Czech police officers train Iraqi cadets in Jordan
Czech police officers are involved in a number of missions around the world where they are helping to stabilize volatile situations or to train cadets for the local forces. Earlier this week 10 such officers returned from a mission in Jordan where they were helping to train the new Iraqi police force. After six months of hard work in a tough environment, they have now been relieved by a new batch of Czech police officers.
The Czech police are taking part in several peacekeeping missions around the world, including Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Liberia and Iraq. In Jordan they are working in the International Police Training Centre which was created by the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq last year. Its aim is to satisfy the need for about 40,000 skilled police officers in Iraq. The first Iraqi cadets started their training in December 2003. Zdenek Svoboda was among the 10 Czechs who have just returned from the mission.
"We just arrived, and I can say that we are happy to be back. Our mission was primarily training mission. We were part of Czech contingent. Our mission was to train new Iraqi cadets - new members of Iraqi police."
What was your job there?
"I used to be a teacher for so called general policing. General policing is a subject which actually teaches law, international law, human rights, non-discrimination in the society, women's rights, as well as Iraqi law, law on criminal proceedings, terrorism and such special subjects which actually do affect the police job in Iraq."
Jaroslav Vanek has already spent two years in Kosovo where he worked for a Special Operations Unit, but, as he says, these two missions are incomparable.
"This mission was completely different. It was much shorter because I spent in Kosovo two years. But it's very difficult to compare. What we have just done was a training mission - something I have never done before in my life. I was partly trainer for the Special Operations Unit in Kosovo for tactical shooting, tactical defense. In this mission I actually taught students general policing, which was theoretical part of the training."
Whereas Czech civilian police are training Iraqi cadets in Jordan, their colleagues from the military police are doing a similar job in Iraq itself. Jaroslav Vanek compares these two activities.
"It's very similar; the training in Iraq takes shorter time. I think it's only four weeks of practical applications and two weeks for sort of democratic principles. The training in Iraq is actually taken more or less for the guys who had been in the police forces before. So the main question is to give them some sort of knowledge about the basic democratic principles, and the four weeks of practical applications training. The police academy in Jordan, in Amman or Mumakar, is for complete freshers, for people who were not working like police officers before or just started the police academy during Saddam Hussein's regime. So this is a full training, including this four weeks of theoretical part and four weeks of practical applications."
Since the Czech police came to Jordan, they have trained over 4.000 Iraqi cadets in a series of 8-week courses. And as the new group of Czech officers settles down, many more young Iraqis can expect to be trained over the coming months.
