CABINET APPROVES SETTING UP OF ASEANAPOL PERMANENT SECRETARIAT

PUTRAJAYA, May 14 (Bernama) -- The Cabinet at its meeting Wednesday approved
the setting up of the permanent secretariat of the Asean police (Aseanapol),
Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said.

He said Malaysia was selected to host the Aseanapol permanent secretariat at
the 28th Asean Chiefs of Police conference in May last year.

"The recognition for us to establish the secretariat is something to be
proud of, and we will ensure that the decision will help us not only strengthen
bilateral relations between the security agencies but also regionally at the
Asean level," he told reporters after a post-Cabinet meeting at his ministry,
in this Malaysia's new administrative capital.

Hishammuddin said the secretariat would be set up as soon as possible and
that the details, including the terms of reference, would be announced by the
Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan.

Asked whether the secretariat would change international policies pertaining
to the countries involved, he said he hoped that it would happen because the
challenges of resolving criminal cases had changed.

"We are talking about human trafficking ... drugs, which require a lot of
cooperation between countries. For example, the issue of Mas Selamat (Kastari)
involved three countries. If there was no cooperation among the three it will
not have led to the arrest of the person concerned," he said.

Mas Selamat, believed to be the head of the Singapore cell of Jemaah
Islamiyah, the militant group linked to al-Qaeda that was behind the 2002 Bali
bombings, was arrested early last month by the Special Branch.

Hishammuddin said the investigation was going on and declined to say when
Mas Selamat would be repatriated to Singapore.

"The Cabinet today (Wednesday) also approved the visit of Prime Minister
Najib Tun Razak to Singapore on May 21 and 22, and I suppose and I believe that
the matter would be discussed at the very highest level by the top leaders of
both countries during that visit," he said.

Hishammuddin also said that the Cabinet also approved a memorandum of
understanding on bilateral cooperation between Malaysia and Australia on
eradication of crime.

Asked about the police report made by former northern state of Perak State
Assembly Speaker V. Sivakumar Wednesday on policemen having brought firearms
into the assembly during a commotion there last Thursday, Hishammuddin said the
report would be investigated.

"If the police did something against the law, they are also not immune.
Nobody's above the law, not even the police," he said.
-- BERNAMA