Azerbaijan Body Commercial Country Guide

value of assets seized: $22,838,684.08; amounts laundered: $7,465,659.00;amount of commissions received: $449,045.15; total number of Transactions: 30.1st Quarter FY2005 (October 1, 2004-December 31, 2004) Arrest of Norte Valle Cartel (NVC) Lieutenant Dagoberto FLOREZ-Rios in Colombia. On December 28, the DEA Bogotá Country Office reported the arrest of NVC lieutenant Dagoberto FLOREZ-Rios by ... [Read More]

J) Europe and Central Asia

Hungary is an important transit country for illegal narcotics smuggled from Southwest Asia to Western Europe. The country has changed in the past ten years from being just a transit country for drug traffickers into being a target country for final drug sales as well. According to the Hungarian National Police there are an estimated 200,000 drug users in Hungary, or two percent of the total population. After a dramatic increase in the 1990s, drug use is still increasing, but at a much slower pace. Domestic consumption of illegal narcotics, particularly heroin, marijuana and MDMA (ecstasy), continues to be a problem. According to a nationwide drug survey completed in November 2001, 40 percent of 18 to 35 year-olds living in Budapest had used drugs at some point during their lifetime. The Government of Hungary (GOH) passed strict counternarcotics legislation in late 1998 that went into effect in early 1999, introducing stiff penalties for using and/or selling narcotics. In December 2000 ... [Read More]

Country Reports: N-Z

The government-controlled banking system in Syria consists of the Central Bank of Syria and five public banks, each specializing in one aspect of economic activity: the Commercial Bank of Syria, the Agricultural Cooperative Bank, the Industrial Bank, the Real Estate Bank, and the People’s Credit Bank. These banks have in the past employed a rigid interest rate structure that discourages savings deposits, particularly during periods of inflation. Only the Commercial Bank of Syria has been permitted to provide commercial banking services until January 2004 when the first private banks opened. The Commercial Bank, as the sole legal trader of foreign currencies, also effectively has controlled all foreign trade and all foreign currency transactions. In addition to monopolizing the exchange of foreign currencies, the SARG maintains one of the last remaining fixed, multiple exchange rate systems in the world, employing three different rates depending on the nature of the transac ... [Read More]

WTO Section of the 2004 Annual Report of the President - US Department of State

The Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB), a subsidiary body of the General Council, ...

the Appellate Body issued its report on December 9, 2002. The Appellate Body ...

of the SPS Agreement. The Appellate Body also found that while a country has ... [Read More]

Country Reports: G-M

In August 2002, the Kuwaiti Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor issued a ministerial decree to create a Department of Charitable Organizations. The primary responsibilities of the new department are to receive applications of registration from charitable organizations, monitor their operations, and establish a new accounting system to insure that such organizations comply with the law both at home and abroad. The Department has established guidelines explaining how charities must collect donations and finance their activities. The new Department is also charged with conducting periodic inspections to insure that they maintain administrative, accounting, and organizational standards according to Kuwaiti law. However, in February 2003, a prominent member of the Kuwaiti ruling family, who also held positions with the Cabinet, accused some Islamic movements in the country of financing terrorist acts in Kuwait earlier that year. He warned of the existence of unlicensed charita ... [Read More]

US Department Of State Post Report
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Europe and Central Asia

Agreements and Treaties. Italy is a party to the 1961 UN Single Convention, the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances, the 1972 Protocol and the 1988 UN Drug Convention. In December 2000, an international conference was held in Palermo, Italy, for the signing of treaty on transnational crime. The treaty must be ratified by a quorum of 40 countries before it comes into force. This new treaty will strengthen governments against serious crimes, including drug trafficking, money laundering, trafficking of human beings and arms trafficking. As a member of the European Union, Italy participates in the Dublin Group, UNDCP Pompidou group, Europol, the EU Commission, and attendant committees and working groups.Cultivation/Production. There is no known coca bush cultivation in Italy. However, opium poppy grows spontaneously in the southern part of Italy and the island of Sicily. It does not present a threat due to the low alkaloid content. [Read More]

Turkey

The country was a transit point and a destination country for victims of trafficking; reportedly there was almost no trafficking of women and girls out of the country. There were no government statistics on the number of trafficking victims. Women were trafficked to the country mostly from Romania, Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Azerbaijan. It was also a transit country for the trafficking of women primarily from Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and the former Yugoslavia to other countries in Europe. Most trafficking activity occurred in Istanbul, Izmir, and Trabzon. Many women came to the country believing that they would be working as models, waitresses, or dancers and found themselves forced into prostitution. Women who attempted to escape their traffickers have been beaten, raped, or killed. There were reports that criminal syndicates forced women to sign work contracts that amounted to debt bondage. Russian and Ukrainian organized crime groups reportedly ... [Read More]

IV. Country Narratives: Europe and Eurasia

The Kyrgyz Republic is a source and transit country for women, men, and children trafficked to Kazakhstan and Russia for the purpose of forced labor, and to the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Turkey, and China for sexual exploitation. Women who are either destined for or transiting through the country come from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Trafficking also occurs within the country, from poor rural areas in the south to northern cities such as Bishkek and Osh. Bride kidnapping is a problem, despite a law prohibiting this custom. However, the prevalence of this custom is unclear. One study indicated that up to one-third of ethnic Kyrgyz women living in northern Kyrgyzstan may be married against their will as a result of this practice, which is a form of indentured servitude. ... [Read More]

V. Country Narratives -- Countries H through P

Honduras is a source and transit country for women and children trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Many victims are Honduran children trafficked from rural areas to urban and tourist centers such as San Pedro Sula, the North Caribbean coast, and the Bay Islands. NGOs and observers estimate that large numbers of minors are being commercially exploited in Honduras and in many other countries throughout the region. Observers have documented more than 1,000 minors (mostly Hondurans) that were victims of trafficking for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation in 2003. Honduran women and children are trafficked to the United States, Canada, Guatemala, and most other countries in Central America. Foreign victims trafficked into Honduras for commercial sexual exploitation come from Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and El Salvador. Honduras is also a transit country for illegal migration originatin ... [Read More]