Police told to step up fight against crime

Police told to step up fight against crime

SINGAPORE (AFP): Police officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) were urged yesterday to intensify cooperation against cross-border crime as the seven-nation group prepared for a major expansion.

Singapore's Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng told a conference of ASEAN police chiefs that "as trade and investment within our region increase, so will the movement of people across our borders and with that, cross-border crime."

"Regional cooperation on law enforcement will therefore assume greater importance," he said.

The police conference opened two days after ASEAN foreign ministers agreed in Kuala Lumpur to admit Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos in July, raising the group's membership to 10 countries with a total population of some 500 million.

ASEAN's current members are Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Cambodia and Laos sent observers to the police chiefs' meeting here.

Wong said he expected the ASEAN Association of Police to play an increasingly important role in ensuring public safety and civil security, adding that as ASEAN progressed, police work would become more complex.

"Crimes like phantom ship frauds where a ship destined for a particular place unloads its goods at another port under an assumed name cannot be fought single-handedly," Wong said.

He cited the case of the British "body parts" murderer John Martin, who was executed here last year for murdering a South African tourist. Evidence from Thailand, where he was linked to the murder of two Canadian tourists, was used to prosecute him in Singapore.

ASEAN police are currently working on a computer database system allowing them to share information on-line, and hold training seminars to keep themselves up to date on law enforcement policies and techniques.

Singapore police commissioner Tee Tua Ba cited the importance of information exchange on illicit firearms and commercial fraud, which he said contributed to success in fighting criminal syndicates.

"By maintaining the highest levels of cooperation, we reinforce our united stance against crime across our region. This is one of the strongest signals we can send to criminal elements who operate in our region," he said.