| Aseanapol's priorities: Terrorism, cyber and transnational crime |
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| World Affairs Talk | |
| Monday, 11 June 2007 | |
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One area of immediate benefit from heightened cooperation is access to Interpol's database. ASEAN's police chiefs identified terrorism, cyber crime and transnational organised crime as three priority areas for attention and will take help in this regard. To work towards a secure region, a global conference on Asian organised crime will be jointly organised with Interpol in early 2008 in Singapore. ASEAN's police chiefs believe two important factors will help in the tackling of crime worldwide as a result of this treaty. One is to know and trust each other in order to link up organisations when information needs to be shared. Tan Sri Musa Hassan, Chief, Royal Malaysian Police Force, said "with this close cooperation, all member countries can share intelligence and work closely together to identify organised crime". With the signing of the cooperation declaration with Interpol, ASEAN's police organisations can now tap into its communication system database 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Khoo Boon Hui, Commissioner, Singapore Police Force, said "we cannot match the reach and resources of Interpol, especially where their databases are concerned. We are able, through our links with them and through our Aseanapol joint database, to tap on this database seamlessly”. ASEAN Leaders, at their 7th Summit on 5 November 2001 in Brunei Darussalam, adopted the 2001 ASEAN Declaration on Joint Action to Counter Terrorism. The ASEAN Leaders viewed terrorism as a profound threat to international peace and security and "a direct challenge to the attainment of peace, progress and prosperity of ASEAN and the realization of ASEAN Vision 2020". ASEAN is also carrying out training programmes and projects in counter terrorism in 2003, including on psychological operation/psychological warfare courses for law enforcement authorities and on intelligence procuring. Courses on bomb/explosive detection, post-blast investigation, airport security and passport / document security and inspection are also planned. The significant development this year is increasing the engagement of the dialogue partners. They are the ones who have been contributing significantly in terms of expertise as well as equipment to some countries and in this way, bringing in new capabilities to the region. The ASEAN police chiefs' conference in Singapore also addressed the issue of cyber-crime and the prevalence of such activities in member countries. They agreed that these criminal activities could be disruptive to member nations and have decided to adopt a common framework which would serve as a useful guide on some of the steps needed to battle cyber-crime speedily. ASEAN's police will also be working closely with Interpol to work out a system of communications and coordination during crisis management, especially in times of natural disasters and terrorist attacks. Share & Bookmark             |
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| Last Updated ( Saturday, 16 June 2007 ) |
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