ZAGREB, July 17 (Hina) - The Croatian Police Directorate and the Yugoslav Interior Ministry agreed in Zagreb on Wednesday to establish a joint commission in charge of implementing an agreement on the fight against organised crime,
signed recently in Belgrade.
ZAGREB, July 17 (Hina) - The Croatian Police Directorate and the
Yugoslav Interior Ministry agreed in Zagreb on Wednesday to
establish a joint commission in charge of implementing an agreement
on the fight against organised crime, signed recently in Belgrade.
#L#
Following talks, Croatian Police Director Ranko Ostojic and
Yugoslav Interior Ministry Secretary Dragan Radulovic signed a
protocol on the implementation of the Agreement on Readmission.
Describing the talks on the implementation of the agreement on the
fight against organised crime as "very concrete", Ostojic said that
they were "a turning point in the good cooperation between the two
police forces".
"We are trying to make our cooperation with police forces in
neighbouring countries as good as possible, as there can be no
successful fight against organised crime without it," Ostojic
said, adding that apart from the agreement with the Yugoslav
federal ministry, Croatia had also agreed on cooperation with the
Serbian and Montenegrin police.
One of the first indicators that the cooperation is successful is a
decrease in the number of illegal border crossings, Ostojic said.
In the first half of this year, the number of illegal immigrants
trying to reach western countries via Croatia dropped by 30 percent
compared to last year, he added.
Ostojic claims that the most busy "Balkan immigrant route" has now
shifted to Slovakia and Hungary.
Yugoslavia's Radulovic said today's meeting marked the beginning
of talks on the technical details of cooperation.
"The setting up of the joint commission is the first concrete step,
and more significant results will come with more frequent operative
cooperation measures," he said.
Asked to comment on a proposal by the High Representative to Bosnia-
Herzegovina on the establishment of a single Balkan institution for
the prevention of crime, the two officials agreed that one should
develop cooperation within the existing institutions and not waste
time on the establishment of joint bodies.
(hina) rml