BuaNews (Tshwane)
Richard Mantu
12 October 2004
Pretoria — National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi says as President of Interpol he will encourage the streamlining of member countries' anti-terrorism laws for effective intelligence gathering to counter global threats. .
Speaking in Pretoria today after his return from the 73rd Interpol General Assembly in Cancun, Mexico, last week, Commissioner Selebi said the assembly agreed to set-up regional anti-terror centres for regions to exchange information effectively to counter terror threats in the African continent.
He is the first African to be elected as President of the International policing body.
He described the response of the African sub-regional policing as "slow and weak" and in need of resources to face the new challenges of global crime.
"The streamlining of anti-terrorism legislation will enable police of different countries to co-operate in dealing with terrorism threats," he said.
Referring to southern African region, he said streamlining anti-terror legislation would also ensure early warning systems were in place to assist the region in countering terror threats.
Commissioner Selebi added that other priorities would be to expand the membership of the international policing body, made up of police services of the world in sharing information crucial for prosecution of international crime syndicates.
As a one of the top priorities as Interpol president, he said within six months, 44 of the 182 Interpol member states will be connected to the Interpol-24/7 Global communication system.
He said this system would help countries access at a click of button - information about global crime syndicates.
The I-24/7, which means information access 24 hours and seven days a week, enables police all over the world to access information about stolen vehicles, IDs, passports, and most wanted terror groups, among others.
Member states with the system will in turn be able to arrest any individual entering their country who might have been tagged with a yellow or red notice.
Yellow notice means that the individual is wanted in some country for criminal activities, while the red notice signals that the person may be a terror suspect or connected to a wanted terror group.
The Presidency of the Interpol also provides the South African Police Services to employ best practice models learned from different countries that have succeeded in dealing with certain aspects in crime prevention.
"My role as President will be to strengthen the work of SAPS so that we can communicate with our global partners and seek assistance from member states with problems that affect us," the former SA representative at the United Nations said.
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