The Interpol Saga - limits of global policing

INTERPOL SAGA
Limits of Global Policing
Our mega-scams have made the Central Bureau of Investigation a household word. But the CBI can go so far and no further. It can do precious little once scam money has been stashed away in foreign accounts and the dramatis personae have found sanctuary abroad. CBI then takes the help of Interpol. Even to those who have heard of Interpol, it is a mysterious presence, bordering on fantasy, handling operatives in the James Bond mould. The truth is nothing as exciting.
Interpol stands for international police cooperation and not for international policing. Countries are sensitive about their national sovereignty and no country will tolerate a foreign police agency or even an international police body snooping into its affairs however friendly its intentions may be. The constitution of Interpol therefore emphasizes that police cooperation must be limited to criminal offences and that too within the limits of the laws of different countries, in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
EXTRADITION
Interpol initiatives are invalid when dealing with fugitives seeking asylum from political or religious persecution. The other day Interpol had to turn down China’s request to arrest Li Hongzhi, the leader of the banned Falun Gong sect, as it could not have involved itself in a case of political or religious nature. Interpol has no branches. Every member country has to designate one of its several police agencies as the national central bureau to liaise with Interpol. It is through these NCBs that Interpol operates. In India, CBI is the designated NCB.
Interpol is a contrivance born out of necessity. The giant strides taken by science and technology in the present century offers increased opportunities for international criminal activity. For instance, preparations for a crime may be made in one country and committed in another; an offender may escape across a border after committing his offence; or he may transfer his illicit gains abroad. Tracing and detaining such offenders, and their eventual extradition, may prove extremely difficult. If these problems have to be overcome police agencies must work together.
A concerted attempt was made to improve police cooperation through the International Criminal Police Commission in Vienna in 1923. It was essentially a European organization and met annually. A degree of mystery still surrounds the years of World War II. The Germans moved its headquarters offices from Vienna to Berlin, but most records have vanished, leaving the allegation that it became an arm of the Nazi state largely unproven. This did not stop the former French President, Mitterand, saying at the opening of the new Interpol buildings in Lyons in 1989 that “the Nazi invasion (of Austria) led to the institution being used for unacceptable ends, against the wishes of its founders and most of it’s members”. After its uncertain wartime history, a broad-based ICPC moved its headquarters in 1946 from Berlin to Paris. New statutes were adopted and Interpol was chosen as the telegraphic address. In 1956 ICPC became International Criminal Police Organisation – better known as Interpol.
Interpol is not an agency of the United Nations though it does collaborate with the latter in certain areas. Like the UN, the membership of Interpol is voluntary. It has become a truly global organization with the number of member countries jumping from 50 in 1955 and 177 in 1997. As an estimated 80 per cent of the traffic going through Interpol’s communication is between European countries, they make a bigger financial contribution. Irrespective of their size and financial contribution all members enjoy equal rights. The supreme governing body of Interpol is its Central Assembly which meets annually and takes all major policy decisions. An executive committee elected by the assembly meets thrice a year to monitor the implementation of the policy decisions.
The General Secretariat is Interpol’s implementing arm and its permanent presence. The Secretary General heading the secretariat is the chief executive officer of Interpol and its moving spirit. The Secretary General is elected by the General Assembly for five years at a time. The secretariat has four divisions – the executive office, the financial controller and the European liaison bureau report directly to the Secretary General. The 300-strong secretariat staff are police officers or administrative and technical personnel.
NARCOTICS
The areas of principal interest to Interpol are offences against persons and property including murder, kidnapping for ransom, terrorism and hostage-taking, traffic in human beings, aerial hijacking, traffic in stolen motor vehicles, clandestine business in firearms and explosives etc; economic and financial crime including currency and document counterfeiting and forgery, fraud of various types involving banking operations and other commercial activities, money laundering, traffic in radioactive substances and environmental crimes; offences involving cultural property such as art theft and trafficking in endangered species of wild life; and drug trafficking and related offences including illicit cultivation, manufacture, transport and sale of drugs. Of the above, narcotics and money-laundering use up the better part of Interpol’s time and resources. It is in respect of these two that our CBI and the Narcotics Control Bureau have the most to do with Interpol.
International conferences on fraud and money-laundering organized by Interpol have strongly urged the member countries to make laws to confiscate the alleged proceeds of crime, even unexplained wealth, using the principle of “reverse onus”. India’s Law Commission has reportedly taken the cue. Lately Interpol has also been collaborating with India’s forest officials and agencies concerned with preservation of endangered species in preventing poaching and smuggling of tiger skins, elephant tusks, rhino horns, etc.
Interpols’ bread and butter is the circulation of crime-related information in what are known as “international notices”. Of the various kinds of notices the red-cornered notice is of utmost concern and urgency to Interpol. It is issued to secure the arrest and the extradition of accused persons.
COOPERATION
Remember CBI activating the red-corner and look-out notice against Quattrocchi (Bofors case) through Interpol in the wake of the Supreme Court upholding the warrant of arrest against him? And for the arrest of Kim Davy in the Purulia arms dropping case? In response to Interpol’s red alert notices, Chandraswamy’s aide Babloo Srivastava was arrested in Singapore, a JKLF leader in Belgium, and drug lord Iqbal Mirza in London. The twin resolution adopted unanimously at the 66th Interpol General Assembly Meet in Delhi in October 1997 – to give legal status to the red alert notices and to create a universal convention on extraditions – may some day become a reality.
Interpol was never intended as an operational force but was concerned to see general cooperation achieved between national police systems and facilitate that by acting as a clearing house of information. Some critics of Interpol see it as Eurocentric. Others find it bureaucratic and cumbersome, besides being remote and distant from on-the-ground policing.
Despite Interpol having moved more directly into tackling terrorism doubts have remained due to a feeling that its worldwide membership could still lead to information in the Interpol network getting into wrong hands. Interpol rejects the criticism but it came in for some defamatory comment when it was alleged that it had withheld information about a Palestinian “guerrilla chief” who visited France for medical treatment in the early 90s. No one, however, questions its pre-eminence in international police matters. It has remained apolitical by and large.
With its high-profile professional image Interpol can step into the next millennium with confidence. If Shengen and Trevi gradually take over Europolicing, Interpol will be able to pay better attention to the rest of the world.
SUDHIR KUMAR JHA
25th November 1999
The Statesman