Democratic Republic of the Congo says it needs international support to implement reform to its police service
LONDON (TrustLaw) - The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has passed a law that seeks to reform the country’s underfunded and corrupt police force, the IRIN news service has reported.
The comprehensive law - which has been three years in the making - aims to make the police force a united, professional, apolitical and autonomous body, staffed by officers who have been chosen in a competitive recruitment process, IRIN said on Thursday.
“The system is rotten to the core with senior officers who take a share of what the lower ranks rip off from people,” a source from the UN mission in the DRC’s police unit told IRIN. “And since salaries are always paid in cash, there is a lot of room for ‘leakage’.”
The DRC has appealed to the international community for donations so that it can implement standardised training across the entire force; however, donors have been slow to come forward given past mismanagement of police training funds.
Some funds, donated by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, have already been used to recruit 500 new officers in the northern province of Orientale, according to the report. The recruits are due to receive training in police procedure, law and ethics as well as specific skills such as crowd control.
"It is this kind of training, covering all the basics of police work, which we need to provide to all our staff, “General Patrick Sabiti, a senior police officer in the DRC force said. “But for that we need human and financial resources. The government will do its part but we will need help from the international community.”
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