Before Kristina left we had time for a first mission outside of Bunia to see one of the sites for future deployment of the PNC, Police National du Congo, in Bogoro. We inspected the lands identified for the police station, administration, and living quarters for the police and their families. The land has been swept for mines by Mechem, the same organisation being my lovely hosts at home, more about them in another post (pictures seem hard since they are as unwilling as myself to be in front of the camera). The constructions though has not yet started, more about that too later.
Apart from me and Kristina, my team members are Ibrahima Bakayoko from Ivory Coast (team leader), and Calixte Otchoun from Benin (last picture). The family of UNPOL has some 25 members, most of them from West African countries like Ivory Coast, Benin, Chad and Sierra Leone. Our Chief of section is a wonderful man from Niger who is very open minded to the new idea of having civilian observers joining the structure of the police and thus looking after us closely. The sector of Ituri has three subsectors, Bunia, Aru and Mahagi. Hopefully in a not to far future I will be able to visit the 12 police deployed to Aru and Mahagi, but for the time being we're focusing our work to Bunia. In Bunia, the UNPOL is divided in to five sections, each with their respective area of responsibility. Apart from the JMT, the joint monitoring team with UNPOL and CivObs, we have e.g. training, liaison, and advising to sections of the PNC like juvenile justice, sexual violence, judicial police, and investigation.
My section is the JMT, and our area of responsibility is to monitor the implementation of the so called stabilisation plan, a plan composed by MONUC and the government to reinstate state authority and security in eastern DR Congo. This includes training of the PNC by MONUC (already done), and the deployment of them in to specified areas of North and South Kivu, and Ituri. So, as soon as the construction is finished of the stations, administration buildings and living quarters, the police can be deployed, and we can start doing what we came here for, monitor them. Here in Ituri, that might happen in September, if we're lucky. But not to worry, we have things to do in the meantime.
