Held at the Australian Federal Police College in Canberra between May 15 and 26, the workshop was part of the Australian Federal Police's Law Enforcement Co-operation Programme to enhance working relationships with other law enforcement agencies. Other participants of the workshop came from Malaysia, Fiji and Sri Lanka.

To provide skills and knowledge to undertake identification of victims of major disasters, the training programme covered all aspects of DVI to give the participants the ability to develop their own identification capability. The programme developed police skills and knowledge in handling an incident and raised awareness of the various considerations relevant to DVI. The participants were exposed to the practical components and given the opportunity to practise the procedures.

CIP Wai, who was a member of the taskforce to help Hong Kong residents hit by the tsunami disaster in 2004, found the workshop very useful. "I hope I can pass on what I've learned at the seminar to my colleagues because we may have to perform such duties overseas again. In particular the Interpol DVI guidelines are very useful for this job," he said.

CIP Wai receives a souvenir from the Australian Federal Police