DOHA: Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, who is president of the 13th UN Crime Congress, chaired part of the plenary session which discussed international cooperation, including at the regional level, to combat transnational organised crime.
Speaking during the session, the Chinese representative said that China took its international obligations with respect to criminal justice and crime prevention seriously, and Beijing had implemented many measures to promote international cooperation in this area.
The Chinese government had signed 199 agreements with other countries on deportation of criminals and had prepared mechanisms for bilateral cooperation with many parties. He added that his country had taken steps to eliminate the sources of crime and this had led to a fall in the rate of increase in the overall crime rate in China.
He said the Chinese government had launched an initiative called “Hunting Fox” last year and it had achieved success in curbing the spread of crime. But there still are crimes increasingly in prevalence at the global level, including those involving drugs and corruption, which pose a direct threat to social peace and security worldwide and require everyone to work as a team, he said.
Speaking during the session, the representative of Tunisia said the growth of transnational organised crime required everyone to work together to strengthen international cooperation in this area.
He said the Doha Conference on Prevention of Crime and Criminal Justice offered a good opportunity to everyone to identify their priorities and methods to combat transnational organised crime.
“Tunisia is considered one of the most vulnerable countries for terrorism and this has compelled us to combat that crime in coordination with neighbouring countries and other countries of the world, in addition to cooperating with regional and international organisations working in the field of combating terrorism” said the Tunisian representative.
On the money looted by ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the Tunisian representative said the return of the looted money to the country was one of the challenges before them and the current cooperation in this field between countries needed to be revised.
But he praised Lebanon and Qatar, which were the first countries to return money looted by Ben Ali’s wife. Representatives of Egypt, Canada, Spain, Azerbaijan and Japan also spoke during the session.
THE PENINSULA
