DUSHANBE, June 12, Asia-Plus — A two-day meeting of an expert group for coordinating a draft agreement on cooperation in combating illicit weapons trafficking ended in Minsk, Belarus yesterday.
Ms. Marina Gutsalo, a spokeswoman for the CIS Executive Committee, told Asia-Plus on Thursday that preparation of that document was provided for by an interstate program for joint crime-prevention measures designed for 2005-2007.
“Speaking at the meeting, Sergey Tretyakov, the deputy head of the CIS department within the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), noted that practically all the terrorist acts in the CIS states are being committed with use of illicit arms and explosives. This type of crime is closely connected with drug trafficking; dismantling channels of illicit weapons trafficking will be a serious step towards providing security of each of CIS states,” the spokeswoman said.
According to her, the draft agreement provides for the collection of operational information and its exchange, the holding of joint measures, including “checked deliveries of weapons”, the creation of a joint database of transnational criminal rings involved in illicit weapons trafficking.
The database will receive information about such gangs from all CIS states and law enforcement agencies of each of the CIS states will be able to use this database, according to Gutsalo.
