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General News of Thursday, 22 May 2003

Source: GNA

US Embassy To Help Fight Crime In Ghana

The Ambassador of the United States of America to Ghana, Mrs Mary Yates on Wednesday said her country was prepared to collaborate with Ghana to find news ways of combating crime in the country.

Mrs. Yates, who was speaking at a meeting in Accra with the Interior Minister, Mr. Hackman Owusu-Agyeman, said criminals actually needed to be put behind bars and sharpening the skills of the security personnel could do that. She expressed appreciation to Ghanaians and the professionalism of the police personnel towards terrorism and security issues.

Mrs. Yates met the Minister with some security officials from the US, who were in the country to assist in training security personnel.

Mr. Owusu-Agyeman said the discussion between the Ministry and Embassy for logistics and imparting sophisticated methods to make the personnel more efficient had been satisfactory.

He said there had also been collaboration among the Ministry, National Disaster Management Organisation; Military; Police and Narcotics Control Board for the safety of Ghanaians in the event of a terrorist attack.

Mr. Owusu-Agyeman said the Embassy and Ministry were beginning to lay the foundation for new cooperation to ensure security and they needed to exchange ideas in this direction. He warned that the security agencies were going to launch an assault on drug dealers and addicts.