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DOJ/OPDAT Asia Pacific Programs
Recent Activities
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During the Fourth Quarter of the Fiscal Year
2005 (FY05), the Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance
and Training (OPDAT), U.S. Department of Justice, focused its justice
sector reform assistance on Southeast Asia's criminal justice sector
development issues in three key areas of mutual benefit: (1) intellectual
property rights (IPR) enforcement, (2) human trafficking, and (3)
improving criminal justice sector operations generally for future cooperation.
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CHINA
In China this quarter, all three key areas were underscored through
bilateral seminars, international symposia, and less formal exegesis with
Chinese officials and academics.
Multinational/Regional Assistance Programs
In the area of IPR enforcement,
the OPDAT regional assistance program fumbled the first pass. Eleventh hour
political squabbling among the Chinese resulted in the absence of expected
participants from Taiwan and mainland China. Thankfully, the American
Consulate in Hong Kong absorbed the brunt of the flap. As a result, the
assistance program proceeded successfully with the participants from four
other countries, from September 8-9, 2005, and OPDAT and the Chinese look
forward to engaging in an IPR assistance program in the near future.
In the human trafficking area, China and Hong Kong participated in the joint
International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP)/OPDAT regional human trafficking seminar for senior criminal justice
executives from Southeast Asia, held at the International Law Enforcement
Academy, Bangkok, Thailand on September 12-16, 2005. Six other countries
were included.
In the area of anti-corruption, China and Hong Kong participated in the
Fifth Regional Asian Development Bank/Organization on Economic Cooperation
and Development (ADB/OECD) policy dialogue. The OPDAT Resident Legal Advisor (RLA) to China attended
as an observer. Twenty-three other countries participated.
Improving Criminal Justice Sector Operations
The RLA has been attentively observing the criminal reform debates in China
over the length of his tenure and has skillfully interjected American criminal
jurisprudence, where helpful and appropriate. For example, in July, the
RLA provided information to Chinese officials in a bail reform program initiated
by the former RLA. In September, the RLA explained the roles of the prosecutor
and defense counsel as he observed with Chinese officials the progress of a
criminal deposition conducted by an American prosecutor. Again, in a pre-trial
and trial advocacy skills training seminar, sponsored by The State Department, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL), the RLA
provided explanatory context, background and comparative perspective.
Academics
In China, academics are the source of robust criminal justice reform
debates. Perceiving this, the RLA has energetically responded to opportunities
to teach comparative criminal justice topics to faculty and students at Tsinghua
University, July 22; and on September 26 at three educational institutions in Shanghai,
China, the East China University of Politics and Law, Shanghai Institute of Politics
and Law, and Jiaotong University.
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INDONESIA
On September 28-29, the OPDAT RLA organized a two-day international
workshop in Jakarta, Indonesia, on mutual legal assistance issues, with ICITAP,
the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights and the Indonesian National Police.
Approximately 50 Indonesian prosecutors, police and government officials attended.
The faculty for the workshop were American, Indonesian and officials from Singapore
and Australia.
Anti-corruption is a priority. The Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission
(known as the KPK) participated in a series of seminars on investigating and
prosecuting public corruption. The seminar series ran on Fridays in June, July
and August. The audience of KPK members consisted of prosecutors and investigators.
The RLA taught the five sessions.
The Special Crimes Branch of the South Jakarta District Office of the Attorney
General's Office has had a poor success rate in its major corruption prosecutions
over the past few years. To address the problem, a series of seminars were
conducted, with the RLA teaching two of them.
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THAILAND
On July 25, the OPDAT RLA provided a lecture on comparative financial crimes
procedures in the course of a workshop hosted by the Bank of Thailand's legal department.
The Bank's legal department and some of its senior officials attended the event.
The RLA described the role of federal law enforcement agencies in the United States, their
relationships with the U.S. Attorney's Offices and special considerations in investigating,
trying and sentencing complex financial cases.
On July 28, the RLA supplied a segment on police-prosecutor teamwork in complex
investigations to an FBI Training Program for police in Pattaya, Thailand. Police officers
from India, Malaysia, Thailand and other countries attended.
On September 5, the RLA discussed the importance of our jury system and the role of lay persons
in the criminal justice process. Thai presenters contrasted their system in which lay persons,
not a party to the litigation, have power in criminal prosecutions. The Thai Attorney General's
Office's Thai Criminal Law Institute (TCLI) hosted the event for prosecutors.
The RLA was a presenter at the Senior Criminal Justice Executive Program (SCJEP) on Human Trafficking, September 12-16.
He described the similarities and differences between alien smuggling and human trafficking.
He demonstrated the differences through the use of hypothetical scenarios and talked about
some of the alien smuggling cases he has handled in the past.
Judicial Administration Study Tour
One of the highlights of the Thailand RLA program
this quarter was the judicial administration study tour to the United States. A delegation
of Thai judges had the ability to consult face-to-face with judges and court administrators
in the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the 11th, 5th and 9th Circuits. They also met and engaged in
discussions with U.S. District Court judges and magistrates. The Atlanta Community Court
provided the opportunity for the delegation to ask about special procedures for disposing
of minor drug cases. Finally, the delegation was able to confer with a federal court
mediator. The study tour spanned several states, including California, Georgia,
and Louisiana.
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