Powell Outlines Issues Confronting Western Hemisphere

 


(Secretary says terrorism, other new threats face region) (2950)





Secretary of State Colin Powell says that while traditional armed


conflicts remain a problem in the Western Hemisphere, new security


threats such as terrorism, money laundering, organized crime, drug


trafficking, and the scourge of HIV/AIDS have intensified in the


region.





In a statement to the press June 3 at the General Assembly of the


Organization of American States (OAS) in Bridgetown, Barbados, Powell


said the inter-American system, based on the OAS charter and the Rio


Treaty, has "shown its ability to adapt and respond to new and


traditional threats."





To make sure this remain the case, Powell said, OAS foreign ministers


agreed to call on the organization to develop an inter-American


declaration on hemispheric security with suggestions on how to "update


our security architecture."





Powell said the OAS foreign ministers asked that this declaration be


ready for adoption by an upcoming special conference on security. In


addition to security issues, the secretary said the OAS foreign


ministers discussed the importance of the January 2005 deadline for


completing negotiations on the Free Trade Area of the Americas.





The Secretary said free trade "promises to strengthen our democracies,


the rule of law, and market-led economic growth for all the people of


the region. Free trade and its benefits are goals we will pursue with


determination."





Powell said he was pleased to have joined his colleagues in signing


the new Inter-American Convention Against Terrorism, which honors the


hemispheric-wide commitment to enhance cooperation in the fight


against terrorism.





The Secretary said the OAS foreign ministers also discussed the


problems confronting Haiti and Venezuela, which Powell described "as


cases of special concern."





These countries, Powell said, are "under strain," and the OAS "has an


obligation to defend and support struggling democracies that wish to


remain members of an inter-American community sharing common


democratic values." But for the OAS to help those countries, Powell


said, Haiti and Venezuela must also "avail themselves of OAS


mechanisms to strengthen their democracies."





The following is the transcript of Powell's remarks:





Remarks to the Press by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell


Following the General Assembly of the Organization of the American


States





Bridgetown





June 3, 2002





Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It's a great pleasure for me to be


in Barbados heading the U.S. Delegation to this meeting of the


Organization of the American States General Assembly. I'd like to


begin by expressing my appreciation to the Government and to the


people of Barbados for extending such fine hospitality to all the


members of the delegation.





More than ever before, the Americas stand together today against


terrorism and for democracy. There can be no doubt of our resolve.





I am pleased to have just joined my colleagues in signing the new


Inter-American Convention Against Terrorism. The Organization of


American States was the first organization to condemn the September 11


attacks. Then, just ten days later, OAS Foreign Ministers meeting in


Washington instructed the OAS Permanent Council to prepare a draft


text of an Inter-American Convention Against Terrorism for today's OAS


General Assembly. This has now been done, and we applaud our


delegations for completing this task on time and on target.





Today we also discussed other hemispheric security issues. While


traditional threats such as armed conflicts have not disappeared, new


security threats have intensified, such as terrorism, money


laundering, organized crime, drug trafficking, and the scourge of


HIV/AIDS.





The Inter-American system, based on the charter of the Organization of


American States and the Rio Treaty, has shown its ability to adapt and


respond to new and traditional threats. To make sure that this remains


the case, we agreed to call on the OAS to develop an Inter-American


Declaration on Hemispheric Security with suggestions on how to update


our security architecture. We asked that this declaration be ready for


adoption by the upcoming Special Conference on Security.





In addition to security issues, we discussed the importance of the


January 2005 deadline for completing negotiations on the Free Trade


Area of the Americas. Free trade promises to strengthen our


democracies, the rule of law, and market-led economic growth for all


the people of the region. Free trade and its benefits are goals we


will pursue with determination.





My colleagues and I also discussed democracy in our hemisphere, as


reflected in the Inter-American Democratic Charter that we signed last


September 11. Venezuela and Haiti have emerged as cases of special


concern. These democracies are under strain. The OAS has an obligation


to defend and support struggling democracies that wish to remain


members of an inter-American community sharing common democratic


values. But for the OAS to help, Haiti and Venezuela must open the


"toolbox" of the Inter-American Democratic Charter and avail


themselves of OAS mechanisms to strengthen their democracies.





I also had a good detailed discussion with the Argentine Foreign


Minister, Mr. Ruckauf. I told him we greatly valued Argentina's


democracy and its cooperation as a major non-NATO ally. I welcome the


recent laws that have been passed and the progress he reported to me


on reaching agreement on budget matters with the state of Argentina as


it puts in place with the IMF plans for sustainable economic recovery.





I'd once again like to thank Prime Minister Arthur, Foreign Minister


Miller, the Government of Barbados and especially the people of


Barbados for making us so welcome and facilitating our work during


this conference. Thank you very much, and I'd be delighted to take a


few questions.





QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, I wanted to ask, with this treaty, what will


it do concretely, what else remains to be done, and as a different


issue, what are the prospects for peace between India and Pakistan?





SECRETARY POWELL: With respect to this treaty, it's a very important


treaty in that it's a matter of international law, because in this


treaty we will all be obliged to take the actions required under the


treaty, create financial investigatory units to chase down financial


activities of terrorist organizations. Each country will have to put


in place such a unit, cooperate more fully in the sharing of


intelligence and law enforcement matters.





Another interesting aspect of this treaty is that those suspected


terrorists who seek to achieve amnesty or political refuge in one of


our countries will be denied such refuge, such protection from their


dastardly deeds. I think it is an important agreement, and the fact


sheet that has been put out by the OAS, I think, explains in greater


detail some of the other mechanisms that will be put in place by this


treaty.





I'm so pleased that 30 of the 33 nations present were able and ready


to sign. It's quite remarkable in thinking about it how quickly this


treaty was brought into effect and into being, and I'm quite confident


that the United States will act quickly upon it and ratify it when we


have a chance to present it to the United States Senate.





With respect to India and Pakistan, it's a situation that continues to


concern us deeply. I spoke to president Musharraf over the weekend,


once again encouraging him to do everything to restrain all activity


and all activity across the line of control. When that takes place in


a way that is obvious and demonstrable to all, then we would call upon


India to take the de-escalatory steps so we can start moving in the


other direction.





I'm pleased that both sides in the last several days have once again


discussed the non-use of nuclear weapons and both sides realize that


this is a threshold that we do not wish to see crossed. It would be


absolutely horrible in the year 2002 for any nation to use nuclear


weapons in a situation such as this, and I'm glad that both nations


have responded in a responsible manner to that concern on the part of


the international community.





Deputy Secretary Of State Armitage, I spoke to Mr. Armitage this


morning. He will be heading to the region tomorrow to speak to both


leaders. As you also know, both leaders are in Almaty in Kazakhstan,


where they'll have the opportunity to speak to President Putin of


Russia and President Jiang Zemin of China and other leaders who I'm


sure will express their concerns about this situation and encourage


both sides to find a political solution. So we will continue with the


full-court diplomatic press that we've had underway, with my Deputy


going in, and then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will be


heading into the region in another week to ten days' time. After he


concludes meetings in NATO and visits in the Persian Gulf, he will be


going to India and Pakistan.





QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, Enrico Wilford from Capital News in Guyana.


There was a report of a State Department official who was implicated


in a visa racket that two Chicago papers said threatened the security


of the United States. Members of the Guyana police were implicated in


that racket as a method of enforcers. What measures and what steps


have you taken to impress the Guyana government that corruption within


law enforcement agencies can lead to a problem in terms of your own


security?





SECRETARY POWELL: Well, it's a problem for our security; it's a


problem for Guyana's security. We have from time to time found


individuals within our government -- I don't want to speak to that


specific case, but we have found individuals in our government who do


not meet the standards of performance that we expect, and in fact are


criminals.





You can be sure that in the United States they will be prosecuted to


the fullest extent of the law. They put their fellow citizens and they


put their nation at risk; anybody in any other nation who participates


in similar activity puts our nation at risk, but also their own nation


at risk. Criminal action is criminal action. There is no justification


for it. These individuals are acting to benefit themselves, and by so


doing put innocent people at risk, and it should be condemned. I'm


quite sure that all of my colleagues here in the OAS feel the same


way. That's one reason we came together on a convention of the type we


signed earlier this morning.





QUESTION: The Prime Minister of Barbados has been at pains to explain


your absence last night. And his government wants a multi-dimensional


approach to hemispheric security as a main pin for this assembly. What


has been the United States' response to that specific proposal?





SECRETARY POWELL: The Prime Minister and I had a very good discussion


this morning for close to forty minutes on a multi-dimensional


approach that has to focus on security, but it also has to focus on


economic development. It has to take into account the unique


circumstances some of the smaller nations in the OAS that really can't


compete head to head with some of the larger nations within the OAS.


There are a number of nations within the Caribbean area that have


small populations and rather small economies in the sense that they


are not sufficiently diversified, and the Prime Minister made a


powerful argument to me that these things have to be taken into


account as we move forward with the Free Trade Area of the Americas,


and as the United States comes forward with its millennium challenge


account which will make available up to five billion additional


dollars every year beginning in three years' time for undeveloped


nations around the world.





We also had a very constructive discussion with the Prime Minister on


the need for infrastructure investment of the kind that Barbados has


made which has given Barbados a 99 percent literacy rate and life


expectancy into the seventies. The success of Barbados is an example


to the rest of the region.





In all of the interventions that I heard in the General Assembly this


morning, even though we focused on terrorism and we talked about this


convention with respect to prevention of terrorism, we also talked


about economic development, we also talked about infrastructure


development. In my intervention, I described how I am trying to get


additional aid funding from my Congress for my normal accounts, plus I


indicated to my colleagues there'll be a great deal of support for


this millennium challenge fund, adding five billion dollars a year on


top of what we already do, and we're going to use that for just those


kinds of multi-dimensional purposes.





With respect to explaining my absence last night, I regret that I did


not get here in time for the events at the residence, which I heard


were outstanding, but other obligations that I had in Washington did


not permit me to arrive in time for the reception.





Yes, ma'am?





QUESTION: (Inaudible)...you be aware of September 11 and all its


implications. In recent times there have been accusations against the


United States of racial profiling, the indefinite detention of


prisoners in Guantanamo, and also tribunals perhaps which fall outside


the democracy that the United States professes so strongly to try to


uphold. How do you respond to such charges, sir?





SECRETARY POWELL: Well, let me start with the tribunals. The military


tribunals you're referring to were for those unique cases that might


come along as a result of this new kind of conflict. We're not


fighting a state, we're fighting terrorists. Nobody has gone before


these tribunals yet, and I think they will be used in a very rare and


selective manner, and they are totally consistent with international


law, and they are totally consistent with United States law. Anybody


who would go before this tribunal will receive constitutional


protections that we would expect any individual coming before the laws


of the United States to be afforded. We spent a great deal of time on


this tribunal to make sure that it did not in any way violate anyone's


human rights or basic standards of justice which we all believe in as


a democratic nation.





With respect to the detained individuals at Guantanamo, they are being


treated with care and they are being treated consistent with all of


the obligations that we have under the UN Convention, the Geneva


Convention, even though some of them, the al Qaeda terrorists as so


identified, we do not believe need to be considered prisoners of war


under the Geneva Convention. But you can be sure that the treatment


they get is consistent with what one would expect the United States to


do under the Geneva Convention.





Under the Geneva Convention and existing rules of law, we will deal


with this population of individuals. Some may find themselves before


legal proceedings. Others may just find themselves detained until the


end of hostilities, which is normal practice under international law


in time of conflict or war, the kind we find ourselves in. We are


detaining them not just for the purpose of detaining them with no


reason; we're detaining them to get information, to gain intelligence,


to see if they are responsible for any criminal acts that should be


prosecuted, and frankly to help protect ourselves. They may have


information, they may have connections to others; and it's a little


premature to just say that you can go back to what you were doing


before the hostilities began, especially if there is some likelihood


that they may get back into that kind of terrorist activity. So we're


doing this as an act of self-defense, and I think we're protecting the


people of the region and the people of the world as well, who deplore


terrorism of this kind.





Thank you, but I have to get to the lunch at the Prime Minister's.





QUESTION: ...twenty missions in Haiti, all of them failed? So what is


your... excuse me, so what is your (inaudible)?





SECRETARY POWELL: It is not the missions that have failed. It is the


political leaders in Haiti who have failed. And the political leaders


in Haiti must take the ultimate responsibility for resolving the


political crisis that keeps the international community from providing


the kind of help that the Haitian people deserve. And so we hope now


that once again the OAS will be able to use its good offices to help


bring a political solution to Haiti. But it's not the failure of the


missions; it's the failure of the parties in Haiti who should be


desperately searching for a solution to help their people.





Meanwhile, the United States will continue to provide quite a bit of


aid to the people of Haiti. It's been over $300 million in the last


several years, $73 million last year; it's going to be $20 million


this year, and a total of about a $100 million contribution to the


people of Haiti in this two-year period upcoming. So we are doing


everything we can to give hope to the people of Haiti, political hope


to the OAS delegation, but also financial assistance.





But Haiti needs more than that. It needs the assistance of the


international financial community, the international financial


institutions; but it is difficult to provide that kind of aid until


there is political stability so that the money will be invested in a


proper way in a country that has political stability and a government


that is functioning. Without that, it is difficult to persuade, and it


seems to us to be not the smartest thing in the world to do to send


money into that kind of unstable political environment. Thank you.





(end transcript)