New Delhi, Sep 23 (Inditop.com) Two years after sending female peacekeepers to Liberia that is rebuilding itself from the ashes of a protracted civil war, India will help the west African country train its police force in coordination with the United Nations.
“We have extended to them an offer to send 30-40 Liberian police officers to be trained in India. They will determine the level of officers and the kind of training they want,” Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor told Inditop in an interview on his return from a two-nation trip to Africa that also took him to Ghana.
“They went even beyond that. They asked us, ‘Can you train the entire Liberian police force?'” Tharoor said while sharing details about his three-day visit to Liberia last week, the first by an Indian minister in nearly four decades.
Tharoor interacted with top Liberian leaders, including the charismatic President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa’s first elected woman head of state, and underlined “India’s solidarity and friendship as it rebuilds itself”.
As the training of the Liberian police force is currently a UN responsibility, Tharoor said India would be ready to do so in coordination with the UN mission in that country.
“They are unhappy that the UN mission has too many nationalities and different systems. They said they will have rather one system,” Tharoor said.
“They feel that India is the country they can relate to. This is the general observation that vis-a-vis the three models of engagement with Africa – the West, China and India – most African countries see India as one very similar to them,” Tharoor said.
Underlining India’s distinct approach to Africa as opposed to other external players, Tharoor said India believes in spurring empowerment of the African continent through technology transfer, training and capacity-building.
“Our approach to Africa is that tell us what you need and how we can help you, rather than going there with any agenda. That approach has been warmly welcomed in Africa,” Tharoor told Inditop.
The UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) is currently helping rebuild the Liberian National Police force from scratch.
As part of UNMIL, India had sent the first Indian Female Formed Police Unit (FFPU) in 2007, comprising 125 female peacekeepers, to help stabilise Liberia which, after years of war, is trying to restore the rule of law and prevent crime and sexual abuses which were once endemic in a country of just three million people.
The UN has been all praise for the Indian initiative and has even recorded that the presence of the Indian policewomen had led to a spurt in Liberian women applying to join their police force.
In keeping with India’s multi-faceted engagement with Africa, India offered assistance to Liberia in the form of lines of credit on concessional terms, as well as a grant-in-aid for education and health projects of $2 million during Tharoor’s visit.
India agreed to set up an Information Technology and Communication Centre of Excellence in Liberia, donated 25 buses to the Monrovia Transport Authority and two ‘hole-in-the-wall’ computer education centres, Tharoor said.
