trafficking

Is snorting coke an art form?

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:06:07 +0100

Renowned Cuban artist Tania Bruguera surprised a Bogota audience in September when she lined up three people directly involved in the Colombian conflict for a chat. The real performance however, started when a waitress emerged with a tray of neatly organised lines of cocaine, and began offering them to members of the audience.

The guests on stage are a former guerrilla, a former paramilitary, and a victim of displacement.

Extract of a video posted on YouTube by "jepenuala".

Kidney for sale, asking price €1,500

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:49:37 +0200

Photo posted by Salem and Mohammed on the blog Kuwait Black Market.

This ad appeared on the walls of Kuwait City last week. It might seem surprising but it reveals the extent of a growing trend in private sales of organs in the Gulf state. One of our Observers in the capital phoned the number on the poster for further details.

The World Health Organisation estimates that around 5% of the yearly 70,000 transplanted organs are traded on the black market. Despite an increase in the number of awareness campaigns over the past few decades, there has not however been an increase in the number of donors. There are thousands of patients on waiting lists around the world. In the US for example, the number of people waiting for an organ has tripled during the past ten years, topping 100,000 in June this year. In the UK there are almost 8,000, and in France, around 5,000.

Although there is little reliable data on organ trafficking, it is widely accepted that countries such as Brazil, India, Moldova, Romania and the Philippines are major suppliers of organs. In the Middle East, it's Turkey, Egypt, and more recently Iraq and the Palestinian Territories where you're most likely to get hold of an organ. Peddlers tend to target poor districts and slums for donors. A profitable business when those in need, usually from rich countries, are ready to pay a high price for a healthy organ.

Researcher Nancy Scheper-Hughes from the University of California, Berkeley, travelled to Turkey at the beginning of the decade to find out for what price she could sell a healthy kidney. At that time, it was just over 2,000 euros. A kidney in Baghdad can today reach up to €10,100. Meanwhile in Vietnam the going price is €2,600, in Egypt €2,300 and in India, just €675.

Watch the Mexican border 24/7 from home

Ségolène Team Observers — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:35:58 +0100

Four "strategic crossing points" that you can watch 24/7 on Blue Servo from home.

A group of crime-busting Texan sheriffs has launched an online surveillance system that makes it possible for the public to watch the Mexican border on CCTV 24 hours a day. Since its launch last Thursday... nothing has happened. So what's the point?

It's taken two years to get funding for the advanced neighbourhood watch scheme, resulting in a public-private partnership with an until now unheard of company called BlueServo and a generous $2m donation from the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry. When a beady-eyed visitor spots something untoward, an alert is sent to The Texas Border Sheriff Coalition, who then decides whether to take action. The TBSC says that the scheme is in place to fight drug trafficking and crime on the border. And apart from a few murmurs of disagreement from the League of United Latin American Citizens, nobody seems to mind the implementation of the Texas Virtual Border Watch Program.

To be able to access images from the 12 cameras, you merely have to sign yourself up to the website. Once logged in, you can then alert the authorities to any activity you deem suspicious. Suspicious?! Not in the US apparently, where everyone seems to find the idea reasonably normal...

Coltan, the 'blood mineral' of Congo

Team Observers — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:42:22 +0100

Photo from GeSI.

A mineral that's used to make mobile phones is helping to finance the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, say NGOs.

Since 25 October, war has been raging once again in Congo. Under direction of Tutsi leader and former member of the Rwandan Patriotic Front Laurent Nkunda, soldiers have once again picked up their guns to fight the Congolese Army. Our Observers take the opportunity to consider the responsibilities of mobile phone manufacturers in the war.

According to Carina Tertsakian of the NGO Global Witness, and Colette Braeckman, a specialist on Africa, it's time to investigate the trafficking of coltan, a mineral which they say is extracted in the east of the country through exploitation, and which partly finances the rebels, along with the equally deplorable gold and cassiterite (tin oxide) trades. After Liberia's "blood diamond", here's the blood mineral of Congo.

Thanks to our italian Observers Alberto Celani who alerted us to this story.

Durra - the world’s largest illegal firearms market

Julien — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:36:07 +0200

Gunfire echoes in the streets of Durra, Pakistan. Test firing a 9mm handgun or a Kalachnikov AK-47 rifle in the village’s main market is an every day sight.

Durra or Darra Adamkhel, a village in the country’s northwestern tribal zone, is renowned for its weapon-making expertise and is the world’s largest illegal market. Gunsmiths in the village manufacture replicas of ammunition and popular guns, which are then sold to arms dealers across Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan.

Durra is part of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The Pakistani central government does not directly control this region, known for harbouring Islamist insurgents. Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters are said to be active in the region. While manufacturing arms within the FATA is legal, supplying them outside the tribal zone is prohibited. Durra’s weapons industry has existed for more than a century but the Soviet- Afghan war in the late seventies helped boost it.