1)            Erroneous quote of statement in some Romanian media on 19 May 2004

Carried by Mediafax News Agency originally (18 May 2004), several Romanian media today (19 May 2004) carry a statement, whereby Special Coordinator Busek is alleged to have said something along the lines that “…. There is a tradition for crime in Romania, which must be stopped...”

2)                 Rectification / Correction

As a matter of fact, SC Busek never used these words.  He pointed to the problems of organized crime in the SEE region and the role of the SEE region as a transit route.  He did not at all mention or single out Romania as an individual country in this context, as Mediafax seems to insinuate.  The Mediafax statement is wrong and is therefore outright rejected.

What SC Busek did say on 18 May in Bucharest, is repeated below and can be quoted in order to share this with your readers: 

®          SEE region is a transit route for organized crime.  Therefore, regional cooperation is needed to fight this form of crime.

®          On Romania specifically, SC Busek referred to the activities of the SECI Transborder Crime Fighting Center and the Secretariat of the Stability Pact’s Initiative to Fight Organized Crime (SPOC), both located in Bucharest, as good examples of such regional cooperation.

The Stability Pact rejects this distortion of facts by Mediafax and is surprised that a correction issued by this news agency already on 18 May 2004 has not been followed.  In order to get the facts right, we ask all media to rectify this issue based on the wording of this press release.