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	The cost of transnational organized crime estimated to be $870 billion by United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC)   16 July 2012   The annual turnover of transnational organized criminal activities such as drug trafficking, counterfeiting, illegal arms trade and the smuggling of immigrants is estimated at around $870 billion, the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said today, as part of a campaign aimed at raising awareness of the issue’s financial and social costs.   “Transnational organized crime reaches into every region, and every country across the world. Stopping this transnational threat represents one of the international community’s greatest global challenges,” said UNODC’s Executive Director, Yury Fedotov, in a news release. “Crucial to our success is our ability to raise public awareness and generate understanding among key decision and policymakers.”   The $870 billion turnover from transnational organized crime is six times the amount of official development assistance, and is comparable to 1.5 per cent of the global domestic product, or seven per cent of the world’s exports of merchandise, according to UNODC.   Drug trafficking is the most lucrative form of business for criminals, with an estimated value of $320 billion a year. Human trafficking brings in about $32 billion annually, while some estimates place the global value of smuggling of migrants at $7 billion per year.   The environment is also exploited: trafficking in timber generates revenues of $3.5 billion a year in South-East Asia alone, while elephant ivory, rhino horn and tiger parts from Africa and Asia produces $75 million annually in criminal turnover, UNODC notes. At $250 billion a year, counterfeiting is also a high earner for organized crime groups.   In addition to the financial costs involved, the agency’s awareness-raising campaign seeks to highlight the human costs of these criminal activities to societies. Each year, countless lives are lost to drug-related health problems and violence and firearm deaths, among other causes. In addition, some 2.4 million people are victims of human trafficking.   “The campaign also illustrates that despite being a global threat, the effects of transnational organised crime are felt locally. Crime groups can destabilize countries and entire regions, undermining development assistance in those areas and increasing domestic corruption, extortion, racketeering and violence,” UNODC noted in a news release. “The campaign drives the message that someone ultimately suffers and there is always a victim.” Visit the related web page
	Philippines massacre witnesses in danger by Sen Lam Connect Asia Philippines   There are claims hired assassins are stalking witnesses to a massacre in the southern Philippines three years ago.   More than 50 people, including 34 journalists, were murdered in the Maguindanao massacre. They"re thought to have been the victims of the rivalry between two political clans.   Some of those accused of involvement in the massacre went on trial in 2010, since then at least six witnesses, or their relatives have been killed.   The Philippines Department of Justice has added another six people to its witness protection list, but Carlos Conde, Philippines researcher for Human Rights Watch, says the programme is poorly resourced.   Reporter: Sen Lam   Speaker: Carlos Condo, Philippine researcher, Human Rights Watch   CONDE: A lot of them are facing very real danger right now. I"ve spoken with some witnesses and they told me that they don"t feel safe at all, and their families are likewise exposed to this danger. They told me that they"re convinced that people intend to harm them, although many of these witnesses who"ve already testified in the trial and those who have been listed as witnesses, are under the protection of the government and also the protection of the Maguindanao governor. Many of them are still out there. We have to bear in mind that a hundred other people are still being hunted down by the police for involvement in the massacre, and these people are potential witnesses, potential state witnesses. If those witnesses who"re already in custody are being hunted down and killed, how much more (vulnerable) the ones who"re still out there?   LAM: And indeed, just only last week, the State prosecutor added six people to the Department of Justice"s Witness Protection List. Do you think the Department perhaps doesn"t have the resources to afford protection to everyone, to all of the witnesses?   CONDE: That"s the Department of Justice, specifically the NBI, the National Bureau of Investigation, and the Witness Protection Program, which is under the Department of Justice. They"ve always conceded in the past that they lacked resources for witnesses. And this is something that Human Rights Watch and other groups in the Philippines have been trying to convince the government to allow more resources to the Witness Protection program. And we"re happy that the Department of Justice decided to take in six more witnesses under the program.   We should also point out that there"s a bill in the Philippine Congress that has been approved, in final reading, about two days ago, that will improve the Witness Protection Program. This entails alloting more money, hiring more people and in fact, improving the condition of the Witness Protection Program and this is good news. It has been passed in Congress, but it takes a signature from the President, in order to become law.   LAM: And as you say, witnesses or potential witnesses fear for their lives. So how effective is this protection - what sort of protection do they get?   CONDE: Those who are under the custody of the DOJ (Dept of Justice), they are in safe houses, they"re given security details. As part of the program, they can be given new identities and they can be relocated to other places, but we don"t know exactly have availed of this. What we know is that those who are under the Witness Protection Program have security details and are being protected in safe houses.   LAM: So the ones who were killed, were not on the protection list?   CONDE: They"re not. The first one who got killed, he was in the process of enrolling in the protection program, and this other witness, the second one, who was supposedly murdered and chainsawed, he resisted the idea of being under the protection program because he thought he was not safe there. So there"s this resistance to be enlisted on this program, precisely because of the limitations of the program before.   LAM: So what impact has this series of threats to potential witnesses had on the trial and indeed, the effectiveness of the judicial process?   CONDE: The obvious immediate impact is that this will terrify the witnesses who"re scheduled to testify, and also discourage anyone from coming out and testifying against the Ampatuans. Although we haven"t seen that happen yet, of witnesses turning around and denying, or retracting their testimonies, that hasn"t happened yet, but you can only imagine the impact these killings would have, on those who"re still thinking of testifying. And it"s not just the witnesses who"re at risk, their families, there have been instances of relatives of witnesses who"ve been killed. There"re reportedly at least three cases of that sort.   LAM: So the assailants are hired assassins? Do we know that for a fact?   CONDE: We don"t know as much, that they"re hired assassins. And in fact, the manner.. we can only deduce they"re hired assassins because of the manner in which they were killed. The witnesses who were killed were supposedly under the protection of certain politicians in Maguindanao but yet, they"re still being hunted down.
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