March 9, 2005

Page 5

Nigeria Fights to Have Stolen Money Returned
Switzerland Returns Some, Millions Still Missing

PHOTO PROVIDED
Corrupt Nigerian dictator, Sani
Abacha stole and laundered
more than $3 billion during his
reign. Now the democratically-
elected Nigerian government is
fighting for the return of the
public money.

Br CHARLES THRIFT
STAFF WRITER

Switzerland recently returned $458
million stolen from Nigeria during the
reign of the late-Nigerian dictator,
Sani Abacha. During his five years in
power, it is estimated that Abacha stole
between $3 and 4.7 billion (CDN)
through corrupt deals, and directly
from the central bank. Since the end of
Abacha’s rule, Nigeria has adopted a
constitution, and elections were held
in 1999 and 2003. The democratically
elected Nigerian government has been
lobbying Western governments for the
return of money stolen during
Abacha’s rule.

Though half of the stolen money
has been tracked down, to date, only
$658 million has been returned. The
stolen money was kept by banks in the
US., U.K., Switzerland, Luxembourg,
Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, and
Liechtenstein. Well known banks
involved in the money laundering
include Deutsche Bank, Barclays, and
Gitibank.

Abacha came to power in a 1993

coup d’etat. His rule was oppressive:
political parties were dissolved, the
‘media was censored, demonstrations
were banned, and opponents were
jailed or executed. When poet and
political activist Ken Saro Wiwa
protested Shell’s practices in his home-
land, it was Abacha who ordered the
execution. Abacha’s reign ended when.
he died of a heart attack in 1998.
According to statistics provided by
Transparency International, Abacha
was the fourth most corrupt politician
in the last two decades, after Suharto
of Indonesia, Marcos of the

" Philippines, and Mobutu Sese Seko of

Zaire (now the Democratic eapic
of Gongo).

Switzerland is the first and only
country to return money stolen by
Abacha and his entourage to Nigeria.
Switzerland returned $200 million in
2003, in addition ’to the $458 million
being returned this year, and may
return another $40 million. The
Abacha family claimed that some of
this money was not obtained through
criminal activities, however these

claims are still being decided by the
courts.

Nigeria is following the cxample of
the Philippines in trying to recover
money stolen by corrupt politicians.
The Philippine government has so far
recovered $660 million out of approx-
imately $10 billion stolen under the
Marcos regime, which may sct a prece-
dent.

It has been argued that much of the
developing world’s debt was built by
corrupt politicians, and many activists
and observers feel if moncy stolen
from Abacha in Nigeria should be
returned, so should the billions stolen
by Mobutu Sese Seko and Suharto,
the hundreds of millions stolen by
Duvalier of Haiti, Fujimori of Peru,
Lazarenko of Ukraine, and countless
other corrupt leaders.

Suharto of Indonesia, Marcos of
the Philippines and Mebutu of Zaire

-were all backed by Western govern-

ments during the cold war, ‘however
they were not backed for their ability
to govern n a fair and democratic
manner, rather they were backed

because of their right-wing political
beliefs. So long as they were a ‘bul-
wark’ against communism, the West
usually turned a blind eye to their cor-
ruption. Mobutu is said to have stolen
about half of the $12 billion in loans
provided to the Democratic Republic
of Congo by the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) during his time
in. power.

It has been argued that if the banks
that helped launder this money were
forced to return this to the Congs, it
might go a long way towards rebuild-
ing infrastructure, kick-starting the
economy, and increasing the standard

of living, Nigeria, often considered

onc of the world’s most corrupt states,
has made fighting corruption a priori-
ty. “Nigeria is changing”, stated
Nigceria’s finance minister.

Tn 2003, Nigeria, for the first time in
its history, had a democratic change of
government. Since then, government
officials, customs agents, and top
members of the police have lost their

jobs or been imprisoned for corrup-

tion.

Norwalk Outbreak Halted by Thorough Disinfection

GRAPHIC: FROM THE BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
The Norwalk virus looks like a ball of noodles in this 3-D electron
micrograph. Unfortunately, you can become infected with the
Norwalk virus from eating a bowl of contaminated noodles.

CONTINUED From COVER

dren currently enrolled at the day-
care.

The Norwalk virus (which is very
similar to the virus that affected the
daycare) was discovered in Norwalk
Ohio in 1972. The virus itself has a

Bios 5 New University in Kamloops

small, rounded structure. Once in the
system, the virus infécts the small
intestine, After the virus begins
attacking the small intestine, ingested
fats cannot be properly digested

“which leads to nausea, vomiting,

fever, and diarrhea. These symiptoms
give the Norwalk-like virus its com-
mon name, the stomach flu.

These infections commonly occur
in outbreaks, most frequently found
in schools, daycares, cruise ships, and
retirement homes.

Since Norwalk-like viruses are
transmitted through food, water, aif,
and surfaces contaminated by infect-
ed fecal matter, there are many ways
this infection can be spread. They
tend to remain active for several days
after being exposed to the atmos-
phere, so thorough Cleaning and dis-
infections of areas with heavy-duty
bleach-based disinfectants, complete
with people running around in white
protective suits, is key to preventing

* further outbreaks.

The UNBC daycare is fully recov-
ered from the virus thanks to quick
action on the part of the administra-
tion and full and complete disinfec-
tion.

TRANSFER aa CREDITS

Achieve your goals —

| based on

External Review Highlights
Serious Internal Problems

CONTINUED FROM COVER

UNBC are currently among the low-
est-paid in Canada, and have not
received an increase in salary since
1994. Due to inflation and to
increases in tuition, TA's are current-
ly only receiving about half of the
value of their 1994 wages.

The review mentions mixed grad-
uate-underraduat semmars as a
valid concern of graduate students
“similar experiments in
other universities”. According to the
GSS, graduate students often fecl
that these mixed classes do not pro-
vide the educational experience that
they would expect at a graduate
level. Currently there are a number
of mixed. graduate-underraduate
classes at UNBC.

Library resources were also a
focus of the external review. The
report states that the history section’s
portion of the allocations budget
was “simply insufficient”, and criti-
cal databases and journals arc not
available to faculty and graduate stu-
dents. They recommended that

: Spring (1 month), Fall (3 angie)

Visit:

immediate effort should be made to
ensure that faculty and graduate stu-
dents have access to these resources.

“The report states
that the History sec-
tion’s portion of the
allocations budget
was ‘simply insuffi-
cient.”

External reviews are standard
procedure at UNBC for all depart-
ments and programs, and are con-
ducted regularly. Since UNBC has
opened, there has been one com-
plete round of external reviews; this
means that all departments and pro-
grams have been previously
reviewed, The external review of the
history department is the first review
in the second round of external
reviews. In the next few years, most
other programs also be

will
reviewed. :

Arts (BA)
Science (BSc)
Business (BBA)
Education (BEd)
Journalism (BJour)

| Tourism Management
BTM)

Social Work (BSW)
Fine Arts (BFA)

Natural Resource
Science (NRS)

Applied Computing
Science (BTACS)

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