China, ASEAN discuss joint combat against cross-border organized crimes

The China-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Prosecutors-General Conference, which opened in Kunming Thursday, is an important step for both sides to establish a cooperative mechanism in the fight against cross-border organized crimes.

Jia Chunwang, procurator-general of the Chinese Supreme People's Procuratorate, said at the conference that cross-border crimes and other non-traditional security issues are getting increasingly serious, constituting threats to humankind's development and posing new challenges to regional and international peace and stability.

Due to the diversified legal systems in different Asian countries, some loopholes certainly exist in the fight against the transnational crimes, said Indonesian Attorney General Muhammad Abdurrachman at the conference.

"We should set up transnational judicial systems for cooperation in collecting evidence, investigating suspects and witnesses, seeking lost properties and extraditing criminals, so as to fairly sentence criminals," he said.

In recent years, China and the ASEAN countries have enhanced their direct cooperation in specific judicial fields, and have made remarkable progress in the combat against cross-border crimes, said Zhang Geng, vice procurator-general of the Chinese Supreme People' s Procuratorate.

China and ASEAN have issued a joint declaration for cooperationin the field of non-traditional security issues and a joint declaration on the Sino-ASEAN strategic partnership facing peace and stability. China and most ASEAN countries also signed the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, which was passed in 2000.

In December 2002, thanks to joint efforts by China and Thailand, two Chinese suspects Chen Manxiong and Chen Qiuyuan who misappropriated hundreds of millions of yuan were extradited from Thailand to China.

"This offers good experience for the establishment of a future China-ASEAN cooperative mechanism in the fight against cross-border crimes," said Zhang.

He pointed out that the current judicial cooperation between China and ASEAN still needs to be improved. "We should continue to work on information exchange channels, evidence collection, suspect extradition and returning illicit money."

Mutual judicial aid and extradition agreements are necessary for a country to efficiently handle transnational crimes, said Thailand Attorney General Rawat Chamchalerm, calling for establishment of a regional legal framework.

In the joint fight against terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering, human and weapon smuggling, and other crimes, prosecuting departments in China and ASEAN should build special networks concerning information collection, search, exchange and transfer, said Zhang Geng.

Source: Xinhua