BBC Monitoring Service
July 01, 2004

Source: Kupang Pos web site, Kupang,
in Indonesian 1 Jul 04

Kupang: In order to tackle crime occurring across the Indonesian and Timor
Leste [East Timor] border, Indonesian Police (Polri) would open the way for
cooperation with Timor Leste National Police (PNTL) to enable it to address
transnational crime, which no longer recognized national borders.

NTT [East Nusa Tenggara] Police Chief Brig-Gen Edward Aritonang MM, made
this announcement during a press conference with reporters at NTT Police
headquarters on Saturday (26 June).

"International police cooperation under the umbrella of the Interpol, which
is based in France, has already been established, however when it comes to
Timor Leste, Polri can see the need to establish cooperation with the new
nation," said Aritonang.

As a manifestation of this cooperation, Aritonang said that Polri was
currently drafting a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with PNTL, to
facilitate cooperative communication between the two nations. The
Department of Foreign Affairs (Deplu) in Jakarta was looking over Polri's
cooperation proposal.

"If Deplu accepts the legislative content of the MoU, then the MoU between
Polri and PNTL aimed at building a cooperative relationship to tackle
transnational crime, will be signed immediately. The formalization of the
MoU may coincide with Megawati's official opening of the Anti-Terrorism
Centre in Semarang (Central Java), in the near future," said Aritonang.

Aritonang said that as the cooperation liaison officer between Polri and
PNTL, he had been appointed head of the ex-official commission by the
Indonesian Police Chief.