Because the military had a higher level of training, the international community
regularly used it for social and political threats, such as internal law enforcement
and security issues that the police were deemed under trained or underresourced to accomplish – causing confusion of roles and responsibilities. It also
caused the police to feel 2nd class next to the army, which fueled societal and
political divides since the majority of the army came from one political group.
This infighting caused the population to lose trust in both services as they came
to see both groups as untrustworthy and political. In 2006 this tension boiled
over into armed conflict. This conflict required additional UN intervention to bring
a semblance of stability back to the country. The UN continues to work to fully
establish the rule of law.
Recommendation.
The rift between the police and army as well as the overall failure of the mission
had several distinct causes. While the end effect of addressing these issues is
difficult to show, the wide consensus is that the situation would have been much
improved with the following recommendations:
1. Include the community when determining police priorities for an area.
2. Give consideration to mixing groups and classes when forming new
government organizations in order to minimize tensions between the new
government organizations.
3. Create the transition schedule based upon when the host nation is prepared to
handle specific tasks rather than based upon international priorities. Set up
partners for success even if the required timeline isn't preferred. Some international priorities (such as corruption or human rights) may have to temporarily
take a back burner in order to plan for the long term.
4. Allow senior officials, who know their culture, have a larger say in dictating
priorities for new organizations.
5. Be clear about the roles and functions of each service and don't borrow a more
established service to fill the role of a newer service without careful planning and
great need. It would be preferable to support the culture of the organizations and
take a less favorable short term result in exchange for long term viability and
respect between government agencies. It is preferable to use international aid to
fill short term gaps because it causes less damage to the organizational culture
in most cases.
6. Coordinate all participating international players to ensure consistency of
training and culture throughout the government.
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