First police cadets offer glimmer of hope

[General Duke]

First police cadets offer glimmer of hope to the world's most lawless country

 

Rare glimpse inside east African state run by warlords shows rookies who must combat anarchy

 

Xan Rice in Armo, Somalia

Thursday April 20, 2006

The Guardian

 

 

An everyday scene in Somalia: a bloodied man lies dying under a thorn tree. Then the rarest of scenes in the world's most lawless land: the arrival of the boolis - the police. Screeching to a halt, a white Toyota car coughs out half a dozen uniformed officers. Three chase and tackle a suspect. The others cordon off the area and inspect the body. Holding a bloody axe found in a bush nearby, one declares "exhibit one".

 

This was a training exercise, one of the last before the 134 men and 19 women of the Armo Police Academy, in northern Somalia, graduate tomorrow. They will become the first home-trained police in the country since it lapsed into anarchy 15 years ago.

"You are the beginning of hope for the Somali police," said Bashir Jama, 52, the country's deputy police commissioner, addressing the cadets last week.

 

Hope, of course, is a word best used lightly in Somalia, a country not so much fractured as thoroughly broken.

 

Since 1991, when the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled, there has been no central government. At least 13 attempts at forming one have failed. Outside of Somaliland, which claims independence, there are no state schools, hospitals or social services. More than 400,000 people live in shacks as internal refugees. What control there is comes from warlords exploiting clan divisions for personal gain; what law there is comes from the barrel of an AK-47.

 

Veterans

 

"We have one religion, one ethnicity, so we are one family really," said Abdinur Yusuf, 70, who was one of the most senior policemen in the Barre regime and is now helping out at Armo. "Our problem is that many people want to be head of that family."

 

Whether the latest attempt at establishing a national government will succeed is still anyone's guess. Clan elders elected the 275-member transitional federal government (TFG) in October 2004. Led by Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, the president, it is filled with most of the warlords who have helped maintain the state of chaos for 15 years. Last month the TFG finally set up camp in a large warehouse in Baidoa.

 

But the optimism that greeted the opening of parliament on home soil was tempered by the harsh realities. The government does not control a single large city; it has got no ministries and no revenue, and it relies on handouts. Most crucially, however, it has got no security.

 

A country that once boasted of having the finest police force in sub-Saharan Africa now has just a few hundred proper officers, and no army. Apart from ministers' own private militia - the president had 1,500 gunmen follow him towards Baidoa - the government has no way of securing its own safety let alone that of the population.

 

Which is why the establishment of a training academy to help rebuild a police force from scratch was seen as so urgent. Set in the small highway town of Armo, an hour's drive south of the Red Sea port of Bossaso, the academy was built last year with support from the UN Development Programme. For the moment it consists of an administration block, a clinic, four large classrooms and a parade ground. Dormitories are still being built, so the men sleep in the classrooms; the women are in a hotel.

 

Recruits were drawn from across the country. There are fresh-faced teens, such as 19-year-old Mohamed Abdule, as well as former militiamen such as Adbi Buule, 29. There are also grey-haired, grizzled veterans of the old force, such as Mohamed Farah, who says he is 45 but may well be 10 years older.

 

Bad morals[/n]

 

Training at the academy, led by three Ugandan police seconded to UNDP, has ranged from recording crime in a logbook to the intricacies of the law of evidence. Given that the cadets were not trained with guns, because of an arms embargo since 1992, the "alternative to violence procedures" course may prove the most useful.

 

The trainers worry about the brevity of the course, four months. But there is little doubting the cadets' keenness. "What happens if I chase a suspect and he gets hit by a car, will I be charged?" asked one man last week.

 

Andrew Kaweesi, 32, an assistant superintendent in the Ugandan police, said: "The cadets who've never been in the militia are the easiest to teach. Some of the militia have bad morals ... like taking money from people at roadblocks."

 

But the recruitment of militia into the police, and eventually the army, is seen as unavoidable, especially if the plan to invite foreign peacekeepers is shelved, as seems likely. With tens of thousands of young men working as private militia, the only way to encourage them to lay down their arms will be to offer them something else.

 

In the next few weeks about 100 of the Armo graduates will be flown to the government's base. There they will be joined by 200 other police officers, who are being trained in Kenya; this will form the basis for what the government hopes will swell to a 12,000-strong force.

 

In Baidoa the officers will witness the challenges facing them across the country. At least 3,000 freelance militiamen roam the town and tensions are running high. Last week two guards escorting a World Food Programme convoy were killed near the town in a militia ambush. Separately, seven men were killed after an argument over a mobile phone.

 

No-go zone

 

But Baidoa might as well be Geneva compared to Mogadishu. Arguably the world's most dangerous capital for a foreigner, Mogadishu is a no-go zone also for the government. Two heavily armed groups are vying for its control: a group of warlords-cum-government ministers, who re-branded themselves the Anti-Terror Coalition in a brazen attempt to get US support, are pitted against the Sharia courts, set up by the clan elders. But of late the courts have acquired a strong political dimension, and there are suspicions that they harbour Islamic extremists responsible for more than 12 assassinations in the past year.

 

What is certain is that both groups are awash with guns from Yemen and Ethiopia, and both strongly oppose the president's regime - thought likely to threaten their lucrative control of ports, airfields and roadblocks.

 

"If we sent these policemen there now they would be killed," said Garad Nur Adbulle, the deputy head of the Armo academy. "No doubt."

 

Backstory

 

Since 1991, when the military strongman Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown, much of Somalia has been gripped by anarchy and civil war. Taking advantage of clan differences, warlords carved the country into fiefdoms. Protected by private militias, they have managed to thwart more than a dozen efforts to restore order, including the disastrous US-led UN mission portrayed in the film Black Hawk Down. In 2004 peace talks in Kenya led to the formation of the 275-member transitional federal government (TFG). Equal representation was given to each of the country's four main clans, and ministers include many of Somalia's warlords, including the president, Abdullahi Yusuf. The TFG met in Somalia for the first time in March, but still remains fragile: it has no army, police, revenue or the means to tackle a dire humanitarian situation. Few Somalis believe it can bring peace to the country soon.

[General Duke]

Mas'uuliyiinta DFKMG iyo Puntland oo soo xiray tababarkii Carmo

 

Carmo - 21.April.2006 Mas’uuliyiin ka tirsan dawladda dhexe ee Soomaaliya iyo dawlad goboleedka Puntland ayaa maanta si rasmi ah u soo xiray tababarkii ciidanka

booliiska Soomaaliyeed uga socdey Akademiyada Booliiska Soomaaliyeed ee degmada Carmo ee gobolka Bari.

 

Madaxweynaha dawlad goboleedka Puntland Cadde Muuse Xirsi, Wasiirka kuxigeenka arimaha gudaha Fahmo Axmed Nuur, Wasiirka arimaha gudaha ee Puntland Axmed Cabdi Xaabsade, taliyaha ciidanka booliiska Soomaaliyeed, Jen.Cali Madoobe, Taliyaha Booliiska Puntland Jen.Yuusuf Axmed Qar iyo xubno kale ayaa ka qayb galay soo xiritaanka tababarkii muddada afarta bilood ahayd uga socdey halkaas, ciidamo booliis Soomaaliyeed ah.

 

Sidoo kale, munaasabaddan ayaa waxaa ka qayb galay mas’uuliyiin fara badan oo dawladda federaalka Soomaaliya iyo dawlad goboleedka Soomaaliyeed ee Puntland ka tirsan.

 

Ciidamada tababarka qaatay ayaa ka kala yimid gobollo fara badan oo dalka ka tirsan kuwaas oo isugu jira rag iyo dumarba.

 

Maxamuud Faarax Bile

farahbile@hotmail.com

[General Duke]

Police Officers Graduate In Somalia

 

April 21, 2006 Markacadeey.

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Armo, Puntland (21 April 2006) – The first police officers from northeast and south Somalia to be trained in decades graduate from the recently established Armo Police Academy in Puntland today.

 

The 154 cadets, of whom 19 are female, joined the Academy on 1 December 2005 and came from different regions of Puntland and the Centre/South. The police officers will be deployed to serve in Baidoa, where the Extraordinary Session of the Somali Transitional Federal Parliament is currently taking place, as well as newly constructed police stations for the protection of internally displaced persons in Garowe and Bossaso.

 

“The significance of this day cannot be overemphasized,†Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said. “These 154 police officers of the Somali Republic are the foundation of the return of rule of law to our country and the respect of human rights of every child, woman and man. This is a day that we are proud to witness.â€

 

To ensure quality and uniformity across the police force, the challenging training course has been a continuation of the one developed by the Rule of Law and Security Programme at the Mandera Police Academy in Somaliland covering law enforcement, international standards of human rights, community policing, basic police training, investigations, non-violent disarmament, physical fitness, self-defense and discipline. Computer lessons were also provided for female cadets.

 

UNDP Somalia acting Resident Representative Mr Eric Overvest said: “The commitment demonstrated by the cadets must be applauded as this is not an easy training course. Community policing is a new type of policing that has the respect of human rights at its core. The responsibility they have now is immense and they must be supported by all the Somali people including the authorities, civil society, business and religious leaders to discharge their duties honourably.â€

 

The ultimate aim of the Law Enforcement component is to establish a professional civilian police force able to effectively contribute to the restoration of peace while gaining the trust of the community, and the development and provision of high calibre training curricula at both the Armo and Mandera institutions. Part of ensuring that the process is owned by the Somalis is by engaging the services of former police officers to conduct the training, who have themselves, attended refresher training courses in Uganda.

 

The Rule of Law and Security Programme Law Enforcement component is supported by Denmark, the Department for International Development (DFID), European Commission, The League of Arab States, Norway, Sweden, UNDP, the UNDP Bureau of Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR) and the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS).