On Monday at the Rwanda Peace Academy in Musanze District, twenty-six senior army officers from four East African Standby Force (EASF) member countries began a training course entitled ‘ UN Military Expert on Mission. ‘
The three-week course seeks to train those who will later serve as military observers, army liaison officers and military advisors in the UN and African Union (AU) peacekeeping operations, according to authorities.
Participants came from Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia’s Federal Republic and Sudan.
The academy director, Col Jill Rutaremara, said the course was crucial because it attracted attendees who perform a broad variety of outstanding peacekeeping missions tasks.
Among the tasks he quoted infringements of ceasefire, negotiating and mediating with conflicting sides, among other difficult tasks that should not be performed by anyone other than qualified army staff.
“Military observers play a crucial role in mission areas that are in most cases complex and characterised by accusations and counter-accusations by parties to conflicts,” noted Rutaremara
“For example, they monitor and verify ceasefire violations as well as human rights violations. They carry out various investigations and report on routine and special circumstances. Military observers are also supposed to resolve local issues between the warring parties,” he added.
According to authorities, the first two weeks of the course will be used to brief course attendees on mandatory UN topics while the last week will be used in intensive practical exercises that reflect the reality faced by military staff on complicated peacekeeping grounds.
The Joint Chief of Staff at the Eastern Africa Standby Force Planning Element, Maj Gen Charles Rudakubana, reiterated its significance for future peacekeeping activities and urged respondents to take advantage of it by learning from teachers, facilitators so that once deployed to any peacekeeping mission, beneficial changes will occur.
“To be called an expert is not to come here and show a certificate after three weeks,” he told the senior military officers.
“To be an expert you need to have expert knowledge and that’s why I urge you to put efforts in this course and get the maximum from your facilitators, from among yourselves with your different backgrounds and from your own research after classes”.
The trainees welcomed the course stating that it was timely to emphasize that the understanding of taking-home would be very important in their efforts.
“I have never been to any peacekeeping mission but I expect to be knowledgeable of all related knowledge concerning military observers duties and how to act in the field of peace keeping mission and a difference that a military personnel makes in this kind of mission,” said Lt Col Yasser Othman from the Sudan Defense Forces
Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) Major Jeannette Musabyimfura echoed the feelings of Lt Col Othman emphasizing: “The course is very crucial given that it will equip us with the required UN and AU expertise that will enable us to perform our duties professionally while on peace keeping missions”.
Through the Nordic Advisory and Coordination Staff (NACS) as well as the EASF, the course was financed by the Government of Sweden under Nordic Defense Cooperation.