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Revolutionary United Front (RUF) officials have assured the UN and Sierra Leone’s police chief that their organisation would welcome a permanent police presence in the central towns of Makeni and Magburaka, the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) reported on Tuesday.
RUF made this undertaking on Monday in a meeting with the Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Governance and Stabilisation, Alan Doss, and Sierra Leonean Inspector General of Police Keith Biddle. The officials met to discuss police deployment plans.
Between 600 and 700 police are due to be deployed within a week beginning 1 August, UNAMSIL reported. They will include agents from a special police unit, the Special Security Division,whose guns will be kept in an armoury and used only in self-defence.
Mechanisms are being put in place to ensure a smooth deployment and operation of the police, UNAMSIL said. In this respect, a community safety and security committee is to be established. Curfews are to be imposed only if warranted by a particular situation and suspected law breakers will be referred to the magistrate’s courts, UNAMSIL reported.
Also discussed was possible recruitment into the police. Once deployed in Makeni, the police will provide information to prospective candidates on the procedures and minimum educational and physical requirements for recruitment.
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