I

ndonesia must strengthen international cooperation to address transnational crime issues and provide better protection for witnesses and victims, an official said on Monday.

Chairman of the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK), Abdul Haris Semendawai, said that the country still lags behind others in providing proper protection for witnesses and victims of transnational organized crime.

“Indonesia has yet to ensure safety for witnesses and victims amid the rising crime rate in the country,” he said on the sidelines of a conference on witness and victim protection on transnational organized crime in Nusa Dua.

The National Police recorded that last year there were three conspicuous types of transnational crime: terrorism, human trafficking and drugs-related crime, with a total number of 16,138 cases, increasing by 35.28 percent from 10,444 cases during the previous year.

“Last year we received 340 reports, but this year, as of June we have already received 240 applications [for witness and victim protection]. We might receive around 500 applications by the year end,” Abdul said.

The agency’s head of cooperation and training, Teguh Soedarsono, said that in a three-day conference, Indonesia would also hear presentations from other countries concerning witness and victim protection in their respective countries. “The United States, for example, takes these matters very seriously by providing protection similar to VVIPs,” he said.

During the conference attended by law enforcement officials from 30 countries, the agency signed a memorandum of understanding on the protection for witness and victim with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT).