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	Banks ''helping rich hide trillions'' by Associated Press, agencies USA   July, 2008   Swiss banking giant UBS has vowed to stop offering offshore banking services in the US after senators accused it and other banks of helping wealthy investors hide about 1.5 trillion dollars in tax havens.   Mark Branson, UBS chief financial officer of global wealth management, made the vow as a Senate panel was told the US had lost $US100 billion ($A102.8 billion) dollars in revenue to tax cheats hiding money with the help of foreign banks.   "We have decided to exit entirely the business in question," Branson told the panel of senators.   The hearing centred on a 115-page report into alleged abuses by UBS in Switzerland and the smaller LGT Bank in Liechtenstein.   US senators on the panel say offshore tax evasion is of "staggering" proportions. "These tax havens hold an estimated 1.5 trillion dollars in American assets, resulting in lost taxes of roughly 100 billion dollars," said Senator Norm Coleman.   The OECD group of mostly industrialised economies estimates that between five to seven trillion dollars are held in tax havens or banking secrecy jurisdictions globally.   "The evidence we have been able to obtain breaks through some of the wall of secrecy to show that these two banks (UBS and LGT) have employed banking practices that facilitate, and have resulted in, tax evasion by US clients," said Senator Carl Levin, who led the six-month investigation.   In response to the Senate probe, UBS, the world''s largest manager of private wealth, said 19,000 of 20,000 US client accounts in Switzerland were "undeclared" in the range of nearly $US18 billion ($A18.5 billion).   US authorities have initiated enforcement action against 100 US taxpayers in connection with accounts in the secretive European principality of Liechtenstein after a former LGT employee provided tax authorities around the world with data on about 1,400 people with bank accounts.   The ex-employee, who has gone into hiding, gave the US probe panel 12,000 pages of documents related to US clients.   Former UBS banker Bradley Birkenfield had already pleaded guilty to conspiring to help US clients evade millions of dollars in taxes by hiding assets in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Another UBS official was detained as a "material witness".   The enforcement actions appear to represent the first time that the United States has criminally prosecuted a Swiss banker for helping a US taxpayer evade US taxes. "The details of their tax evasion scheme are sordid enough," Levin said.   The Senate panel had also obtained a document showing that UBS provided its Swiss private bankers with training on how to detect surveillance by US customs agents and law enforcement officers while travelling to the United States, he said.   Branson told the Senate committee that the bank "genuinely regrets" failures in complying with US regulations. He added that "we are working with the US government to identify the names of US clients who may have engaged in tax fraud".   LGT denied the Senate''s accusations and refused to appear at the hearing. Liechtenstein told the panel it was in negotiations with the United States to enter into a tax information exchange agreement and with its European neighbours to expand tax cooperation in connection with an anti-fraud pact.   Levin showed a chart summarising tax haven bank secrecy "tricks" uncovered during the probe - using code names for clients, telling staff to use pay phones instead of business phones so authorities cannot trace calls, and giving staff encrypted computers when they travel so authorities cannot read any client information.   Other methods included funnelling money through so-called transfer companies to cover the tracks of the funds and make audit difficult, and opening accounts in the names of foreign shell companies to hide the real owners.
	Crimes against humanity committed in East Timor in 1999 by LA Times, UN News Timor-Leste (East Timor)   July 2008   Indonesian government accepts charges of East Timor brutality. (Los Angeles Times)   Indonesia"s president formally accepted today a commission report that blames his country"s security forces for supporting militias in a frenzy of murder, rape and other crimes against humanity in East Timor nine years ago.   "We convey very deep remorse at what happened in the past that has caused the loss of lives and property," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said as he and East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta jointly received the truth commission"s findings.   It was the first time Indonesia"s government has accepted charges that members of its military and police, along with civilian authorities, helped pro-Indonesian militias carry out a brutal campaign against East Timor"s independence.   At least 1,000 died and tens of thousands more were driven from their homes in the 1999 violence that erupted after East Timor"s people voted for independence from Indonesia, which sent in troops to occupy the former Portuguese colony in 1975. Over 200,000 East Timorese people died during the Indonesian occupation.   Indonesia and East Timor each named five members to the intergovernmental Commission of Truth and Friendship in 2006.   But the body"s mandate was to establish the truth behind the events before and after the 1999 referendum on independence, "with a view to further promoting reconciliation and friendship," not to name individuals suspected of crimes.   "We must learn from what happened in the past to find out the facts over who has done what to whom, and who must be held responsible," Yudhoyono said in Bali. "Only the truth will free us from those past experiences."   Human rights activists have demanded that a tribunal prosecute members of Indonesia"s security forces and other authorities who, the commission concluded, "systematically cooperated with and supported the militias in a number of significant ways that contributed to the perpetration of the crimes."   In its 300-page report, the commission recommends a human rights court put perpetrators of the violence on trial. But 18 members of the security forces and civilians already have been cleared by a special human rights tribunal.   A military leader frequently accused by human rights groups of fomenting unrest in East Timor is retired Gen. Wiranto, who was Indonesia"s defense minister in 1999. Wiranto, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, is running in the presidential election set for next year. He failed in a 2004 bid for the presidency.   East Timor"s president Ramos-Horta said getting over a violent past is more important than prosecuting criminals behind the crimes.   "Justice is not and cannot be only prosecutorial in the sense of sending people to jail. "Justice must also be restorative," Ramos-Horta was quoted from Bali. "We as leaders of our people must lead our nations forward."   15 July 2008   Ban hopes truth panel’s report will foster justice, reconciliation in Timor-Leste.   UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the commitment made by the Presidents of Indonesia and Timor-Leste to follow up on the final report of the panel set up to look into the violence that accompanied the latter’s bloody struggle for independence in 1999.   “The Secretary-General has taken note of the submission of the final report of the Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF) to the Presidents of Indonesia and Timor-Leste and the subsequent joint statement issued by the two Governments,” according to a statement issued by his spokesperson.   “He looks forward to the early public release of the report and hopes that this process will be the first step towards achieving justice and reconciliation.”   Mr. Ban encouraged both Governments to take concrete steps to ensure full accountability, to end impunity and to provide reparations to victims, adding that the UN stands ready to extend its technical assistance in that regard.   In the popular consultation held in August 1999, virtually the entire electorate voted overwhelmingly for a transition towards independence.   Following the announcement of the result, pro-integration militias with the support of elements of the Indonesian security forces, launched a campaign of violence, looting and arson throughout the entire territory.   Despite their obligations, the Indonesian authorities did not effectively respond, and many East Timorese were killed and up to half a million displaced from their homes.
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