Refugees International: Publications: publications

Home About Us Donate Where We Work Issues Blog

No Power To Protect: Civilian Police

No Power to Protect

RECOMMENDATIONS

Accelerate Civilian Police Deployment and Presence

The AMIS Civilian Police must deploy and assert their presence in as many IDP camps and villages as possible.

A more recent development in AMIS has been the increased deployment of unarmed Civilian Police in Darfur who are authorized to monitor and mentor the Sudanese police. This is the AU’s first Civilian Police mission. Considering the huge gulf of mistrust between the Sudanese police and the local population—women have reported being harassed and raped by Government of Sudan police officers in the past—the AMIS Civilian Police has an enormous task in front of them. Given their small numbers, AMIS plans to concentrate the Civilian Police in 70 locations around Darfur. Civilian Police stations will be set up in 45 camps and 25 villages, co-located with the Sudanese police.

These stations, ideally, will allow Civilian Police to be present around the clock, to provide security through presence, to monitor and accompany Government police on patrols, to build confidence among the displaced and local populations, and to ensure that investigations by Government police are carried out. This is particularly crucial for survivors of rape. While the Government of Sudan has changed the law that requires women to have a police report in order to seek medical treatment for rape, many of the local doctors and health clinics still refuse to treat women without a police report. Refugees International (RI) was even told of a local staff member of an international NGO that reported an incident to the Government police out of fear of the old law.

As of October 2005, only 18 of the 70 stations have been built because of delays on the part of the Norwegian-contracted Uniteam company. While humanitarian agencies understood that the Civilian Police would be providing a constant presence in the camps, they are apparently only doing 12-hour shifts in some places. Humanitarian agencies also expressed concern about the fact that the Civilian Police teams rotate out of the locations every 10 days or so; they hoped that there would be better continuity so that the displaced and NGOs could develop a relationship of trust with particular police personnel. There have been some difficulties as well between Civilian Police and the NGOs regarding the set-up of an effective rape referral system, with both sides accusing the others of betraying confidentiality of survivors. The Civilian Police does not have a unit exclusively dedicated to investigating and dealing with rape and sexual abuse at the headquarters level, and as mentioned earlier, there are few female Civilian Police.

From interviews with displaced persons and humanitarian agencies, RI learned that there are high hopes regarding what the Civilian Police can do to provide security for the displaced. There hasn’t yet been a broad public awareness campaign to the people of Darfur on the eventual role of the Civilian Police; AMIS officials said they were waiting until everything was set up before embarking on any sensitization work. Displaced persons interviewed by RI do not seem to understand yet that the Civilian Police are there primarily to ensure that the Government of Sudan follows up on investigations and that the Civilian Police cannot actively investigate and make arrests on their own. Others say that the Civilian Police are not engaging with them: “They just drive by and don’t talk to us.” In some locations, Civilian Police are accompanying women as firewood patrol escorts outside the IDP camps, but this has not been happening systematically. At times, there appears to be a lack of communication between the Civilian Police and the displaced; in one case, displaced men resisted having Civilian Police accompany women outside the camps. Elsewhere, there is very little firewood to collect and women have gotten into the habit of buying it.

Expectations need to be realistic as to what Civilian Police can do considering its limited size and resources. Even where it is present in camps around the clock, the teams RI saw consisted of only four or five unarmed officers with one vehicle. The police suffer as well from the same poor communications systems as the rest of AMIS. At the time of the RI mission there was still no communications link between police stations and headquarters. Because the Civilian Police are unarmed (they are protected by either AMIS forces or the Government police) and live on the AMIS bases, their radius of action is dependent on that of AMIS and the Government of Sudan.

Refugees International therefore recommends:

AMIS move as quickly as possible to ensure 24-hour presence of Civilian Police in IDP camps, and should consider rotating their teams less often.
AMIS Civilian Police take on as proactive a role as possible, patrolling frequently, asserting their presence, and encouraging dialogue with the displaced.
AMIS Civilian Police conduct a wide-ranging public information campaign to educate the people of Darfur as to the role of Civilian Police, and to encourage trust and communication. This should be done not just with the leaders, but with women’s groups and children as well. Humanitarian agencies must be included in such a campaign, particularly as they are the ones with the best relations with displaced persons, and have a crucial role to play in expressing the needs of displaced persons to the Civilian Police.
Uniteam, the company hired to build the Civilian Police stations, complete building as soon as possible.
The AU make efforts to recruit more Civilian Police in general, and more female Civilian Police in particular, as Civilian Police are destined to be the link between the displaced and AMIS.
AMIS should set up a Special Unit to deal specifically with victims of rape, dedicating highly trained Civilian Police officers to be part of this unit.
Civilian Police work closely with humanitarian agencies providing services to rape survivors to finalize a referral system in order to ensure confidentiality and unity of purpose.