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| By Sedat Laciner * Drug Smuggling, Organised Serious Crime and Terrorism Some claim that Turkey is one of the transit countries of the drug trafficking, not a consumer; so the fight against narcotic should not be involved with in the priority struggels of Turkey. Even, within some conversations, it is possible to hear that narcotic money has an additional value for Turkey. Data on drug usage verifies the fact that Turkey is not a crucial drug consumption market, it is mostly a transit country. Due to drug smuggling, billions of dollar have entered to the country. However, these are not the whole part of the schema. To clarify Turkey just as a “transit country” is not sufficient. In the mean time, Turkey has become one of the crucial narcotic centers of the world. Every drug bags, pass through Istanbul and other Turkish cities to the Western Europe this turns back as a terror, crime organization, violence on the street and loss of government power in Turkey. Besides, this process continues for decades; drug-violence-degeneration triangle insidiously prejudice Turkey internally. At that point, drug trucks, passes from Turkey, should be stopped so as to re-construct order in Turkey, re-gain government authority by the government itself. In this study we wil focus on PKK terrorism-drug smuggling connection. Although the classified Turkish, European and American sources (Stephen R. Barnhart, The New International Terrorism and Political Violence Guide, Trafford Publishing, 2002, p. 119) and media reports reveal that PKK members control the European drug cartel and they even use children to sell drugs, the connection is not a well-studied issue. * Economic Infrastructure of Terrorism Terrorist organizations are based on two main columns: The first one is ideological/political base. Terrorist organizations exploit mistakes of states, areas where there is no state authority; the more these exploitation facilities continue, the more these organizations grow fast. The second important column terrorist organizations based is the economic infrastructure. Money is requisited for weapons, explosive materials, daily needs of terrorists etc. Contrary to general perception, money mostly has not come “directly” from other countries. When other countries want to assist, they prefer utilizing from “natural ways”; randomly cash money is given directly to the terrorists by foreign countries. There are four fundamental principles to maintain economic infrastructure of terror: - tribute \ blackmailing \ donation, - robbery, - narcotic money, - other illegal revenue. Among these, since it is relatively easier way and more sustainable, mostly, narcotic money catches attention. If it is considered that world’s drug market is around 400-500 billion dollars, this amount will not only sustain terrorist organizations but also countries. The money, circulated in the drug market, is almost equal to the USA’s defense expenditure in a year and it is approximately over Turkish gross national product. In Europe, one of the most important regions of the huge market, the PKK, time to time, has controlled 80 % of the market; so it is not difficult to comprehend how the PKK can stand for more than two decades. Michael Radu says "Considering the range of PKK drug trafficking in Europe (Germany, France, Denmark, Romania, Switzerland, Belgium. Netherlands), the group is wealthy indeed". Radu further argues that the PKK's annual income from drug trafficking, robberies, extortion, and emigrant and arms smuggling reached ten millions of dollars in the 1990s (Michael Radu, Dilemmas of Democracy and Dictatorship, Transaction Publishers, 2006, p. 223). The CNN International confirms Mr. Radu by underlining the organized crime and drug smuggling business of the PKK: "By many accounts from inside and outside Turkey, Ocalan is a dogmatic and tyrannical leader whose organization is involved in drug trafficking, robbery, extortion, arson, blackmail and money laundering" (Beat Witschi, "Who is Abdullah Ocalan?", CNN, November 20, 2000, Link 2008 alone the drug income of the PKK was more than 500 million euros. Cagaptay's figure is much more higher than 500 million euros. Cagaptay claims that 2,5 billion narcotic dollars go to the PKK (Soner Cagaptay, 'Can the PKK Renounce Violence?', Middle East Quarterly, Winter 2007, pp. 45-52). It is obvious that the terrorist organization has financed its activities through illegal means and the drug trafficking has had a great share in this budget (Paige Whaley, Eager, From Freedom Fighters to Terrosists: Women and Political Violence, London: Ashgate, 2008, p. 175). * PKK Discovers Narcotic Money When the PKK constituted as a terrorist organization, it did not take it so long to discover the drug smuggling money. At the beginning of 1980’s, it started to act in both producing and transportation sectors of illegal drug business. In 1982, the PKK begun to produce hemp and opium poppy around the Lebanese camps (Baelbek and Hermen) that were under Syrian control. Ports of Beirut, Sayda, Sur, Miryan, Abdeh and Tripoli were the main transit points of this transition. Drugs were sent to ports of Greek Cyprus, Greece and Italy; and from this forwarding, the terrorist organization sustained significant amount of revenue for the years. It is unfortunate that Syria, Greek Cyprus and Greece ignored (or supported) the PKK drug business in order to support this terrorist organization against Turkey. In the beginning of the 1980’s, another considerable role of the PKK was in the line that comes from Afghanistan-Pakistan-Iran, crosses Turkey and reach to Europe. As it is known these three countries were called “golden crescent” for drug smuggling. Behind the ‘Golden Crescent’ Laos – Thailand - Birmania countries are ‘Golden Triangle’ for drug producing and smuggling. In other words, most crucial producer countries are located in the east of Turkey, and Turkey is one of the most crucial routes for the European drug market. It did not take too long for the PKK militants to notice how a ‘lucky position’ they had to control drug trafficking between the East and the West. Terrorists realized the huge wealth, and firstly begun business by allowing transition and sustaining “security services” for ordinary smugglers. The PKK "taxed" those who smuggled drugs, arms, and other valuable goods in the 1980s and 1990s (Doðu Ergil, 'The PKK: Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan', in Marianne Heiberg, Brendan O'Leary and John Tirman (eds.), Terror, Insurgency, and the State: Ending Protracted Conflicts, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007, p. 341). During the 1980s it was not difficult for the PKK to secure international drug transportation in the region because it was organized almost in every district and villages of eastern Turkey. When its organizations advanced in Istanbul, other Western big cities and Western European countries, drug dispatching and distribution has become easier for the PKK. Especially, over Afghanistan-Iran-Turkey-Eastern Europe-Southern Europe-West Europe line, tons of morphine, heroin, liquid hashish and other drug materials were transferred under the PKK control. With the increasing instability in Iraq, Iran-Iraq-Turkey-Western Europe route became more popular for the drug smuggling. As Michael Rubin pointed out that different from the KDP and KPU, the PKK still facilitates drug smuggling from Iran through Iraq and Turkey and into Europe (Michael Rubin, 'The PKK Factor', National Review, 5 August 2004). The PKK has not only played a significant role in the East-West route drug transportation but also in the West-East transportation of chemical goods for processing of raw drug materials in the East. At the end of 1980s, it was realized that the real money was in the processing business. When raw drug materials were processed, its price increases geometrically. At that point the PKK, firstly in the East and Southeast Anatolia, later in different regions of Turkey and in some East European countries, constructed processing drug laboratories. * PKK Drug Smuggling And The Kurdish Diaspora In the words of David Romano "once the PKK matured into a larger, more established movement, it could finance itself via contributions from Kurds in the region and abroad as well as with support from foreign state powers and involvement in the narcotics trade and smuggling". (David Romano, The Kurdish Nationalist Movement: Opportunity, Mobilization, and Identity, Cambridge University Press, 2006, p. 91). When the PKK reached its one of the political aims by composing a Kurdish diaspora close to itself in the Western European countries, it became a real boss in the drug business between Golden Crescent and Western Europe without any serious rival. In most of the cities in Europe, the PKK had thousands of members and huge sympathizer network that assist it in drug business. The terrorist organization helped many Kurdish people to immigrate illegally to Western Europe, and all these people were forced to pay significant part of their income in their new life. Apart from these so-called donations, Kurdish immigrants were forced to help the PKK’s drug businesses in Western European cities. Since there was no second group organized as the PKK did in the East and in the West, within a short time, the PKK strengthened its power in European drug market in terms of production, transportation, distribution and marketing. Kurdish children including 10-15 years old ones became drug seller in front of the pubs, pavilion, and even around certain schools in many European capitals. Four Kurds were arrested in Milan (Italy) on a TIR truck carrying 100 kg of hidden heroin in 1989. The driver, Nazim Kelo, told Italian investigators that the heroin had come from the PKK, for whom he had worked for years. In 1991, a PKK confessor said that between 1988 and 1990, he carried more than 300 kg heroin to Europe by his own. According to Interpol, in 1992, the PKK was orchestrating 80 % of the European drug market. This relationship was in the fields of processing, transportation, securing transportation, distribution, and marketing. With reference to 1992 Interpol data, the number of Kurdish organizations related with drug business was 178; and most of them were under the PKK control or they gave tribute to the PKK. Ikbal Huseyin Rivzi, Interpol’s chief narcotics officer, explained that the PKK was heavily evolved in drug trafficking as a means to support terrorism in Turkey. At the same year, the reports of the Italian police clearly showed that the PKK set up special teams for international drug business. The United States Department of State Bureau of International Narcotic Matters, has published a report in 1992, called "International Narcotics Control Strategy". The report stipulates that the European drug cartel is controlled by PKK members. Haluk Bahcekapali, a senior Turkish narcotics agent, argued that "the PKK members were the brains behind the trafficking between Turkey and Western European countries". (1) Some of the money acquired from drug trafficking and extortion, goes to the purchase of firearms and other equipment. According to a report by the British National Service of Criminal intelligence, the PKK acquired about $75 million from drug smuggling in Europe In 1993. Further, in 1994 PKK members were arrested by Turkish authorities while attempting to smuggle 1.5 tons of hashish Into Turkey from one of Turkey's neighboring countries. German high rank officials also stated that the 75 % of heroin caught in this country in 1994 was belonging to Kurdish origin Turks. Moreover, 70 % of drug sale in Germany was made by the PKK. Other sources similarly indicate that the PKK controlled between 60 % to 70 % of the European illegal drug market in 1994. The number of the imprisoned PKK members related with drug crimes in Germany was 30 in 1994. In the same year, the amount of the captured PKK drug was nearly 1.6 ton. An article in a German newspaper (Kölnische Rundschau), dated February 2, 1995 also reported that a drug trafficking cartel which operates in South America called "Medellin" had close links with PKK drug dealers who work in Europe. In this connection, 25 PKK sympathizers were apprehended in Cologne, with 143 kg. of heroin. A 1995 report prepared by the Drug Enforcement Agency of the US Department of Justice also emphasized that the PKK is engaged in drug trafficking and money laundering activities and is well-established in the production of almost all kinds of opium products and their smuggling. Turkish Interior Minister Nahit Mentese reported in 1993 that security forces had scored major successes against Kurdish rebel drug-smuggling operations. Over the year, he said, police had seized 1,054 kilograms of heroin, 2,884 kg of morphine base, and 23,679 kg of hashish from PKK traffickers. Turkish Minister added "This terrorist organization gets financial revenues from smuggling drugs abroad, as it does in Turkey." Columnist Enis Berberoglu, who has written several books on the subject similarly underlines the connection between the PKK and drug sumuggling during the early 1990s: "Turkey was deeply involved in drug smuggling in the mid 1990s. There was a very strong mafia here at that time and the PKK (the Kurdish rebel group the Kurdistan Workers Party) used to take protection money in return for letting them operate in the east". * The Sputnik Operation By this way, drug business has become most important revenue of the PKK terrorist organization. The 1996 UN Narcotic Audit Committee’s Report indicated the reason how the PKK still stands, as narcotic money. Belgium newspapers in 1996 reported that the police there believe that the PKK was engaged in drug and arms smuggling, extortion and other crimes in Europe (Stephen Kinzer, 'Turks, Opposing U.S., Urge Iraq To Take Control of Kurdish Area', The New York Times, 21 September 1996). During the 1990s the PKK established so-called NGOs and companies in Western European countries, notably in the UK, Germany, France and Belgium, to launder and transfer the smuggling and extortion money. 1997 Sputnik Operation (Belgium) showed how the PKK launders narcotic and other illegal money. The British and Belgium police together acted simultaneously on 18 September 1996 and started a large scale operation 'Sputnik'. The operation aimed the PKK linked organizations and members of the terrorist organisation under civilian names in the United Kingdom and Belgium (Like London-based Med-TV, so-called Kurdistan Parliament in exile). Germany and Luxembourg police also made similar operations against the PKK in their countries. The main juridical foundation of all these operations was money laundering. The narcotic and other illegal money was being laundered by the PKK's TV channel and so-called civilian organizations. The operation revealed that the PKK's TV channel Med-TV had a 350 millions of BF bank account in Luxembourg. The police reported that the money came from drugs, arms and human trafficking. In February 1996 a Canadian citizen who had acted on the Med-TV was jailed in Luxembourg. According to the the Luxembourg police he tried to launder big amount of money for the PKK organizations for commission (François Haut, 'Kurdish Extremism and Organized Crime: The Kurdistan Workers Party', Pan European Turkish Organied Crime Conference, 'THe Way Forward' proceedings, London, March 3-5 1998, p. 13) The terrorist organization in these years laundered money under the name of donation or aid to so-called cultural, children, women etc associations in London, Paris, Brussels and other European cities. This money has been collected in certain accounts; later, laundered money has been spent for MED TV (now Roj TV), weapons, explosives, militia training and for other PKK businesses. Another laundering method was jewelry buying-selling and some other legal investments. In 1997, relationship between the terror organization and drug smuggling begun to disturb more the Western European countries, and expalined above with Sputnik and some other operations, terror organization was forced to take more measures to hide its illegal activities. When risks increased in drug business, the PKK started a propaganda campaign claiming that it was not in any illegal drug business. The organization further claimed that these accusations were part of the Turkish Republic’s ‘propaganda game’ against the PKK. According to the PKK propaganda, those people who were caught by police had not any relationship with the PKK. In this regard, the PKK, thanks to its social and so-called cultural organizations, started a great “No to Drug” campaign in many European countries in 1998. With these kind of campaigns, as expected it was not possible for the PKK to clear itself in the eyes of European police and other security forces. However, it shouldn’t be forgotten that English or French police and judiciary are working within political system, and public opinion naturally influences their works against the criminals. May be this is the point that Turkey cannot intercept fully, but the PKK utilizes, perfectly. While Turkey generally perceives all Europe (even the West in general) as a single body, the terror organization successfully abuses the Western democracies’ weaknesses and the Western pluralist political and legal structures. * PKK-Linked Drug Smuggling in France, Italy and UK Similar to the operations in UK, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany several persons mostly of Turkish nationalisty, are arrested on October 29, 1996 in Paris suburbs. That was the end of a 40-millions F-fraud, linked with Belgium, concerning about 150 victims, completed by weapons and ... narcotics trafficking. The French police in this operation seized heroin, 6 kg, 20 millions. According to the French investigators who worked on that case for 18 month, the benefits of all these operations were assigned to the PKK (Haut, 'Kurdish...', p. 11). Early 1997, the presumed fund-raiser of the PKK for the south of France was arrested by the French police for having send money to Turkey, allegedly proceeding from drug trafficking. François Haut, director of the Department for the Study of the Contemporary Criminal Menace in Paris, argues that the PKK is still responsible for up to 80 percent of narcotics trafficked into the Parisian suburbs (Soner Cagaptay, 'Can the PKK Renounce Violence?', Middle East Quarterly, Winter 2007, pp. 45-52). A 1998 report by the Italian Finance Police, SCICO, determined that the PKK is 'directly involved' in 'international drug-trafficking,' while also earning illicit proceeds from the 'immigrant trade' and the 'systematic levying of 'protection' payments from Turkish businessmen and workers abroad.' (2) In 1998 the British security service sources estimated that the PKK was responsible fo at least 40 percent of the heroin sold in the European Union (The Spectator, 28 November-5 December 1998). * BBC: PKK Controls 80 % of European Drug Market After capture of Abdullah Ocalan, head of the PKK, and with the dramatic decrease of clashes in the Anatolian mountains, the organization begun to give more importance to drug business than before. Between 2004 and 2005, the amount of drug just caught in the Netherlands was more than 400 kg. With reference to 2005 European data, the PKK is the primary actor of the illegal European drug trade. BBC stated that, 80 % of European drug market was Turkish origin (it means Kurdish origin); and the PKK manages it. The BBC also reports that the number of the PKK members in British prisons is more than 1000. According to Turkish authorities, the number of PKK members caught with drug is around 700 between 1984 and 2000. These numbers clearly stated that the PKK has worked with hundreds of people in each country on the transition route. Rand Beers, Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, and Francis X. Taylor, Ambassador-At-Large For Counterterrorism, in their joint testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism and Government Information (13 March 2002) named the PKK the most important terrorist organisation in Europe which makes drug business and said "The PKK "taxes" ethnic Kurdish drug traffickers and individual cells traffic heroin to support their operations." * German Police: PKK is Involved in Drug Trafficking Germany banned the PKK in 1993 after it carried out a campaign of fire-bombings on Turkish and German institutions in Berlin however the German intelligence services estimate that the PKK network in Germany has thousands of members. For the PKK, Germany is more important than the other European countries in financing its terrorist activities and Turkey made pressure to Germany for active combatting terrorism's financial sources. As a result of these efforts, in recent years, a number of PKK members have been arrested in Germany for securing financing for the group. According to German police sources, the PKK is also involved in drug trafficking in Germany. "Police have confirmed that several investigations have revealed a link between the PKK and drug dealers" ("Germany Reports PKK Funding as Tensions Rise on Iraq Border", Deutsche Welle, 2 November 2007). In 2007 many PKK members who involved in drug dealing were arrested in European countries, especially in the transit countries for drugs coming from the east. On 19 December 2007 for example three fundraisers for the PKK who involved in drug dealing were arrested in Bucharest, capital of Romania. The Romanian public prosecutor declared that the PKK members organized the transportation of 58 kg of heroin, destined for the Netherlands. The suspects - two from Turkey and one from Syria, were all Romanian residents. They belonged to a trafficking ring which extended into Ukraine ('Romania Arrests 'PKK Fundraisers', Romania News Watch, 23 December 2007). As a matter of fact that Romania (with Bulgaria) has always been a vital transit route for the PKK drug smuggling from Turkey to Europe. The country has always been important for the arms transfers from Western Europe to Turkey as well (Ýlhan Uzgel, 'The Balkans: Turkey's Stabilizing Role', in Barry Rubin and Kemal Kiriþçi (eds.), Turkey in World Politics, An Emerging Multiregional Power, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2001, p. 59). Marko Hajdinjak claims that the Kurdish smugglers with the Arabs have controlled the heroin trade in the Balkans and they havedominated the Romanian route. Hajdinjak says "Indications exist that the profits from Kurdish-run heroin trade are used for financing the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)". (Marko Hajdinjak, The Yugoslav Wars and The Development of Regional Criminal Networks in the Balkans, Sofia: Center for the Study of Democracy, 2002, p. 20). * US Labels PKK Drug Smuggling Kingpin In 2008, the US labeled the PKK drug smuggling kingpin. The PKK as well as a Turkish national and other foreign organizations and individuals were put on a US list of suspected drug traffickers in June 2008. The US Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Desig-nation Act, which became law in December 1999, targets major foreign narcotics traffickers, their organizations and operatives worldwide.The terrorist organization will be denied access to the US financial system and all trade transactions involving US companies and individuals under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, according to a statement released by the White House. Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council said "Now that the PKK has been designated under the kingpin act, the penalties for doing business with them are much higher... We also now have the authority to target and designate other PKK entities and associates for narcotics activity. Before, we were limited to this group's terror activities." President George W. Bush described the group as a "common enemy" during the November Summit with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan. US experts and administration officials believe that the PKK has taken advantage of Turkey's strategic location between the poppy fields of Central Asia and the vast market of Europe and has used drug smuggling to finance its activities since as early as the 1980s. The terrorist group both "taxed" the drug traffickers and directly engaged in trafficking, according to the American narcotics specialists. (3) Jane Intelligence Review in 2008 argued that the drug money with diaspora funding increased in the PKK financial sources: "PKK financing has shifted from state support to self-financing through diaspora funding and drug trafficking". (4) According to the Jane Intelligence Review the war in Iraq have further facilitated the narcotic source of income for the terrorist organization as substantial amounts of heroin formerly transiting Iran are now re-routed through Iraq. The journal says "While the PKK's involvement in drug trafficking is clear, its exact extent and nature is not". Similarly Prof. Dr. Norman Stone confirms in his article in the Spectator that the PKK is in the drug smuggling business: "it kills innocents, it deals in drugs". (5) * PKK Mafia Network and Narcotic Money When all these data is considered, it won’t be so extreme to say that the PKK has developed by narcotic money.Lieutenant General Ergin Saygun, deputy chief of the Turkish General Staff, recently estimated that 50 to 60 percent of the PKK’s annual revenues is derived from drug trafficking (6). As The Spectator, British weekly magazine, puts it "the PKK has financed its war against Turkey by extortion and the sale of heroin" (The Spectator", 28 November-5 December 1998) In the mean time, a new kind of mafia emerged in drug, smuggling, and tribute \ robbery areas. This formation, can be called as ‘PKK mafia’, has developed its own mentality beyond terrorist organization’s classic mentality. In course of time, participations begun to this network from outside; and a network, stretched to three continents (Europe, Asia and Africa), was created. Surprisingly, some organizations, defined themselves on the contrary to the PKK, have also begun to participate to this PKK mafia network. Thus Turkist or Kurdist ideologies curtailed the real intentions and the drug money undermined public order and state authority in the country. So as to secure drug production, processing, transportation, distribution and marketing; this network has reflected itself differently and spreaded even inside the state body. The criticism made by European countries in the mid-1990s, was about the fact that drug bosses had friends in the Turkish cabinets. Although these claims seem to be more exaggerated, it is so remarkable that organizations that reflect themselves to public under different ideology and utilize from state power in some cases, has been cooperating with the PKK. It can be argued that the Deep State problem, extreme nationalisms and terrorism in Turkey have been financed by the drug smuggling money for the years. * Children As Drug Seller in the PKK Narcotic Network Apart from taxing narcotics traffickers, direct production, refining and transportation the PKK became a significant seller in Euro drug business in 1990s. In order to escape the strict European laws, the terrorist organisation has used children and teenagers. Children and teenagers who have been moving drugs for the Kurdish terrorists have been caught throughout Europe on numerous occasions in the 1990s and as recently as 2000. For example in Hamburg German police arrested a group of 11 year-old Kurdish children who had been smuggled into Germany from Turkey in order to sell drugs for the PKK ("Other people's wars: A Review of Overseas Terrorism in Canada", The Mackenzie Institute, Link * Conclusion In brief, illegal drug trade is the most crucial financial source of terror and collapse of legal state in Turkey. In order to end terror, if Turkey succeeds in ending drug smuggling it will get more effective solutions than bombing Kandil Mountain. Turkey on the one hand must eliminate the areas that are exploited by terrorists and extremists, and at the same time it must destroy financial infrastructure of terror and other crimes by cutting drug smuggling. Otherwise, the Turks will continue to live with the problems like robbery in streets of Istanbul, terror in mountains of southeast Anatolia and political assassinations in most sensitive times. We should also note that Turkey desperately needs immediate help of the European countries in its combat against terrorism. The ‘monster’ so big for Turkey, and the Turks cannot overcome the problem without the EU. At the same time, the drug smuggling mainly targets the youth of the Western European countries, and the EU cannot stop the illegal drug problem without a real co-operation with Turkey. --- Notes (1) Alan Cowell, "Heroin Pouring Through Porous European Borders", The New York Times, 9 February 1993. (2) Michele Steinberg, "PKK Terrorists Named `Drug Kingpins', Nations Move Against Narcoterrorism", Link "US labels PKK drug smuggling kingpin", Today's Zaman, 2 June 2008; "US imposes sanctions on PKK group", BBC News, 30 May 2008, Link 'Kurds and Pay - Examining PKK Financing', Jane's Intelligence Review, 13 March 2008. (5) Norman Stone, "Turkey is right to fight for an end to the PKK", The Spectator, 27 October 2007. (6) Turkish Daily News, March 13. Also See: Frank Hyland, "Turkey’s Multifaceted Anti-PKK Strategy Continues to Unfold", Terrorism Monitor, Volume 6, Issue 12 (June 12, 2008): Michele Steinberg, "PKK Terrorists Named `Drug Kingpins'; Nations Move Against Narcoterrorism", Executive Intelligence Review, August 1, 2008; Link "PKK uses drugs to finance its terrorist activities", Journakl of Turkish Weekly, 11 April 2006; "Germany Reports PKK Funding as Tensions Rise on Iraq Border", Deutsche Welle, 02 November 2007; Michael Rubin, 'The PKK Factor', National Review, 5 August 2004 |