TOWARD A "SINGLE CRIMINAL SPACE" ?

Meeting in Chisinau, the Ministers of Internal Affairs of CIS member countries agreed in principle to upgrade the CIS Coordination Bureau for Crime-Fighting Activities into a "regional" Interpol Bureau for CIS Countries. Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs is to draft the new Bureau’s by-laws. The measure, if carried out in the way suggested by Moscow, could interpose this new structure between each individual country and Interpol. As of now, Interpol branch offices in individual CIS countries are components of each country’s own Internal Affairs Ministries under national command and jurisdiction. The ministers also signed an agreement on a unified procedure for pursuing wanted criminal suspects on CIS countries’ national territories.

Russia’s Interpol office chief, Gen. Ivan Sardak, supported the proposals with the argument that the CIS forms "a single criminal space." Russian deputy prime minister and internal affairs minister, Anatoly Kulikov, who chairs the CIS Internal Affairs Ministers’ Council, credited the Interpol Secretariat with the initiative of setting up a "CIS regional bureau" and offering technical assistance to encourage its creation. Kulikov noted with satisfaction that the Ministries of Internal Affairs "are in the vanguard of the integration of CIS countries." But his Moldovan colleague, Mihai Plamadeala, host and chairman of this meeting, pointed out that the Interpol agreement has yet to be finalized and that most participants turned down Moscow’s draft of a long-term cooperation program. It was the main document considered at the session. (Basapress, Flux, Reuter, Itar-Tass, March 14)

Minsk Demonstrators Support Legitimate Parliament and Constitution.