PNG votes woman to be Interpol’s first female chief

PAPUA New Guinea is one of the 154 countries that voted for Frenchwoman Mireille Ballestrazzi as president of Interpol.
The appointment was made on the last day of the 81st Interpol General Assembly in Rome, Italy.
Ballestrazzi is the deputy central director of the French Judicial Police.
The president of the organization heads its executive committee and is elected by the general assembly for a period of four years.
PNG Police Minister Nixon Duban expressed confidence at Ballestrazzi’s election, especially at a time when countries were adapting to the realities of the changing nature of transnational organised crime in the 21st century.
Congratulating Ballestrazzi, Duban told her of the need for greater Interpol focus and assistance to member countries in the Oceania region.
Duban expressed the need for the Oceanic region to have its own member delegate instead of being included in the Asia region.
Interpol secretary-general Ronald Noble welcomed Ballestrazzi’s appointment as another example of Interpol’s evolution, reflecting the active role of men and women in the international law enforcement community.
“As the world’s largest police organisation, it is essential that Interpol’s leadership offers the best policing and expertise to its 190 member countries in order to meet their needs,” Noble said.
Duban took part in the election of the Interpol executive committee, which included: Alan Bersin, assistant secretary of international affairs for the US Department of Homeland Security, Nobuyuki Kawai, director of the organised crime department of the National Police Academy of Japan, Algeria’s Abdelkader Kara Bouhadba, Commissaire Divisionnaire de Police, Directeur de la  Police Judiciaire, Bob Paulson, Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Jong Yang Kim of the Korean National Police Agency and Head of Interpol’s National Central Bureau in Seoul, Brigadier-General Saoud Abdallah Al-Mahmoud, Director of the International Cooperation Department of Qatar’s Ministry of Interior and Filippo Dispenza, Brigadier-General of the Italian National Police.
The four-day conference from November 5-8 in Rome was  launched with a ministerial meeting attended by close to 100 global leaders who endorsed a joint declaration recognising the need to identify viable strategies to effectively address the changing modes of contemporary criminal violence.
During the conference, more than 1,000 delegates from 170 countries endorsed a series of resolutions to build a modern framework for collective action, including on maritime piracy, illicit trafficking in cultural property, the Interpol programme to combat trafficking in illicit goods launched earlier this year, the Interpol travel document and cybercrime.
Duban said Papua New Guinea had yet to tap into the immense benefits the membership of Interpol offered.
He said as police minister he would ensure PNG improved its crime fighting capacity and capability by tapping into the vast resources and experiences of Interpol member countries.
“The combined experiences and skills of 190 countries are available through Interpol and Papua New Guinea must tap into this,” Duban said from Rome.
He is accompanied in Rome by East New Britain Governor Ereman Tobaining Jnr, who is a member of the parliamentary committee on law and order and police media unit director, Superintendent Dominic Kakas.
Duban, Tobaining Jnr and other leaders attending the general assembly met the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict, on Friday.