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Nature
With a view in doing this, G-8 members have supported the Italian
initiative to establish in Vicenza an international training
facility that will serve as a Centre of Excellence for Stability
Police Units (CoESPU) in order to provide training skills for
officers who will return to their countries to develop
gendarme-type forces ready to be deployed in PSO on behalf of the
international or regional organizations. Over the next five years
CoESPU commits itself to train 3000 Officers and Non-Commissioned
Officers who will, following the principle of train-the-trainer,
return to their countries and complete the training of at least
4.500 additional personnel before the end of 2010.
Over the last ten years, the Carabinieri, as military force with
general police competence, have developed significant experience in
PSO. The Carabinieri have provided doctrine, training and
leadership for the MSUs deployed in Bosnia and Kosovo. The MSU
concept is the fruit of experience in the Balkan theatre, where it
became clear that countries emerging from crisis needed special
militarised police unit to serve as the "combat replacement" to
fill the security gap between military forces and civilian police.
Since its first deployment in 1998, the MSU has been overwhelmingly
accepted as a crucial player in the stabilization process.
Carabinieri/Gendarmerie-like forces relieve some of the military
units' heavy burdens and establish an environment in which civilian
police can operate effectively, solve 'day after' problems and
return the situation within the rule of law.
Stability Police Units (SPU) are both flexible and adaptable,
operating in a context where military and civilian tasks overlap
during the post-crisis phase of a country's stabilization. Due to
their hybrid nature, SPUs may be put under both military and
civilian chain of command. Their ability to adapt, step by step,
to
mission changes produced by the gradual stabilization of an area
makes SPUs ideal instruments for peacekeeping missions in which
longer-term stabilization and reconstruction are the goals.
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