USIA Foreign Press Center Briefing on the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
Statement
USIA Foreign Press Center Briefing on the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
Copyright ©2007 by Federal News Service, Inc., Ste. 500, 1000 Vermont Ave, Washington, DC 20005 USA. Federal News Service is a private firm not affiliated with the federal government. No portion of this transcript may be copied, sold or retransmitted without the written authority of Federal News Service, Inc. Copyright is not claimed as to any part of the original work prepared by a United States government officer or employee as a part of that person's official duties. For information on subscribing to the FNS Internet Service at www.fednews.com, please email Jack Graeme at jack@fednews.com or call 1-800-211-4020.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
REP. TANCREDO: Well, as a freshman congressman, and a first time as a participant in something like this, I must tell you that there were a number of very interesting aspects of it that I wanted to highlight, and one was, as Chris talked about, the issue of trafficking.
It is unfortunate that we in the United States and throughout the world tend to discount the effect of this kind of effort or this kind of abuse. But we also have to remember that there are children that are involved in this. You know, we look at this oftentimes and say, well, they got themselves into it; these women sort of knew what they were doing, they signed a document. And so we discount it.
First of all, it's not true. Most of them didn't know what they were doing, they were deceived.
But secondly, we're talking about children here, where a bus will pull up in front of an orphanage in Russia, or in other places in the old Soviet Union, and for $12,000, that bus can get loaded with children who are then taken away and sold into slavery throughout the world, really.
Now this is something we haven't heard about all that much, and maybe if we can draw attention to this phenomenon, to this horrible event, maybe that's what we can use to get people to pay attention to the problem of trafficking in general. It's unfortunate that we have to perhaps use this as a spin -- you know, the fact that kids are involved -- but I'll take whatever it takes. I'll use whatever it takes to get people to pay attention to this problem. And that's one of the issues, I think, that I was really struck by, and I was very, very glad to be a participant on that particular delegation and on the Human Rights Committee. And under Chairman Smith's leadership, I hope to continue pursuing this for as long as I'm in the Congress, this kind of an issue and, in particular, to try and stop what I saw as a horrible, egregious problem in human rights abuses.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
REP. TANCREDO: And we were told at the meeting that Chris just referred to with the NGOs that this activity, this illegal activity is second only to drug trafficking in terms of the money that's involved. I mean, if you think about this now, not the gambling, all the other stuff that organized crime is involved with, this is second only to drug trafficking for revenue. And so you can understand why, number one, it's very difficult to deal with because there are a lot of people on the take, a lot of officials who either look the other way just because it's a cultural thing or because they're being paid to look the other way, and a lot of people on the other hand who are making money out of the direct trade. I mean, as I say, if you go to an orphanage and pay them $12,000 at the orphanage for these kids, fill up the bus. Each one of them is then worth $24,000. It's not a bad return on your investment.
But you can see why this kind of thing just is -- well, it's overwhelming. It's overwhelming the system and people are -- these NGOs feel like they are, you know, voices in the wilderness. And they were so enthusiastic and so pleased that we were there. And maybe that's why we're spending as much time on this issue as we are at this particular kind of an event, because I know from my point of view, I felt it to be one of the most significant parts of the trip.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Q My name is Nikolai Zimin. I'm a correspondent for Russian newspaper Segodnia. Russia is not the place where the American congressmen go very often. So my question is what are your impressions from Russian life? I understand you have not seen of that anyway in some places. And second part of this question, what are your impressions from your colleague, Russian colleague or counterparts from State Duma? Thank you.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
REP. TANCREDO: This is my, I think, seventh or eighth trip, but the first one as a congressman. I've been there many times in the past, mostly because my wife taught Russian for 27 years and we took students to the Soviet Union many times, and so I had that perspective. But -- and just as it is very, very difficult for anybody to come to the United States, visit either Washington, D.C., or New York and then go and talk about what America is like, it's very, very difficult for anybody to go and spend six days in St. Petersburg and talk about what's happening in Russia. You can talk about what's happening in St. Petersburg and what we saw there, but, of course, as you know, it's not reflective, to a large extent, of the general population.
But what my observations were at the time compared to the times I've been there in the past is that several things certainly do affect the relationship between the American on the street in Leningrad today that are a little bit different than when I was there in the past.
And I guess the most significant thing that I observed was the way in which Kosovo and the problems in Yugoslavia have worked their way into the relationship between the -- sort of, the official Russian response to Americans and then the even -- the sort of "man on the street." Generally, I would say that there's a much more hostile environment from the Russian media -- I know that the press events that we had over there, this was -- it was certainly almost palpable the hostility between the Russians who were questioning us and -- again, anybody who represented any sort of official part of the Russian government or the media, a great deal of hostility. Now, the man on the street, it was sort of a "I really couldn't care less" attitude. "My greatest concern is where is my next meal coming from and how I'm going to," you know, "keep a roof over my head" sort of thing.
In terms of the -- just the physical -- I guess, the infrastructure, it seems to me that things have -- I mean, we were there last in '94. It seemed like there was great progress being made. Something has happened. It's, again, observable that there's been a sort of a -- something stopped along the line here in terms of progress toward developing infrastructure. And -- but I certainly could tell that Kosovo has had an effect on relationships.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Q Olga Tomashevska (ph), Belarussian Business Newspaper, Belarus. I'd like to know your opinion. On 27 July, the term of President Lukashenko ends, and what can you give recommendation on this to the Congress or to American government? And what's the attitude? Thank you.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
REP. TANCREDO: Again, I don't have the perspective that Chris has here. He's been a leader in the OSCE for a long time, and this is just my very first introduction to it. But it seemed to me, after listening to the debate in the OSCE over the resolution that was eventually passed with regard to Belarus, that the ultimate test of the viability of the entire OSCE could rest upon the degree to which it's able to actually effect a positive outcome in Belarus.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
MR. TANCREDO: Yeah. I don't mean to imply, by the way, that OSCE is the only entity that could effect positive change there. It just seems to me that it is one of the ones that can have a great deal to do with the outcome.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Q Thank you. Sorry for my voice. (Coughs.) I have a slight cold. My name is Andrei Sitov. I'm with Tass, with the Russian News Agency.
I was thinking about the Russian delegation, with the prime minister coming over to Washington in a few weeks, and obviously they will be discussing mostly economic matters. And that's what the gist of my -- I mean, I did not fully understand why you thought that the meeting was so constructive and successful in St. Petersburg if you say that the situation is very bad and the Russian authorities are mostly in cahoots with the mafia, whatever, the way you described it. But it's kind of an aside.
The real question is, at this point, obviously, Russia needs help, economic help. And the most effective help, obviously, is in cooperation, mutually beneficial thing, direct investments, stuff like that. In your opinion, what is the sentiment in Congress at this point in terms of supporting both the bilateral programs of cooperation with Russia and the international programs that Russia also relies upon, especially in its dealings with the IMF, stuff like that? We know that Congress is not very happy with the way the IMF spends its money. So what can Russia expect from the American Congress at this point in time in terms of support for its economic development?
REP. TANCREDO: I'll say that from my point of view, the thing that the -- certainly I and a number of my colleagues would be looking for, in order for us to feel good about supporting IMF efforts or even individual efforts on the part of the United States to extend economic ties with Russia, would be some greater development of the rule of law in Russia itself that would assure the natural forces of an economy could take hold and that investment in Russia by any foreign firm, by any organization or corporation, could be protected.
Copyright laws -- something as basic as that, I mean, when either on the street or in the kiosks you can see very evident that, especially in terms of like videos and disks, tapes and that sort of thing, so many of these are knock-offs that are not -- that have been -- that are now being sold, you know, without copyright protection or any of that sort of thing, it naturally makes it very, very difficult for anybody here to say well, let's go ahead and support a lot of investment in the Soviet Union, because without the rule of law, without that sort of civil infrastructure that we're talking about that governs economic activity, what happens is that the beneficiaries of that activity are not, generally speaking, the Russian people, the masses of the Russian people, it's all siphoned off to the organized -- you said mafia -- but organized crime.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
REP. TANCREDO: From my point of view, I'm sort of a free-trade person, and I am inclined more often than not to support efforts that are designed to lower barriers, trade barriers even in situations where maybe, you know, the country, the political situation in the country is not one that's terribly support of United States efforts. I don't really care about that too much. I want to see free trade. It's very, very difficult to accomplish that goal on our side of the thing when the kind of barriers that Chris and I have talked about exist over there.
And that doesn't mean that the barriers are unique to Russia. I mean, this is a problem in a lot of places. And there are things we need to do, I think, and should do to make sure that we aren't blocking it the same way. A lot of times what we do in the Congress is to set up these sort of barriers toward investment on our side, you know, for a variety of reasons that don't have anything to do with economics, and I find that troubling, myself.
So if -- I don't want to suggest that the only thing that could happen, you know, is just Russians have to change their way. There are some things we have to do, too, in the Congress. Again, my personal opinion about that. But if we could just feel secure in going direct to American business interests and/or to IMF and anybody else and saying, "I know that if we invest in Russia, the barriers there have been eliminated and, in fact, the benefits of a market system will be felt by the Russian people." That would be great.
REP. TANCREDO: It's just that corruption can destroy a country, and if it's widespread, if the mafia is not dealt with through proper law enforcement, you get a situation where lawlessness and anarchy keeps out and, as I said, chills would-be investors from putting money in and it also leads to what was our opening concern and is an overwhelming concern. Part of the underpinning for this explosion of sexual slavery is that so many of the women who are targeted, the prey --
REP. SMITH: Are poor.
REP. TANCREDO: -- are poor. And if you had less poor, you wouldn't have people who are so desperate, who then are deceived or abducted or in some way, you know, put into the sexual slavery.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Q And one technical thing. You cited this example with the bus pulling up to an orphanage and being -- (filled in there ?) -- with children for $12,000. Is this a case that you know that is generally like documented or proven? Or is it just like something that you have heard?
REP. SMITH: It is an episode we were told about. But I would suspect that is not the normal way that the traffickers do business. They are much more sophisticated and more clandestine than that. But the bottom line is that orphanages lose kids who are stolen and put into the sexual trafficking trade.
REP. TANCREDO: And it was brought at the NGOs, at that meeting that we talked about earlier --
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
REP. TANCREDO: Thank you very much for having us.
Source