PRESS BRIEFING ON INTERNATIONAL POLICE TASK FORCE IN BOSNIA
Press Briefing
PRESS BRIEFING ON INTERNATIONAL POLICE TASK FORCE IN BOSNIA
19970212
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
At a Headquarters press briefing yesterday afternoon, the outgoing Commissioner of the International Police Task Force (IPTF) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Peter Fitzgerald, told correspondents about the achievements of the IPTF over the last year. He said the IPTF, established in December 1995, had started with about 360 officers in January 1996 and had come under a lot of criticism because it had not prevented people from damaging and burning houses. However, what had not been understood at that time was that the IPTF mandate did not authorize it to arrest people. In fact, the IPTF did not have any executive authority.
However, following some initial difficulties the IPTF had successfully achieved the aim of transferring jurisdiction from former Serb-held suburbs to the Federation, he said. Moreover, it had immediately set up a process of democracy for the local police. At the time of the IPTF's arrival, there had been check-points manned by heavily armed local police officers every few hundred metres in Bosnia and Herzegovina. "We immediately introduced a policy of no check-points in the country", he said, adding that two months later there had been no check-points without the permission of the IPTF. In that policy, the IPTF had been supported very substantially by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Implementation Force (IFOR) at the time, which was now known as the Stabilization Force (SFOR).
The IPTF had also introduced a policy of "no long-barrelled weapons for the police", he said. When it had arrived, the local police had been going around with long-barrelled weapons, such as AK-47s, which had not been conducive to democratic policing. The IPTF had prohibited the carrying of those weapons. Since then, the policy had been refined. The local police could store no more than 10 per cent of long-barrelled weapons of the total number of policemen in any one station. For example, if there were 100 police officers at a station, they were allowed to store only 10 long-barrelled weapons in case there was an emergency. However, the local police were not allowed to use those weapons without the issue of a permit by the IPTF. Since the introduction of that policy the IPTF had carried out inspections in all police stations throughout the country with the assistance of the SFOR. Substantial quantities of long-barrelled weapons, land-mines and rocket- propelled grenade rocket launchers had been seized.
From a policing perspective, the general elections held in September 1996 had gone off very well, Mr. Fitzgerald said. That had been made possible by a lot of planning and a lot of cooperation from the local police. The upcoming municipal elections, probably in June, would present a major problem
for the policing of the country. However, he expressed confidence that the ground work had been laid and the basic plan was in place. All that needed to be done was to polish up that plan to ensure that the municipal elections went off smoothly.
Agreements had been reached with the Federation police on its downsizing and restructuring, Mr. Fitzgerald said. The size of the Federation police was to be reduced from 23,000 to 11,500. A very substantial vetting process had been introduced, whereby the backgrounds of all of the policemen joining the force were checked. Moreover, they were obliged to take an examination on the principles of democratic policing and human rights. In addition, they underwent psychological tests. The names of the successful policemen were then published in the local newspapers to give the local people an opportunity to have an input into the people who would be serving them.
The training process of the police had already started, he said. A number of senior local police officials had been trained in democratic policing and basic police management. A very substantial training programme for the police had been drawn up for future use.
Thirty-four nationalities were represented in the IPTF, Mr. Fitzgerald said, adding that each of those countries had been contacted and told of the expert police officers that were required to help in training the local police. The IPTF had also indicated that it needed experienced human rights investigators because its new mandate gave it authority to investigate police- related human rights issues. The IPTF proposed to establish internal investigation units within the police that would be strictly supervised by qualified international police. "We will provide them [the local police] with whatever training is necessary, we will supervise their investigation of these cases and we will be hopeful that by the time the international police move out of the country, the local police would be sufficiently trained and sufficiently qualified to carry on for themselves", he added.
In the future, the IPTF would concentrate considerably on the restructuring and downsizing of the local polices, he said. It was facing quite a lot of difficulty in getting full agreement from the Republika Srpska on restructuring and downsizing. In recent weeks some progress had been made but a lot remained to be done. "We will be downsizing their force too, they have in principle accepted the principles of democratic policing and have undertaken to introduce them in their force", he said. Moreover, they had undertaken to introduce a code of conduct for their police officers.
A Conference had been held in Dublin last October to try to get assistance to finance the restructuring, training and re-equipping of police officers, he said. A lot of help had been received from the international community but more was required. The IPTF still needed qualified people and money to finance the operation that was in place. If that assistance was
IPTF Briefing - 3 - 12 February 1997
received, he was confident that the future augured well for Bosnia and Herzegovina. There were a lot of good qualified local police officers. However, they lacked training, equipment and facilities. If those could be provided, the IPTF would certainly succeed in its mission.
Mr. Fitzgerald added that his year as the Commissioner of the IPTF had been a tremendous experience. Quite a lot had been achieved. He said he was confident that his successor, Commissioner Manfred Seitner, who was very experienced, had a good foundation to build on. Stating that Commissioner Seitner had a very difficult task ahead of him, he wished him well.
The new Commissioner of the IPTF, Mr. Seitner, said he was in the process of being briefed about what had gone on until now and what needed to be done in the future. He said he would do what he could to make the peace- keeping operation a success. He hoped that in the future he would be on more secure ground to inform correspondents on the ongoing process. He said he was excited to take over the very important job and was prepared to take it on even though it would be a tough one.
Responding to a question on the code of conduct, Mr. Fitzgerald said the Dayton Agreement had set out that policing must be in accordance with internationally recognized standards. However, when the IPTF had tried to look up those standards, it had discovered that there were no such standards, because the standards were different from New York to Dublin to Sarajevo. So rather than looking for an international standard, the IPTF decided to look for anything in common in all those standards. It had discovered the principle of democratic policing, which ran through all democratically policed countries. So a series of principles of democratic policing had been set down. Also, a code of conduct had been created which included, among others, some of the principles set down in the code of conduct outlined by the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Centre for Human Rights.
Had the IPTF personnel come across any people whom they suspected of being indicted as war criminals, a correspondent asked. Mr. Fitzgerald said there certainly had been one sighting and it had been reported by the IPTF. There had been a lot of criticism of the IPTF in relation to the indicted war criminals. However, it should be remembered that the IPTF had no authority to arrest anyone, any more "than you have", he said. It had no executive authority in the country. There was nothing in its mandate to suggest or indicate that it had any right or authority to arrest the indicated war criminals.
Asked if he thought the IPTF mandate should have included such an authority, Mr. Fitzgerald said, "people who are much much wiser than I made out that mandate. So I certainly would not question them on it."
IPTF Briefing - 4 - 12 February 1997
What was done with the weapons seized from police stations? a correspondent wanted to know. Mr. Fitzgerald said those were handed over to the SFOR for destruction.
What was the greatest challenge that faced the trainees and what would enable them to carry on once the mission was over? a correspondent asked. Mr. Fitzgerald responded that "our greatest challenge is to get the properly qualified international police into the country to train them, and to get the financial assistance that is absolutely vital from the international community to finance this". There was a lot of good will and most of the local police were extremely anxious to learn and be trained. However, if assistance was not received, that would be difficult. At the Dublin Conference, when the programme costs for the next few years had been calculated, the amount arrived at was $98 million and that was the amount that was needed.
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