Columbia: Sniffing cocain cause of massacres

A videogame may become the newest weapon to fight violence and crime. The United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (Unicri) in collaboration with Microsoft is working on a study that will teach young people how to ?earn a living? by not shooting at their enemies in the head or the heart or by calling in a mediator to resolve the conflict. Sandro Calvani is a firm believer in ?edutainment?, entertainment geared at education as well as fun. He also promotes collaboration with companies, and even multinationals. The fight against worldwide crime must also begin here.

Calvani is Unicri?s new director. Since 1968 this UN institute has fought against illegal trafficking in the world, and since 2000 its headquarters have been in Turin, Italy. Mr. Calvani is to lead the organisation through a delicate moment of change, as it is expanding its range of action to a wider range of crimes for which there are no international treaties yet, such as environmental crimes, and crimes against intellectual property. Such as the theft of genetic material, radioactive and toxic dumping, cyber crimes and online paedophilia to name but a few, as the list of international crimes is a long one.

Corporate cooperation works against crime
?In Latin America, when I worked with the Unodc [United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime] we worked with Carrefour to change consumer habits by offering a wider range of organic products. The results where twofold: on the one hand by favouring biodiversity and on the other by reducing coca plantations and thus cutting away on the finances of the narco-trade? say?s Unicri?s new Director. A strategy to fight organised crime that ?takes advantage of all the spaces that human activity takes place in, from the public sphere to the market?.

?It cannot be that there be two separate dimensions, one with voluntary work and all the good things that come with it and every day life on the other? says Calvani. ?Organised crime kills more people each year than do illnesses?.

Moreover there is little awareness about the impact that our illicit behaviour can have on human lives. ?Those who sniff cocaine should know that by financing organised crime, and therefore armed groups in Columbia, they are directly causing death in a number of ways? continues Calvani, who?s last job was as director of the Unodc in Bogotà. ?A line of coke also means kidnappings, massacres of poor and indigenous peoples who the most vulnerable and thus the most likely to suffer attacks from armed groups seeking new territories to cultivate on?.

Plundering the forests
Then there is the environmental devastation that is caused: ?For example the deforestation of the Columbian forest, one of the richest Latin American forests in terms of biodiversity. For every hectare of coca that is planted four are destroyed?.

There are still few anti-drug campaigns that highlight these kinds of consequences, says Calvani: ?in Europe health damages and the risk of social violence are usually identified as negative outcomes?. Only the UK has taken steps in this direction, for example when the Education ministry launched the catchphrase ?one sniff here, one killing death?.

The Columbian government has used this idea and has launched a campaign called Share the Responsibility (www.sharedresponsibility.co) The website, that makes a range of scientific surveys available with the click of the mouse, shows how it is consumer demand that is causing the current insecurity in the country.

More info:

• www.sharedresponsibility.co
• www.unodc.org
• www.unicri.it