ASEAN police start data base

JAKARTA (JP): A working group of the ASEAN Police (ASEANAPOL) began a three-day meeting yesterday to discuss the establishment of a joint data base system to fight the rising trend of organized crime.

Yesterday's meeting, the fourth held by the working group, was to decide which company was to set up the system.

Bids from three companies -- IBM, Anderson Consulting and ST Computer -- were received in a tender opened in Singapore last month.

"We hope this meeting of the working group will be the final one," Head of the National Police's Directorate of Operations Maj. Gen. M.B. Hutagalung said.

Reminding the audience that organized crime in the region was increasing, Hutagalung said, the data base would speed up the exchange of information among ASEAN police forces in fighting crimes in the region.

The system is planned to start operating early next year. The first stage of network would cover ASEAN countries and would eventually be developed to include other countries including France, where the secretariat general of the International Criminal Police Organization, Interpol, is located.

The proposal to establish a data base system among ASEAN police forces was agreed upon during the 12th meeting of ASEANAPOL in Brunei Darussalam in 1992.

The agreement was followed up by meetings of the ASEANAPOL working group in the Philippines (1993), Thailand (1994) and Jakarta (1995). (01)