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Crime Reporter
The Zimbabwe Republic Police will establish a Formed Police Unit (FPU), which would be discharging United Nations peacekeeping duties and related activities under the African Union (AU) and Sadc Standby Forces.
The majority of police officers serving in United Nations peacekeeping operations are deployed as part of a Formed Police Unit.
An FPU consists of approximately 140 police officers, trained and equipped to act as a cohesive unit capable of accomplishing policing tasks that individual police officers cannot do.
Well-trained FPUs can operate even in “high-risk” environments.
FPUs have three core duties: public order management, protection of United Nations personnel and facilities and support to such police operations that require a concerted response, but do not respond to military threats.
During the second United Nations Chiefs of Police Summit held in New York recently, Police Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga expressed the desire to the responsible authorities for the ZRP to significantly increase the number of police officers being seconded to peacekeeping duties.
He said they had in the same connection been making efforts to strengthen their Formed Police Unit, which he was confident would be discharging UN peacekeeping duties in due course .
“In the same breadth, I would also want to see an all-female Formed Police Unit established soon. We have the requisite human capital hence nothing should stop us from achieving this feat,” Comm-Gen Matanga said.
He expressed gratitude and appreciation for the remarkable work their officers had been doing and continue to do in all international assignments.
FPUs were deployed for the first time in the United Nations Mission in Kosovo and in the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor in 1999.
In both missions, the United Nations had full responsibility of enforcing the law and dealing with threats to public order. Since then, the deployment of FPUs has increased from nine units in 2000 to 71 authorised FPUs in 2016, with over 10 000 police officers.
FPUs are deployed in the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan, the United Nations Mission in Liberia, the African Union/United Nations Hybrid operation in Darfur and the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire.
They are also deployed in the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United Nations Mission for Justice Support in Haiti, the United Nations Multi-Dimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali and the United Nations Multi-Dimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic.
The United Nations core documents for formed police units are the policy (2016) and guidelines (2006).
To be eligible to be deployed to United Nations missions FPUs have to undergo pre-deployment training, which meets the requirements envisaged in the UN Temporary Training Standards for FPUs and successfully pass the assessment of operational capability conducted by Formed Police Assessment Team in line with the Standard Operating Procedure for Assessment of Operational Capability for formed police units for service in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (2012).
Online Reporter