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However, there are grey areas. For example, insome logic has been applied to a biometric scheme in states, such as Mozambique and Zambia, there are Somalia. biometric ID cards for voter registration which aren't Grotesquely, biometric ID cards are coming to officially national ID cards but nonetheless have Rwanda. ID cards were a major tool in the Rwandan registered the population. genocide. Imagine how much more effective the "Election cards" tend to become national ID cards genocide could have been with a computerised immediately after an election, as in Haiti. (How did population register and an ID system with biometrics to introducing ID cards get linked to "bringing in prevent fraud or evasion. Rwanda's experience is an democracy"?) The USA would probably be in the grey horrific illustration of how lethal ID cards can be in a area due to the uncertainty (deliberately not clarified) nation in civil war, and raises uncomfortable questions about the Real ID Act, Canada due to proposals for about western involvement, as does the situation in biometric "enhanced drivers licenses", and Australia due | Congo. to the uncertain status of the Access Card. Any uncertainty gets put into perspective by the "big _ Policy Harmonisation in the EU, UK and USA picture": ID cards are coming, almost everywhere. The worldwide introduction of ID cards is merely the The simultaneous introduction of very similar ID card visible witness of an invisible process. Policies that systems in so many nations seems more than a _ profoundly affect our lives and take away our freedoms coincidence. If it were purely a are worked out in secret matter of nations taking their international deals. own nine te tpeade | Has the IMF required J Ml 200 sun ssi over a longer timetable as nations to adopt biometric Presidency ) the EU, the nations periodically updated ID cards on the retext of United Kingdom introduced a systems once every couple of . en . 5 proposal for biometric ID decades. Does this timetable Instigating financial cards for Europe despite the indicate unseen international : . t that it had tod pressure applied to nations to regulation and preventing sO under the EU ireaties at adopt ID cards? fraud and money hat time. In the process of researching | d ep) Legalities being no obstacle, the list, something interesting aun! ering: his subsequently evolved into binding EU policy in the Hague Programme on justice came out. The plans to introduce a national ID card system in Uganda were announced ina memorandum of and security. understanding, dated 20 June 2008, sent to the However, policies introducing ID cards, evolved in International Monetary Fund (IMF). secret, go far beyond identification and security, as The impression is that the IMF was involved in the described by Tony Bunyan of Statewatch in an article in decision long before the people of Uganda were _ the Guardian ("The surveillance society is an EU-wide consulted about their national ID card scheme. issue", 28 May 2009; includes quotations from Bunyan's Has the IMF required nations to adopt biometric ID Statewatch report, "The Shape of Things to Come"). ID cards, on the pretext of instigating financial regulation cards are only one tool, enabling a much larger scheme and preventing fraud and money laundering? to track and record the life of every individual; Bunyan Again and again, in the public description of the calls this the "digital tsunami”. alleged benefits of biometric ID systems, the reasons ‘Every object the individual uses, every transaction they given include the benefit to the banking system, in make and almost everywhere they go will create a detailed preventing fraud, and allowing the poor to have access digital record. This will generate a wealth of information o the banking system. for public security organisations’, leading to behaviour Several nations (e.g., India) have mentioned the need being predicted and assessed by ‘machines’ (their term) 0 confirm that aid gets to the intended recipients and which will issue orders to officers on the spot. The proposal is not lost in fraud—again, something which a body presages the mass gathering of personal data on travel, such as the IMF might see as a justifiable reason to bank details, mobile phone locations, health records, promote or require biometric ID, but other people internet usage, criminal records however minor, would see as a mere pretext for "policy laundering". fingerprints and digital pictures that can be data-mined In a different example of western promotion, the and applied to different scenario|s|—boarding a plane, European Union (EU) has financially sponsored the behaviour on the Tube or taking part in a protest. introduction of biometric ID cards in the Democratic Republic of Congo, allegedly to help promote peace by But this isn't just coming to Europe, as Bunyan racking down ex-soldiers and ex-fighters. A similar explains, because the USA and Europe will share similar logic has been applied to a biometric scheme in Somalia. Grotesquely, biometric ID cards are coming to Rwanda. ID cards were a major tool in the Rwandan genocide. Imagine how much more effective the genocide could have been with a computerised population register and an ID system with biometrics to prevent fraud or evasion. Rwanda’s experience is an horrific illustration of how lethal ID cards can be in a nation in civil war, and raises uncomfortable questions about western involvement, as does the situation in Congo. Has the IMF required nations to adopt biometric ID cards, on the pretext of instigating financial regulation and preventing fraud and money laundering? But this isn't just coming to Europe, as Bunyan explains, because the USA and Europe will share similar 12 * NEXUS OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 2009 www.nexusmagazine.com