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Nature
Once again, G-8 members have supported the Italian initiative to
establish this new project utilizing the international training
facility already existing in Vicenza to serve as the Centre of
Excellence for Stability Police Units providing training to
increase the skills of officers who will then return to their
countries to develop gendarme-type forces ready to be deployed in
PSO on behalf of the international or regional organizations. Over
the last five years CoESPU committed itself to train 3500 Officers
and Non-Commissioned Officers.
During the last fifteen years, the Carabinieri, as a 'military
force, by the law permanently assigned to civilian policing
duties', has gained significant experience in PSO. The Carabinieri
have provided doctrine, training and leadership for the MSUs
deployed in Bosnia and Kosovo.
The MSU concept originated in the Balkan theatre, where it became
clear that countries emerging from crisis needed a special robust
police to fill the security gap between military forces and
civilian police. This force facilitates the handover to a civilian
led stabilized society. Since its first deployment in 1998, the
MSU has been overwhelmingly accepted as a crucial player in the
stabilization process.
Experience has shown that these Carabinieri/Gendarmerie-like forces
can relieve some of the military units' heavy burdens and establish
an environment in which civilian police can operate effectively,
solve 'day to day' problems and return the situation within the
rule of law. Several different types of robust police frameworks
exist: the EU's model is the Integrated Police Units (IPU); the UN
has the Formed Police Unit (FPU).
Generally speaking, Stability Police Units (SPU) are both flexible
and adaptable, operating in a context where military and civilian
tasks overlap during the post-crisis phase of a country's
stabilization. Due to their hybrid nature, SPUs may be put under
both military and civilian chain of command.
Their ability to adapt to the mission changes and requirements
produced by the gradual stabilization of an area makes SPUs ideal
instruments for peacekeeping missions in which longer-term
stabilization and reconstruction are the
goals. |
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