SADC police pin hopes on information flows to curb trafficking

BY MWINYI SADALLAH

Drug trafficking, illegal immigration and organised crime are among the chief challenges facing member countries of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), it has been declared.

Union Vice President Dr Gharib Mohamed Bilal made the statement when opening a conference for SADC member states inspectors general of police mid this week.

Noting that this was a major reason for cooperation among police forces of the respective countries, he told the participants that cooperation would help a lot in efforts to curb the trafficking.

The conference brought together IGPs from 11 SADC countries, namely Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique, Seychelles, Malawi, Lesotho, Congo DRC and Swaziland apart from hosts Tanzania, while Angola, Madagascar and Mauritius did not send representatives.

Emphasizing the question of cooperation among the SADC countries, Dr Bilal praised progress registered so far, enabling impounding of 267 kilos of cocaine in SADC member states.

He said that apart from impounded drugs, over 500 suspected traffickers were arrested. Despite this achievement, SADC countries still have to come up with strategies that would help in the fight against piracy, terrorism and organised crime using developments in information technology to plan and execute crime.

Security remains a big concern in the SADC zone. This is complicated by the fact that criminals have also been using very advanced techniques to conduct money laundering, electronic theft and human trafficking for commercial sex, he elaborated.

Inspector General of Police Saidi Mwema, said that key challenges facing the SADC region include cyber organised crime, human trafficking and drug trafficking.

“A great deal of work has to be done to ensure that all these threats are contained. We'll need cooperation among police forces in the region, particularly in exchanging intelligence information," the IGP declared.

However, he said this would only be attainable provided security organs were empowered and facilitated accordingly so that police officers are motivated to faithfully implement their tasks.

The problem of illegal immigrants is generally due to instability in the countries of Somalia, Ethiopia and Pakistan, he further noted.

Commissioner General Magawashi Phiyega from South Africa, the chairperson of SARPCCO who completed her term of leadership, commended the level of cooperation already developed among SADC member states, expressing optimism that with such cooperation SARPCCO would make progress and attain its goals.

Rwanda, which participated in the meeting as an observer, signed agreements to join police cooperation under SARPCCO. The signing was done by Rwanda IGP Emmanuel Gasana and IGP Saidi Mwema as the new chairperson of SARPCCO.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN (08/09/2012): http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php?l=45594