SA police on Darfur mission
Richard Mantu
27 May 2005
South Africa has sent 46 members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) as part of an African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission to the strife-torn Darfur region in the Sudan.
The members, six of whom are women, will join the 12 operational members and six administrative members that the SAPS sent to Sudan earlier this year.
The group - together with police members from other African countries - fall under the command of Director Anand Pillay, a South African who was appointed commissioner of the AU mission's civilian policing component in Darfur.
The policemen and women will monitor the service delivery of the Sudanese government to the community.
They will also facilitate the building of good relations between the community and the police, give technical advice, and share knowledge on the successful adoption and implementation of community policing.
Police spokesperson Sally de Beer said all SAPS members deployed in Sudan had
volunteered their duties, and gone through stringent medical tests, evaluations and counselling.
"They will undergo mission-specific training in Darfur," De Beer said, adding that they would be deployed on a six-month rotation basis.
This is South Africa's first ever deployment of police on a peacekeeping operation in another country.
Source BuaNews
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