'PRIORITISE DRUGS, MONEY-LAUNDERING'

Cape Town - Combating drugs and their relation to money-laundering
was one of the primary concerns for SA, Kader Asmal, president of the
global Financial Action Task Force, said yesterday.

SA's former education and water affairs minister reviewed the work
done by task force in its first plenary session held in Africa yesterday.

He said that "not sufficient priority" was being given to the issue.

The three-day session, which ends today, is being attended by more
than 400 delegates from 44 countries. They are discussing ways to
build effective infrastructures for fighting money-laundering and
countering terrorist financing in emerging economies.

Asmal said that along with drugs, the issue of illegal migration
through the trafficking and trading in women and children should also
be put on the task force's agenda.

He said 4-million people were involved in human trafficking, which
generated "thousands of millions of rand", with money-laundering as a
resultant component.

The task force is also investigating the links of corruption and
money-laundering to terrorist financing.

It is examining the money-laundering vulnerabilities of new payment
technologies, the misuse of corporate vehicles and trusts,
trade-based money laundering, and complex schemes operating in South America.

Asmal said two countries, Nigeria and Burma, were still on the list
of noncooperative countries that had inadequate legal regimes to
support the international community's efforts to fight
money-laundering, but the task force was encouraged by the progress
these countries were making.

The fact that Nigeria was on the list did not necessarily mean that
it was at the centre of the drug and money-laundering trade and
should not be made a scapegoat as it had shown a deliberate movement
to meet the requirements of the task force, Asmal said.

These include that all commercial banks file suspicious transaction
reports and implement mutual legal assistance with examples of
responses to foreign requests for mutual legal assistance.

Asmal said money-laundering in Africa subverted governments.