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International Response: Lawless Regions Pose Proliferation Risks By Mike Nartker Three of the most critical gray zones are Southeast Asia, the former Soviet Union — primarily Central Asia — and the Transnistria region of Moldova, Orlov said during a panel discussion at a nonproliferation conference sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In Southeast Asia, a lack of government control has led to an increase in terrorist and organized crime activities in Indonesia, the southern Philippines and the “Golden Triangle” — consisting of sections of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand, he said. Continuing instability in Afghanistan and Tajikistan, as well as in Chechnya, the Georgian region of Abkhazia and the Russian Ingushetiya region, also pose illegal trafficking concerns, Orlov said (see GSN, Oct. 23). In the Transnistria region of Moldova, there have been reported contacts between Russian and other international nonstate groups, he said. Representatives from al-Qaeda, Hamas, Iran and Chechnya are also believed to have traveled to the region. States of concern might also take advantage of the lack of governmental oversight and control in the international gray zones to expand their contacts with terrorist and organized criminal groups, Orlov said. For example, there have been reports of meetings between Libyan representatives and terrorists in unstable regions of Colombia, he said. In the mid-1990s, North Korean agents are believed to have attempted to obtain chemical weapons from Russian organized crime groups, Orlov said. Orlov said he was skeptical of the effectiveness of encouraging the authorities in the so-called gray zones to take a greater role in cracking down on illegal trafficking and possible WMD proliferation. Instead, an international response should begin to be considered, which could include exchanges of information and threat assessments, he said.
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