KARACHI, Nov 19: The number of police officials keenly interested in joining United Nations peacekeeping missions around the world is on the increase remarkably for a variety of reasons, mainly monetary benefits, international exposure, improvement of professional skills, etc.
Personal satisfaction and a change of scene appeared to be the attraction luring forcefully the local policemen to such missions, according to Inspector Farhat Kamal, who has served with UN missions in Bosnia and Kosovo twice.
In 1989, the United Nations had invited aspirants from Pakistan police to join its peacekeeping mission in Namibia and also similar missions in Haiti and Cambodia in 1992-93.
For the three missions, the interior ministry had nominated police officials allegedly on political recommendations and as such, several of them had to be repatriated by the UN authorities as they failed to discharge their duties as per the set standards. The UN had to bear all the expenses incurred on their repatriation.
Fore the peacekeeping missions undertaken after 1996, that includedthose in Bosnia and Kosovo 2000-2001, the United Nations adopted its own selection system under which a UN team visits the concerned country for the purpose.
The system requires a candidate to clear two tests — one to be conducted at provincial/district level and the other in Islamabad by the UN team. The minimum length of service for a candidate eligible to appear in the tests has been fixed as five years.
The police force is conveyed details of the missions through a message relayed on their wireless sets.
Those emerging successful at the provincial/district level tests are short-listed in the second phase. In the next test in Islamabad, they are supposed to pass the segments of reading comprehension, listening, report writing, driving (and also firing if the mission pertains to policing).
In the case of an unarmed mission, the candidates are not supposed to clear firing test.
These tests are conducted on a knock-out basis which means that a candidate who fails in any segment is not allowed to appear in the next segment test, says ASP Ali Mohsin who has recently cleared the tests and is set to join his first UN peacekeeping mission.
“In these missions, police officials are assigned responsibilities and duties on merit. At times, an SSP has to work under an SP or an even low-ranking officer like an inspector,” points out SSP Abdul Razzak Cheema.
Sub-Inspector Qamar Asif has served as a deputy regional commander in Bosnia mission and under his command, several senior Pakistani police officials had to work, the SSP recalled.
Mr Cheema, who has twice served in the peacekeeping missions in Bosnia, suggests that ‘first-timers’ should be accorded first priority in the selection process and those who have already served in such missions be accommodated in the rest of the seats.
He reveals that the federal government has recently ordered that a gap of one year be maintained between a person’s joining of two separate UN missions. This means that a police official returning from a mission will have to wait for at least one year to qualify for the next mission.
Before enforcement of the rule, there were instances where a peacekeeper was selected again only a month or two after returning from previous mission.
In the recent tests held to select 78 peacekeepers from Sindh for Liberia and Kosovo missions, 12/14 appeared to be first-timers while the remaining ones had already some experience.
Highlighting some problems that have been creating a bad impression of the Pakistani personnel in the world, SSP Cheema points out that the blue uniform of the Islamabad police, which had been chosen for Pakistani peacekeepers, varied in shades. Such things, he says, earns a bad name to our country.
Similarly, he adds, a peacekeeper has to wear his country’s flag badge on his right shoulder. “We don’t have a standardized and officially-issued flag batch and as such the badges differ according to their make.
With over 50 countries taking part in the United Nations peacekeeping missions, a new culture of policing under the world body is developing.
In the two previous missions, the Pakistani contingent achieved a ranking among the top five countries in terms of performance, says an inspector who has served in the UN missions.
Recounting benefits, a senior police official remarked: “I could not have even dreamt of having a car and owning a house had I not joined the UN missions.” Such a big wealth can be collected by any police official in the country but certainly not with observing honesty, he is sure.
Another senior official, presenting his observations, said: “There is a remarkable difference of performance and self-confidence between those serving in local police and those having served with the UN missions also.”
In the peacekeeping missions like Kosovo and other European countries, a peacekeeper is paid US$70 per day, but in the upcoming Liberia mission, each peacekeeper would be paid more than US$100.
Senior police officials are of the view that UN missions provide an excellent opportunity to local police force to enhance their professional skills and gain international exposure.
