorism,” Asia and Africa, Moscow, No. 4, 2004, p. 10

    4.    A. Zaidov, “Azerbaijan in Its Fight against International Terrorism,” Zerkalo, Baku, May 21, 2004.   

    5.    B.I. Kofman, S.N. Mironov, N.X. Safiullin, “To Question International Cooperation in the Fight against Terrorism,” Antiterror, Stavropol, No. 1, 2002, p. 59.  

    6.    Proceedings of Azerbaijan Republic for 2001-2002 on the execution of Resolution 1373 (2001) Security Council of United Nations, Baku, 2003, pp.42-43.

    7.    V.A. Karleba, “Financial Sources of International Terrorism,” Antiterror, No. 1, 2003, pp. 52-55.  

    8.    Multilateral Group on International Cooperation in the Fight against Terrorism: Achievements on the National Level – Azerbaijan,” Strasburg, October 7-10, 2002,  http://www/coe/int/.