December 2012

SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE AND THE POLICING OF PEACE IN DARFUR

An exploration of Issues and Challenges

Research Report compiled for the South African Police Service by

Elrena van der Spuy and Lynsey Bourke

p : +27 (0) 21 650 4486 | f : +27 (0) 21 650 3790 | w : criminology.uct.ac.za

Centre of Criminology | University of Cape Town | Private Bag X3, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa

ACRONYMS

AU African Union

IDP Internally Displaced Persons

MONUC Mission de l'Organisation de Nations Unies en République Démocratique du Congo.

(MONUC was renamed MONUSCO)

MONUSCO United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the

Congo

PPC Pearson Peacekeeping Centre (now renamed to Pearson Centre)

PCC Police Contributing Countries

SAPS South African Police Services

SARPCCO Southern African Regional Police Chief Cooperation Organisation

TCC Troop Contributing Countries

TfP Training for Peace in Africa

UNAMID African Union/United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur

UNMISS United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan

UNDPKO United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations

1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 3 2 DEPLOYMENT OF SECURITY PERSONNEL TO PEACE MISSIONS ................................ 4

2.1 Growing complexity in missions and diversity in personnel 4 2.2 Deployment of African Police to Peace Missions 6 2.3 Deployment of Female Security Personnel 7 2.4 South African deployment to Peace Missions 8

3 THE RESEARCH PROCESS ....................................................................................... 11

3.1 A review of the Literature 11 3.2 Focus Group Interviews 11 3.3 Conference Participation 11 3.4 Field Observation of Training 11

4 KEY AREAS OF ENQUIRY ........................................................................................ 12 5 KEY RESEARCH FINDINGS ...................................................................................... 13

5.1 Motivating factors for signing up 13 5.2 Recruitment and Selection 14 5.3 Training and Deployment 15 5.4 Field observations of SAPS Training for External Deployment 2011 17 5.5 Scope and impact of gender training 23 5.6 Working and living conditions in the mission 25 5.7 Everyday routines in the field 29 5.8 Managing relationships in the field 32 5.9 Coming home : Debriefing and Reintegration 38 5.10 The rewards of Peacekeeping 40

6 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................ 41 7 ISSUES TO CONSIDER IN TRAINING FOR EXTERNAL DEPLOYMENT .......................... 42 8 ENDNOTES ............................................................................................................ 46

2

1 INTRODUCTION

The external deployment of members of domestic police agencies to peace missions abroad

is a relatively recent development. Such deployment raises a range of interesting questions

about the roles and mandates of police in peace missions, the factors that shape their

conduct, and the implications of external deployment for domestic police institutions.

In terms of current thinking police, more generally, and female police more specifically,

have a very particular role to play in peace missions. Much emphasis is currently being

placed on the role of female police in responding to the safety concerns of women and

children in situations of war and conflict. Female police, so the argument goes, are critical

conduits for engaging with local women and children and their safety needs in that

challenging context of post-conflict the peace mission environment. Such expectations

notwithstanding, research into the actual dynamics of external deployment is only

beginning to emerge. This report aims to make a small contribution to the emerging body

of research.

In late 2009 we were granted an opportunity by SAPS to conduct research into the views

and experiences of female members of SAPS who have been deployed as peacekeepers to

the UN mission in Darfur, South Sudan. This enquiry provided a window into the dynamics

of external deployment as understood and experienced by former female police

peacekeepers in the ‘theatre’ of the mission. In this report we provide an overview of the

main findings of this exploratory enquiry based on the views and perceptions of female

police who were deployed to Darfuri. As the research enquiry was undertaken during 2010

and 2011 the findings reflect issues pertinent to that particular period of external

deployment. It remains to be seen to what extent the issues and concerns raised by the

early pioneers have been addressed by recent changes in the administration of external

deployment within the police organisation as well as developments in training processes of

deployment and re-integration. We trust that the findings will be of interest to those

responsible for consolidating the capacity of the South African Police Service to fulfil its

obligations as stipulated by the UN for external deployment in a professional manner.

We would like to express our gratitude to officials within SAPS for the opportunity to

conduct the research (at the time: Divisional Commissioner Arno Lamoer, Major General

Moorcroft, Lt Gen LJ Mothiba and Col SP Mashaba). We also wish to thank Captains

Govender and Kannemeyer and other members of the training team who were, at the time

3

of this research, responsible for delivering training for external deployment. The training

team invited us into the training environment in an extremely accommodating way and

fielded many questions throughout the process of field observation. Our thanks also go to

those police women and men who shared their experiences with us. The photographs

utilised in this report belong to the private collection of former peacekeepers who shared

visual images of their experiences in Darfur with us. Lastly, we would like to thank Elaine

Atkins for her assistance in finalising this report and John-Paul Banchani for compiling the

figures and tables.

2 DEPLOYMENT OF SECURITY PERSONNEL TO PEACE MISSIONS

2.1 Growing complexity in Peace Missions and Diversity in Personnel

Once upon a time, not so long ago, peace missions were regarded as the exclusive domain

of the military. But over the past decade in particular this has changed. In recent decades

the nature of peacekeeping has changed significantly. Contemporary peace missions are

much more complexii. The roles traditionally associated with peacekeeping have now

expanded to include more ambitious ‘peace building’ objectivesiii. In order to fulfil a wider

spectrum of peace building objectives the demand for both police and civilian personnel

has grown as Figure1 and Table 1 illustrate.

Figure 1: Growing complexity of UN Peacekeeping Missions: Military, Police and Civil

Deployment, 2000-2012

Source: Culled from UNDPKO’s monthly summary of contributions from 2000 to October 2012

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

80000

90000

Military

Police

Civilian

4

Table 1 : UN Military, Civil and Police Deployment, 2000 - 2012

Military Police Civilian

2012 81,229 13,542 2,006

2011 82,729 14,303 1,984

2010 82,014 14,322 2,302

2009 83, 089 12,794 2,314

2008 77,571 11,511 2,724

2007 70,508 11,077 2,724

2006 69,146 8,695 2,527

2005 60,070 7,241 2,527

2004 55,909 6,765 2,046

2003 39,329 4,635 1,851

2002 32,520 5,333 1,799

2001 37,665 7,642 1,801

2000 28,538 7,725 1,470

Source: Culled from UNDPKO’s monthly summary of contributions from 2000 to October 2012

In peacekeeping circles there has been much discussion about the role and function of

police in peace missions. In recent years there has been concerted effort to develop policy

frameworks and training programmes so as to equip police for their role and function in

peace missions. The deployment of a growing number of national police personnel into

international peace missions has had institutional ramifications for the UN. A fully fledged

UN Police Division has now assumed responsibility for defining policy and doctrine relating

to the utilisation of police personnel in peace missions.

5

2.2 Deployment of African Police to Peace Missions

The number of African police deployed in peacekeeping operations has increased

considerably over the past few years as reflected in Figure 2 and Table 2. The top police

contributing countries (PCC) to UN missions in Africa have been Cameroon, Ghana, Niger,

Nigeria and Senegal. Newcomers on the scene are Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and

Zimbabweiv.

Figure 2 : African Police Deployment to UN Peacekeeping Missions, 2000 – 2012

Source: UNDPKO’s Monthly summary of contributions by country as of October 2012

Table 2 : African Police Deployment to UN Peacekeeping Missions, 2000 – 2012

Police

2012 5,005

2011 4,787

2010 4,858

2009 4,453

2008 4,331

2007 3,832

2006 2,120

6

2005 1,938

2004 1,307

2003 5,25

2002 5,67

2001 1,060

2000 1,052

2.3 Deployment of Female Security Personnel

Within UN circles, consideration of the role of women in peace missions is a product of the

1990s. By 2000 gender sensitivity in peace operations became embedded in a number of

policy documents and from then onwards gender mainstreaming became a key strategy.

UN Security Resolution 1325 makes obligatory the increased participation by women in

peace processes and in field operations. Security institutions themselves are expected - in

terms of composition and roles - to employ more women. Recently, the UN has committed

itself to increasing the overall percentage of women in UN missions from its currents levels

of 8% to 20% by 2014. This has translated into increasing pressure for troop contributing

countries to deploy many more uniformed women to peace missions abroad.

Prescriptions for operational roles also reveal the growing influence of gender. On the

ground security agencies have to approach their work in a ‘gender sensitive’ manner.

Agencies are expected to prioritise the safety concerns of ‘vulnerable’ groups and be

‘responsive’ to their security concerns in the operational field. The concern with gender

has also led to various organisational innovations. Within peace missions, newly established

gender units and gender advisors are meant to provide key organisational points through

which the safety concerns of women and children can be mediated. Finally, considerable

effort has gone into the development of generic training for peacekeepers and specialised

training for gender advisors. Details regarding deployment to peace missions by gender are

contained in Figure 3 and Table 3.

7

Table 3 : Female Deployment to UN Peacekeeping Missions, 2009 – 2012

Female Male Total

2012 3,744 93,562 97,306

2011 754 98,262 99,016

2010 3,410 95,228 98,638

2009 2,936 95,261 98,197

Figure 3 : Female Deployment to Peacekeeping Missions, 2009 – 2012

Source: UNDPKO

2.4 South African Deployment to Peace Missions

South Africa’s involvement in peace missions has grown dramatically in the short space of

six years. Current levels of deployment are captured in Table 4 and deployment by mission

in Table 5. The dangers attached to deployment in peace missions should not be

underestimated. By way of illustration of the risk involved in foreign deployment, Table 6

captures fatalities incurred in peace missions by South African peacekeepers.

0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

2009 2010 2011 2012

Female

Male

Total

8

Table 4 : South Africa’s Involvement in UN Peacekeeping

(Police, Military and Civilian Experts) as of 31 October 2012

Police Military Civilian Total

Female 20 381 4 405

Male 51 1,601 20 1,672

Total 71 1,982 224 2,277

Source: Taken from UNDPKO’s monthly summary of contributions as of 31st October 2012.

Table 5 : South Africa Deployment by UN Missions

Male Female Total

MONUSCO

Military 911 268 1,179

Civilian Experts 12 3 15

UNAMID

Police 45 12 57

Military 690 113 803

Civilian Experts 8 1 9

UNMISS Police 6 8 14

Source: UNDPKO, UN mission summary of Police and Military October 2012 Report

9

Table 6 : Peacekeeping Fatalities by Missions

South Africa Total 31

MONUC 18

MONUSCO 1

ONUS 8

UNAMID 4

Source: UNDPKO, fatalities by nationality and mission up to 31st October 2012

For those interested in the background to the deployment of members of the South African

Police Service the following statement by SAPS dating back to 1995 may be of interest:

The South African Police Service (SAPS) is to deploy SAPS members as part of a peace-keeping operation in Sudan. After careful consideration of a request from the Commission of the African Union (AU), and with the approval of Cabinet on Friday, 21 January 2005, it was decided that a contingent of 100 police officials will be deployed in phases in Darfur, Sudan. The police members will mostly be made up of non-commissioned officers and will be under the command of a SAPS Director…

The role of the SAPS CIVPOL members in Darfur will be to:

• Monitor the service delivery of the police of the Government of Sudan to the community;

• Facilitate the building of good relations between the community and the police;

• Give technical advice; and

• Export their knowledge on the successful adoption and implementation of community policing.v

3 RESEARCH PROCESS

Research into the actual dynamics of peacekeeping as experienced by peacekeepers

themselves in the field has lagged much behind operational deployment. In an attempt to

explore some of the dynamics relating to the deployment of police to peace missions, the

relevant authorities within the South African Police Service were approached and

permission to undertake research sought. The request for research access was granted by

SAPS in September 2009. Ethical clearance for the project was provided by the Faculty of

10

Law Research Ethics Committee in October 2009. A request to expand the research was

submitted and approved in 2010 by the Head of Strategic Management of SAPS in January

2011. The research was conducted over a two-year period and included the following:

3.1 A Review of the Literature

Academic and policy literature relating to gender and security, peacekeeping, police and

peacekeeping and police women in peacekeeping were consulted.

3.2 Focus Group Interviews

Three sets of focus group interviews with South African police who had been deployed to

Darfur, Sudan were conducted.vi

3.3 Conference Participation

Participation in a two-day conference, attended by female police participants, from

15-17 November 2010, which focused on Women in Peacekeeping Missions. The

conference was co-organised by the South African Police Service and the Pan African Police

Project (PAPP) funded by the Government of Canada. The formal presentations by a range

of participants provided many useful insights into the policy frameworks relating to the

deployment of women security personnel to peace missions and the challenges in this

regard.

3.4 Field Observation of Training

Six days of pre-deployment training were observed in Pretoria between 21 and

24 June 2011 and again between 7 and 8 July 2011. Four days of participant observation of

the tactical component of training took place from 6 to 9 September 2011 at the

Thabazimbi Training Centre.

11

Focus group discussion, October 2, 2009 in Pretoria

4 KEY AREAS OF ENQUIRY

This report is organised around a number of key themes that emerged from the focus group

interviews with female ex-peacekeepers, on the one hand, and senior officers involved in

various aspects of external deployment on the other, as well as observations of classroom

training and tactical field training. The themes describe some of the critical moments that

form part of the larger process of external deployment. Here particular attention is paid to

both the administrative processes and social issues relevant to the recruitment and

selection, training, actual deployment of police personnel in peace missions as well as their

re-insertion back home upon their return.

The discussion is organised around the following headings:

• Motivating factors for signing up

• Recruitment and selection

• Training and deployment

• Scope and impact of gender training

• Working and living conditions in the mission

• Everyday routines in the field

• Managing relationships in the field

• Coming home: debriefing and reintegration

• The rewards of external deployment

12

5 KEY RESEARCH FINDINGS

5.1 Motivating factors for Signing up

Wherein lays the ‘attraction’ of signing up for peacekeeping? When asked about the

reasons for signing up for the peace mission in Darfur, focus group respondents offered a

wide range of responses. Such responses included the following: ‘For the experience’; ‘For

the money’; ‘To empower my skills build up my knowledge’; ‘To be there for the

women/children of Sudan’; ‘To assist the UN to bring peace between the conflict groups; ‘

To be part of a first world country organisation as the UN.’

One other police official who was at the time undergoing pre-deployment training wrote

about a wide range of motivations for volunteering:

I would like to make difference as peacekeeper and ambassador. Represent my country

by promoting a good source of policing enhancing my policy skills to increase my level

of experience to be a teacher to the young police. I would like to know more about

other people’s culture, living environment and living in severe conditions and to buy a

house and start a family. Fix my mother’s house so that she can live a better life.

Looking across the different focus groups, three responses in particular dominated as the

more important reasons for signing up.

The most frequent response given was that of ‘money’, i.e. the financial benefits to be

scored through foreign deployment. Peacekeepers are paid very well by African standards.

At a current rate of US $140 per day, peacekeepers deployed for a period of 12 months, can

accumulate a small fortune. On top of this, their monthly salaries continue to be paid into

their bank accounts for the full period of their deployment. The money earned, so related

those interviewed, is also a source of envy amongst home-bound colleagues.

The second most important reason for deployment given was ‘a desire to experience

another country and culture’. For many, external deployment provided an opportunity, as

those interviewed put it, to ‘travel’, to go ‘abroad’, to obtain exposure to a foreign

environment and to be exposed ‘to the different police cultures’. Here deployment to a

peace mission provides both an opportunity to ‘learn new ideas’, ‘expand my knowledge’,

and ‘be able to compare the policing of other countries to my own’.

13

A third reason that featured prominently in the response was articulated as a wish to gain

‘peacekeeping experience’ so as to ‘help make a difference to the lives of those who have

suffered a lot’. Here it is the ambassadorial role informed by a humanitarian impulse which

was emphasised.

Overall thus a mixture of financial, professional and humanitarian considerations

constituted the major reasons for joining up for external deployment

5.2 Recruitment and Selection

All troop and police contributing countries are bound by the criteria for recruitment and

selection as stipulated by the UN’s minimum requirements. Only police officials between 22

and 55 years, with at least 5 years of service, in possession of a national drivers permit, and

of sound mental and physical status can be considered. Thus far, SAPS have made a

concerted effort to adhere to the UN requirements.

Amongst police officials interviewed there was considerable debate about the UN-based

criteria according to which peacekeepers are selected. Many of the females interviewed

felt that the physical requirements were pointless as the majority were deployed to

positions where they did not, for example, have to ‘run 2.5 kilometres in 20 minutes’.

Others again found the strict requirement for proficiency in English for purposes of report

writing questionable in the light of the fact that peacekeepers from other countries were

often not conversant in English. All agreed, however, that, compared to many other police

contributing countries (PCCs) South Africans peacekeepers not only met, but often

exceeded, the UN entry requirements.

According to ex-peacekeepers adherence to UN requirements vary considerably from one

police contributing country to the next. As in the case of recruitment for domestic police

agencies, the selection of personnel for ‘lucrative’ opportunities elsewhere may be

influenced by practices of favouritism or corruption. Disparities in skills between police

contributing countries raised a concern about double standards in selection procedures

amongst individual states. The ‘preparedness’ of SAPS in relation to other African countries

was clearly a source of considerable pride to SA peacekeepers.

South Africa police officials volunteer for external deployment, and in doing so, the focus

group discussions emphasised, they must negotiate obstacles presented by local

14

commanders at station or area level. Many suggested that local commanders acted as gate-

keepers to individual members’ expressions of interest. Some of the participants expressed

concerns about the transparency and fairness of the process whereby potential

peacekeepers are pre-selected at the provincial level.

5.3 Training and Deployment

In South Africa, training for peacekeeping duties is an area that has evolved rapidly in the

short space of six years. Since 2006, policy and curriculum development has benefitted

immensely from the Canadian-based Pearson Peacekeeping Centre (today referred to as

the Pearson Centre (PC)) as well as the Norwegian funded Training for Peace in Africa

programme (TfP). vii The latter programme involves regional structures in Southern and

Eastern Africa.

Until the end of 2011, the SAPS UN Police training course was conducted in two consecutive

phases. The generic phase consisted of three weeks of training and one for the tactical

phase. Generic training covered a wide range of issues relating to policy developments in

peacekeeping, engagements with community policing, sexual and gender-based violence,

cultural awareness and negotiation skills. Training in firearms, 4X4-vehicle driving training,

security awareness, radio procedures and GPS also formed an integral part of the generic

training. At the time that the research was undertaken tactical training included various

urban and rural techniques relating to weapon handling, shooting, ambush and counter-

ambush, hijacking and checkpoint, navigational skills, operational planning, hostage

simulation and battle craft.

At the time of the field observation, tactical training took place at the Thabazimbi Training

Centre, the training grounds for counter-insurgency formerly known as Verdrag. The

training manual titled SARPCCO Generic UN/AU Police Officers Course is used as the guiding

script for the training. It is based on UN training modules, which have been adapted to the

Southern African region under the mandate of SARPCCO, the regional police chiefs’

organisation. The training manual consists of nine modules that cover a wide terrain: the

history of the UN and AU; the evolving mandate of UN peace missions; clarification of the

police’s role and the principles that inform police conduct in the external mission

environment; and discussions of issues of operational concern. Ideas relating to

community orientated and gender sensitive policing are furthermore embedded within the

text.

15

Female police officials whose views were canvassed in the focus group discussions had a lot

to say about pre-deployment training. As a group they were divided on the virtues of

tactical training, which comprises one out of four weeks of training. A similar division of

opinion was evident with regards to the emphasis on overall fitness and the ability to use a

range of weapons. Such opinions were influenced by three factors in particular. The exact

location within the peace mission would account for some differences of opinion regarding

the utility of battle craft and protective skills. For UN peace mission purposes the Darfur

region is divided into eight different sectors. Sectors vary considerably, some are small and

far out into the hinterland, other sectors have greater population density and include towns

and urban locations. The experience of peacekeepers varied in terms of the actual position

they occupy in the mission. Some are primarily office bound and fulfil administrative

functions. Others are deployed ‘out’ in the field and their responsibilities are much more

operational and tactical. Peacekeepers are also differentially exposed to danger –

depending whether they are deployed to more or less volatile parts of Darfur. All of these

factors shaped individual responses to the question about the overall suitability of training

for the peace mission. Such conversations really brought home the diversity of experiences

in the peace mission and the range of environmental factors (space, time, position) which

shape such experiences. Others again argued that equality in treatment of male and female

peace officers itself was dependent on uniformity in training. For female peacekeepers to

be ‘real peacekeepers’, as one respondent argued, they had to be proficient in all the

requirements of the peacekeeping position. Trainers too were of the view that one set of

common standards for training had to apply to all those who volunteered for training

regardless of ascribed or achieved factors such as gender or rank.

Many of the participants of the focus group discussions lamented the time lag between

training and actual deployment. In some cases it seemed deployment took place only a year

after the actual training. In other instances respondents spoke of call ups for deployment

which were received at the last minute with little time to make domestic arrangements.

Those higher up the deployment chain were quick to point out that the time lag was a

function of UN systems and decisions rather than domestic inefficiencies. The division of

external deployment in SAPS, so argued senior staff, had little control over the timing of

deployment. The need for synchronisation of training and deployment was again identified

at the two-day conference titled Women in Peacekeeping Missions, which took place in

Pretoria in mid-November 2010. Again, the delegates were of the opinion that pressure

had to be directed toward the appropriate authorities (the UN or the specific UN Mission)

to address the issue.

16

5.4 Field observations of Training for External Deployment 2011

At the time of the research, classroom training for external deployment of members of the

South African Police Services took place at a Training Centre outside Pretoria. I am given

directions and follow the road via Church Street to the West of Pretoria past Kwaggarand

and Laudium. At a small sign along the road I turn left and follow the turn of the road past a

huge power station. The venue turns out to be spacious, but gloomy and cold in the early

morning of the Highveld winter. The urn spouts hot water for plastic coffee and rooibos tea

in recycled Styrofoam cups for which I am thankful. Some mornings there are loaves of

sliced white bread, margarine and jam, which finds its way from the canteen to the venue. It

is common practice, I observe, to take three slices, jam them together, fold them over,

flatten the whole thing with a hand before gobbling it down. Mid-morning a jammed-up

sandwich does much to lift the flagging sugar levels. Bread is a beloved staple, as the way of

concocting police ‘pudding’ in the canteen illustrates. The recipe is simple: two to three

slices of white bread with thick peanut butter and loads of golden syrup. Welcome to police

‘pudding’, the leader of the pack says, as I bite into my pudding.

Classroom teaching is intense. It commences at 8am. By then the group has been up for

three hours to get through PT, showers, breakfast and marching up and down. There is

much ground to cover: there is the history, theory, and policies relating to peacekeeping to

consider. There are UN conventions, organisational structures and processes to discuss.

Then there are a whole host of technical matters to master and operational skills to

practice. There are basic exercises in- what one would think are - rudimentary policing skills:

basic statement taking and report writing. Proficiency in the latter, trainers are quick to

lament, cannot be taken for granted. Concerns about poorly developed English writing

skills are freely expressed. Other trainers are quick to lament the absence of basic fitness

amongst those selected for training. Concern about the consistent application of selection

criteria seems widespread. Instructions are interspersed with various forms of assessment.

Class tests are written and feedback given at regular intervals. In one session we are

instructed in geo-coordinates: there is talk of altitude, latitude and longitude; of estimated

times of arrival and departure, of Global Positioning Systems (GPS), of NAVSTAR and many

more. The rules for radio control are drilled: ALPHA calls CHARLIE answers. Protocols, we

are told, need to be observed. Guest lecturers come and go. Their arrival makes for some

variation and gives the core group of trainers a much needed break. The visitors talk about

many things: about gender-based violence, personal hygiene and social welfare, about

sexual liaisons and harassment and about ‘culture’ in Darfur. These are complicated matters

17

not easily dealt with exhaustively in the sterile context of the class room. The lectures often

do little more than skim the surface. Anecdotes are told along the way and seem to serve a

purpose. But more often than not the complexities associated with the mandates of the

peace keeping role and the trickiness of doing community policing in a context of

displacement, strife and instability are not addressed. The limits of classroom training to

prepare pockets of police for field engagement and for difficult eventualities in the mission

environment are obvious enough even for the best equipped and experienced police

institution.

Teaching contains an interesting mixture of formal instruction, interactive dialogue, and

group work, interspersed with practical exercises and simulation. The programme is

detailed. The trainers themselves constitute a mixed bunch. They bring different

backgrounds, personalities and diverse policing experience into the classroom. They utilise

different didactic styles. One moment they cajole and admonish the group and seem

indifferent to the concerns of the trainees and the next moment there is evidence of support

and empathy. A standard line of one trainer who wishes to prepare the group for some

hardship is his ‘definition of an injury’: The definition of an injury is when an internal organ

in hanging outside the body. Only such injuries deserve to be reported. The message is clear:

don’t complain about little discomforts, strained muscles or sprained ankles. Those do not

cut ice. I watch the relationships unfolding. Before long it is clear that the core group of

trainers have earned the respect of the trainees. It is respect that seems well earned and

well deserved.

Outside of the classroom fitness routines, weapon instruction, exercises in battle craft and 4

by 4 driving populate the programme further .One morning we assemble for battle craft. I

do not have the faintest idea what we are about to do. At 5.30 am, as I make my way

through the heart of Pretoria the city is sound asleep. When I arrive it is still pitch dark. The

air of the Highveld winter is bitingly cold. Instead of standing on the margins I decide to join

in. This makes for some excitement amongst the trainers. Let the researcher do some push

ups then. I am assigned to a group and I sense a bit of trepidation about the effect of my

efforts on group performance. For the next hour we march and leapfrog in complicated

formations. We simulate attacks from the RRRight and then from the LLLeft. The whistles of

the instructors indicate either approval or disapproval. Disapproval seems to be the

standard response. It means: Do it again. One group gets it wrong too many times. They are

sent off the field and told to hide themselves in the trees. Not all succeed in making

themselves invisible. The rest of us have to Creep forward, Kneel down, Get up and Creep

18

forward! The guns have to point either up or down. There is much shouting happening. The

logic of the battle craft initially escapes me. Three quarters along the way my knees refuse

to participate any further. It is merely a harbinger of things to come. The next morning I am

painfully aware of strained muscles webbed through my body. I am thankful, though, that

as yet I do not have to report an injury. I am in good company. There is visible evidence of

stiff joints and strained muscles everywhere. In fact the whole classroom reeks of fistfuls of

Deep Heat. In the afternoons there is a steady number of trainees who wish to consult the

doctor in town. I watch them limp or shuffle towards the minibus.

If the days are long and exhausting, the facilities are spartan. Accommodation is basic: thin

camping beds are staggered in tents on an open field situated alongside kennels, which

house police dogs undergoing training. The dogs are a constant presence: throughout the

day they tjank, growl or bark at the disturbance of their universe by the intruders. During

the first week there are few luxuries – no electricity in the tents, no hot water in the ablution

blocks and no toilet paper. I suspect that the austerity is part of a deliberate strategy to

invoke hardship – the kind of hardship which may await in the mission itself. A cold shower

in a wintry Pretoria morning in a rudimentary ablution block, I decide, may well build

character. This is not a matter for sissies, to borrow from the classroom bits of wisdom.

Throughout the generic training there is frequent reference to tactical training – the ‘real

test’ which lies ahead where resilience will be put to the test and where calibre will make all

the difference. It is called ‘hell week’. Trainees are warned time and again about the

difficulties that lie ahead. They are also sworn to secrecy. Thirst and hunger may come their

way. They will encounter exhaustion and fatigue. Resilience will be required. And then

eventually it is time for hell week. Transport arrangements are finalised. Trainees are given

an opportunity to stock up on provisions.

Tactical training takes place at the Thabazimbi Training Centre three to four hours to the

north of Pretoria. This time round it is mid-summer when I join a second group of trainees.

The sun is merciless and the heat crackles as the clock moves to 12. I arrive at base camp to

find it deserted except for kitchen staff. I am told to go to the shooting range. I find them all

huddled in the bit of shade available. Four weeks into the training the group looks a little bit

worse for wear. The hairdo’s are no longer intact. The outfits have taken a dusty beating.

But I am pleased to see no internal organs hanging out.

19

We are up very early each morning. The day is packed with activities: jogging up and down

the dirt road; hanging out at the shooting range (day time, night time); a long morning of

house penetration where we share the space with a squad of special task force types

playing Batman- Batman. Later still there is a long morning of ambush practice of various

permutations in the river beds. I am part of the group sent to fetch lunch. We come back

with boxes packed with hamburgers, fried eggs and baked beans and loaves of white bread.

Forty four hungry humans tuck into the food and everything goes quiet. Another morning is

consumed by hand grenade training. I am invited to prove my skills but decline the offer.

Every time the grenade hits the ground it rips open the earth and water spouts like a

fountain upwards into the sky. At the end of another long day we are told to hit the road

and jog back to base camp. The instruction is received and like wearisome troops the

platoon assembles itself. Someone says Jississss, It is an expression of a collective sentiment:

Jississss indeed. The platoon moves forward and a short distance further it passes a bus. As

the platoon shuffles past the bus, miraculously, we are saved. ‘Get onto the bus!’ Alpha

trainer shouts. There is a short moment of confusion. To obey or not to obey? I watch as the

group’s spirit soars high into the sky. We are jammed like sardines into the back of the

vehicle. It is hot and the road is very bumpy. But not a complaint is heard.

The instructors have no shortage of ideas or energy. They are demanding. They are as

perceptive. When the morale flags they find a way of boosting the spirit. I watch as they

alternate: good-cop bad-cop. They conspire to put the trainees through their paces, pushing

the limits of endurance here and there, stepping in when group cohesion breaks down. At

the end of simulation exercises they resort to lengthy debriefings. They do so skilfully. My

thought is: These guys are good. Damn good. They comment on group dynamics, on failures

and achievements and the importance of group work and group support. In this manner

they keep the show on the road. Not just once, but time and again.

At the time of their first arrival the trainees vary in size, shape and level of fitness. During

the first week of training most huff and puff as they are put through the moves: drill, push

ups, sit ups, sprints, assuming the plank position, then 2.4 km up and down the road to

practice at meeting the dreaded UN requirements. Three weeks later when I go back to join

a group for tactical training, they all look fitter and slimmer. Now there is also evidence of

group cohesion. Light-hearted bantering takes place – the jokes bounce back and forth

between trainees and trainers. Nicknames have been adopted. Roles have been embraced –

the singing is led by two women; some excel at saying prayers, the mercy of Lord Jesus is

20

asked on many an occasion. Others again set the pace for jogging. As ever the odd ones are

useful scapegoats for all kinds of frustrations.

One morning as the platoon stands at attention the trainers step out in combat gear. As far

as I can tell it is all choreographed. This performance has been rehearsed before. They step

out with purpose and attitude. From deep inside the platoon someone whistles a long wolf

whistle. Sharp Sharp, applauds another. The trainers are dressed like Ninja Specials in black

and grey. The pants are immaculately ironed, the belts shiny, the boots polished to

perfection. For tops they have on tight fitting black stretchy T shirts with police emblems –

left, right and centre. Well ripped torsos are edged against the tight fit of the shirts. But the

Ninjas have blank expressions. They sport black sunglasses with yellow elastics around the

head. They seem prepared for all eventualities. And then the pack turns their backs on the

platoon. At that moment elongated slogans become visible on the backs of the shirt. I focus

my eyes. In bright yellow –and in italics (nogal) - it says : IS JY BANG? It is all very dramatic.

It is theatre. The meaning is not lost. Someone mumbles: Hier kom kak. And then off we are

sent jogging along the dirt road for another day of endless activities: house penetration

first; battle craft later. Along the way plank positions are assumed as both punishment and

reward. Push ups are called for here and there. The ‘fun’ goes on even when the moon sits

high in the dark sky. Then the trainers conspire to drop smoke grenades alongside the tents

of those forty exhausted trainees. I watch as trainees crawl out in sleeping gear and assume

the plank position. Lord have mercy, I think I hear myself say.

“A peacekeeper is a peacekeeper is a peacekeeper”. This is a statement that one trainer

often recites. I understand this to mean that generic requirements apply to those who

volunteer for external deployment regardless of gender and rank differences. It is their job

to get those who have volunteered to be properly equipped for the job as defined by UN

standards. That is the objective they have in mind – about which they talk – and which they

pursue with a singularity of focus. But issues of gender of course are not so easily boxed or

domesticated. The simulation exercises capture the ambiguities quite starkly. In dealing

with rebels, female peacekeepers are told to be particularly mindful of local cultural

sensitivities. This means that female peacekeepers should not take the lead in negotiations

with hostile groups of men but hold back and let men rather take the lead. In one simulation

exercise trainees are cajoled for their ‘insensitivity’ to local customs by allowing women to

engage with negotiations with rebel men in the simulation. So in this instance it would seem

that women constitute liabilities rather than assets. In other discussions about risk and

danger in the mission again it is acknowledged that the risk of rape amongst peacekeepers

21

by rebel forces is a female issue. In such conversations the paradoxes invariably crop up of

female peacekeepers being both assets and liabilities. On the one hand female

peacekeepers have a critical role to play addressing the safety concerns of local women and

yet they themselves could become sexualised targets in conflict situations. Observing such

paradoxes makes me aware of the difficulties of engaging with such vexed issues.

When it is time to take my leave I am reluctant to do so. It is the afternoon of the last day of

tactical training. The trainees have been given permission to use the swimming pool but not

to mingle with the special task force types. The trainers are relaxing in the compound. They

sit like cowboys back to front on their chairs. Pink brutal fruit drinks are being consumed.

The talk is light and slow. Another cycle of training is being concluded. What’s left is a last

night of training, the next morning’s ‘graduation’ and then the celebratory braai. Thereafter

the trainers and trainees will go back to their homes and their families for a few days leave

before returning to their normal police positions.

I wave my goodbyes as the cheap rental car with small doll-like wheels makes its way along

the badly corrugated dirt road. There is much time to think. I have been granted an

opportunity to do participant observation. Now that I have taken the opportunity I feel

privileged. Privileged to have met police who still act as if policing is a calling, albeit not a

very well paid one. I feel privileged to have observed some of the everyday challenges they

confront in a large and unwieldy organisation plagued by a wide range of difficulties. But

despite such difficulties the trainers have succeeded in carving out a space within which they

engage with the job at hand in an extremely dedicated manner.

By the time that the dirt road links up with the tarred one outside Warmbaths / BelaBela I

have concluded that South African police training for external deployment, as I observed it,

is characterised admirably by breadth and some depth. It was being delivered by a team of

highly experienced police instructors. It constituted a resource intensive engagement of high

calibre. Its benefits extended beyond individuals and beyond Darfur. The South African

Police Service more generally stood to benefit. During the course of the observation so

many of the trainees expressed their appreciation in explicit terms: Now we can drill

properly. This training has prepared us in ways which basic training failed to do’. ‘Now we

know the inside and outside of firearms’. ‘Now we are so much better prepared for the

dangers of the streets here in South Africa too’. I now know much more about the stuff of

negotiation.’ ‘Now I am fitter than I have been for a very long time’.

22

Whether the trainees are deployed to Darfur or not, the training for external deployment

delivered by that particular bunch of trainers, I thought, would yield benefits for the

organisation as a whole at the domestic level. To me it seemed as if training for deployment

to Darfur was an interesting way of training for places such as Hillbrow, Marikana, De

Doorns and elsewhere in this troublesome country of ours.

5.5 Scope and impact of gender training

Much has been spoken about the need for peace missions to prioritise the crimes of sexual

violence and to build capacity within peace missions to respond proactively to the security

concerns of women and children. All South African peacekeepers receive gender training as

part of their pre-deployment preparation. With regards to gender training too courses

having become more substantive over time. In the initial phase responsibility for gender

training has been outsourced to a partnership of three NGOs based in South Africa. Since

2009, the SAPS, in conjunction with the Canadian-based Pearson (Peacekeeping) Centre has

developed a special training module in gender-based violence, which ‘gender advisors’ have

to undergo. External training in gender-based violence also needs to be factored in. Those

who were to become ‘gender advisors’ in the mission received two weeks of specialized

gender training in Kenya. Perceptions about the suitability of such training again varied

according to how synchronized such training was, and at what stage of deployment to

Darfur it was provided.

Many of the peacekeepers interviewed were deployed before 2009 and did not

have access to the more in-depth course. For this reason, many peacekeepers were

of the view that the gender training they received was not adequate.

Within the focus group discussions the following problems regarding gender training on

home ground were identified:

Insufficient time spent on gender awareness training in the pre-deployment

environment;

No formal provision for gender trainers to receive any feedback from trainees upon

their return and therefore no opportunity for quality control of training courses;

Little to no opportunity for planners or trainers to capitalise in any organised

manner on the experience and knowledge gained by female peacekeepers in the

field;

23

Problems with the timing of more specialised gender-training. According to one

respondent, specialist training in Kenya came much too late in the process of

external deployment – pointing to a squandering of resources due to the

ineffective timing of gender-based training interventions.

As she explained:

You do not know what is expected of you as gender officer. We went to

Kenya [for peacekeeping training] two months prior to ending our

mission. Only after Kenya did I realize what I was supposed to do. I was

supposed to do workshops, interact more with the people, and show

them how to make soap. I interacted, I drank chai [tea] with them, that

was it. I wrote reports, “there is not problems,” but that is not what I

was supposed to do.

Despite the concerns mentioned above, female police who participated in the focus group

discussions expressed a certain confidence about their professional preparedness to deal

with violence against women in the peace mission. This confidence seems to be a function

of the degree of awareness of gender-based violence at the domestic level and the extent

to which sexual violence has become prioritised within the broader operational mandate of

the South African Police Services. It is thus with relative ease that female police could

export their awareness and home-grown policing skills in supporting victims of sexual

violence in the external mission. It was unanimously agreed that women were better suited

to speak to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in cases of rape and sexual assault as the

cultural taboo may prevent many men from fully participating in investigations.

South African experience was summed up as follows:

“[South African police have] empathy for rape victims because that is your

work in SA, you deal a lot with rape victims, you know how fast the person

must go to a doctor, and so on, that is why...and as I said, we listen and you

take in that information and then you will refine it in your head before you

speak up...a male? They cannot listen! I am sorry to say, they do not have ears.

It is Venus and Mars. You can say anything, and what they hear is “let’s go to

bed”.

24

5.6 Working and living conditions in the mission

Peacekeepers are exposed to adverse conditions in the field. Some reflected on the dangers

and risk associated with the mission environment. Others focused on the physical

discomfort, the heat, the dust and the flies they had to contend with.

As one respondent put it:

“I looked down from the aeroplane and saw dust, tents and nothing else. I wanted to

go home them. I was filled with fear. Then the aeroplane touched down. There was no

turning back. I stepped out. The heat....the heat just swallowed me”.

‘From above the place looked scary.’

Another commented on basic facilities:

“The ablution block was terrible. I started getting infections just by looking at it.”

Others reflected on the lack of recreational facilities and the boredom which they had to

negotiate on a weekly level.

As one woman recounted:

“I would do my washing myself because it takes up your time. I would get up

early in spring and the beginning of summer, at 5 am, you keep yourself busy

with washing, spring cleaning your tent, go for exercising, I met some people

who would do the maintenance of the camp...in the tent there was a spinning

bike, a bench and some weights, they let us use them. The girl who went with

me, she was quite big. I asked her the one day, why she came to Sudan. She

25

said to lose weight. I said, ‘stick with me’. We started to walk around the camp

- five kilometres every day - she lost over 30 kg.”

It became clear from the focus group interviews that those who were deployed in the early

phase of South Africa’s involvement in Darfur, the pioneers so to speak, had a tougher

time in the field than those who followed in their footsteps. In similar vein the

peacekeeping experience is also one much influenced by the period and actual place of

deployment. The guinea pigs of the first round of external deployment confronted many

more challenges than those deployed more recently.

Housing in Darfur for Peacekeepers

‘My room, my bed in Darfur’

26

At home the administrative systems that support external deployment have become better

and training too has become more sophisticated over time. Furthermore, within the

external environment infrastructural conditions have improved considerably. A measure of

‘progress’ was provided by one focus group participant who commented that ‘nowadays

one can even buy a milkshake’ in the bigger centres of Darfur. This is a luxury which the

original guinea pigs in the group found hard to believe.

As a veteran of the early period of deployment put it:

“Milkshakes? What? I don’t believe it. When we went there was nothing. Just

nothing.”

The sophistication in communication networks too have brought benefits to those

deployed in recent years. In contrast to the ‘pioneers’ who spoke of isolation in the mission

environment and being cut off from contact, a recent returnee said she had no good reason

to miss loved ones at home.

“I was skype-ing home almost every day. I mean I knew what they had cooking in the

pots on the stove at home.”

Differential experiences such as these suggest that the very experience of deployment is

shaped by the period of deployment, the place to which one is deployed and the position

occupied within the mission environment. The experience of stalwarts who were deployed

in early 2006 to extremely remote and troubled parts of Darfur clearly had little in common

with those drinking milkshakes whilst conversing with loved ones via satellite from base

camps. Equally so, the experience of peacekeeping varies greatly between those who take

on administrative positions at headquarters in big towns ‘feeding paper up the chain’

compared to those responsible for engaging on a daily basis with displaced people in far

flung locations in the ‘bush’.

Exposure to danger varied from place to place. In preparation for possible attack,

peacekeepers had their personal possessions packed and ready to evacuate as a daily

routine. Most of the time this was a trivial detail, but evacuations did happen and some of

the respondents were sent to Uganda for a month until regional violence quieted. On rare

occasions, rebels would attack peacekeeper camps, and in some cases there were fatalities.

Notions of security were then very volatile.

27

As one peacekeeper put it:

“Sometimes I felt like my life was in danger, but it depends on where you are, and

where is the situation, in some places it was very calm.”

In the space of four years both internal and external systems within UN quarters have

become better at supporting peacekeepers in the field. In the same period Darfur too has

changed and so have local attitudes towards external forces. As one veteran peacekeeper

indicated, in 2006 they only got paid at the end of their six month stint. This meant

hardship as they struggled to get by on the little money they had during the first number of

months. In contrast to this primitive state of affairs monthly electronic transfers into bank

accounts are now the order of the day.

Improvements in administrative systems and channels of communication notwithstanding,

all spoke about the difficulties of acclimatising to Darfur as a geographic space. Many

commented on that very first exposure to the ‘unbearable’ heat, the spartan living

conditions, the rudimentary ablution facilities and the armies of green flies that populated

huge chunks of meat sold at the market. But then as many of the returnees commented

about the human capacity to adapt and to ‘make the best’ of a challenging situation.

After a while you just don’t notice the flies at all. I mean you just get used to things. Or you

end up making alternative arrangements. Like you stop eating meat.

Prospective peacekeepers, they thought, had to be prepared better for the physical

conditions which awaited them in the mission. In their view ex-peacekeepers should be

used as a valuable resource in orientation programmes. Proper orientation by those ‘with

real’ experience could go a long way to avoid the ‘shock’ which accompanied entry into the

theatre, so argued some of the respondents. Finding ways of engaging through mission

simulation with the realities out there were considered important. Trainers again, thought

that simulation was no substitute for the ‘real thing.’

28

Negotiating the environment in Darfur

5.7 Everyday routines in the field

UN policy documents outline the responsibilities of the police in peacekeeping. SAPS too

have little difficulty in articulating on paper the roles of SAPS CIVPOL members in Darfur.

But looking beyond such articulation, what indeed did female peacekeepers end up doing in

Darfur? During focus group discussions we asked respondents to talk about ‘everyday

routines’ of peacekeeping. One respondent penned down ‘weekly activities’ in detailed

manner as follows:

“Daily patrols to various destinations; Report writing of findings in patrols; Visiting of

border posts of sector 8; Visiting of police stations/interview commanders; Visiting of

school churches in area for confidence building; Confidence building in communities –

speak to people about their wellbeing; Interacting with IDPs and find out what’s

happening on the ground, their basic needs and the security situation. Educating them

about domestic violence, the importance of child education. Doing community

policing.”

Many of those who attended the focus group discussions shared their photographs of the

mission environment and of policing the peace. Those visual images provided graphic

illustrations of both the professional and social worlds of peacekeepers.

The photographs capture the diverse aspects of the police peacekeeper role: from passive

monitoring (hanging out in space) to more active engagement with pockets of local people

(women, groups of children, traditional leaders for example) to professional interactions

with police peacekeepers from other parts of the world, as well as with the police of the

Government of Sudan.

29

Meeting with local women to discuss their safety concerns

The descriptive captions which accompanied the photographs conveyed the routine

activities of female peacekeepers in a context of multidimensional peacekeeping. So, for

example, the captions read as follows: ‘listening’ to local women; ‘discussing safety’ in

camps occupied by internally displaced people; ‘talking to’ traditional leaders; ‘reaching

out’ to children; ‘starting a crèche’ for children; ‘engaging with hygiene’ with a group of

displaced women and so forth. These photographs captured the gist of ‘community

policing’ i.e. of the need to establish contact with local citizens and authority structures, to

engage with the safety concerns of ‘vulnerable groups’, to network and so forth. Other

photographs continued the visual display of social engagements of foreign police with local

actors: ‘handing over’ a wheel chair to a disabled person; ‘giving advice’ to local

communities; ‘sharing experiences’ as women within a women network; ‘raising

consciousness’ about women rights with groups of local women; ‘sensitising the

community’ about gender based violence; ‘establishing contacts’ with NGOs operating in

the mission environment as well as ‘facilitating reconciliation’ between opposing groups.

30

Discussions with various leaders of the community

At the two-day conference (Women in Peacekeeping Missions), which was held in Pretoria

in mid-November 2010, many of the presenters put photographs to use in their Power

Point presentations on a wide range of topics. There were pictures too of heavily loaded

donkeys being chaperoned by women. Such images provoked smirks and laughter from the

audience. For those who spent time in Darfur, the donkey was a familiar thing. Such images

provided cues for social commentaries. As one respondent noted:

In Darfur there is nothing. In Darfur there are two things you don’t want to be. You don’t

want to be a donkey. And you don’t want to be a woman. Women are like donkeys. They

do all the work. Men sit around and smoke. Men watch the donkeys and the women do all

the work.

Donkeys -- like women - don’t have it easy

31

5.8 Managing relationships in the field

Much of the focus group discussions centred on the challenges that confront the

management of social relationships within the peace mission. The social relationships are

varied and multi-dimensional as the discussion which follows illustrates.

Relationships with local women: Female police keepers were asked to describe their

interaction with local women. Establishing relationships with local women required

commitment and strategic negotiation with local power structures (i.e. male gate-keepers)

– particularly so in Darfur, a traditional Islamic society. Access to local women had to be

negotiated through men. Female peacekeepers described the relationships with local

women as ‘good’, ‘positive’, ‘respectful’, and characterised by ‘sisterly love’. Trust, they

pointed out, had to be built bit by bit. This was accomplished through cooperative ventures

involving some or other developmental activity: establishing a garden, a crèche, a sewing

club, a communal kitchen, or a discussion group focusing on personal hygiene. All

acknowledged that religious and language barriers made such engagements difficult but

not impossible. In focus group interviews many little stories were told of individual

initiatives in problem solving, community engagement and/or social development –often

without much in the way of social or financial support by the UN.

Meeting with local women

32

There was talk of ‘adopting’ children and of ‘paying school fees’ of destitute children.

Emotional bonds were formed and social alliances struck. The departure from Darfur back

home was often associated with a sense of emotional loss.

Getting to know the young ones you work with

Those interviewed spoke too of the difficulties of sustaining initiatives from one contingent

of peacekeepers to the next. All agreed that there was a need for less abrupt rotations and

for proper ‘hand-over’ from one group of peacekeepers to the next. Many commented on

the ways in which rotations eroded local initiatives and endangered the ‘delicate trust’

which some succeeding in establishing.

33

Working with police and military personnel from the whole wide world

Relationships with other police: Relationships within the wider police contingent within the

mission was an issue much discussed in the focus groups. Key to success here was an ability

to operate in a multi-national and culturally diverse environment. Some emphasised that

common professional backgrounds, of ‘us all being police personnel’ made for an

overarching identity and common purpose. Beyond the surface however there lurked

tensions. Differences in policing styles, negative attitudes towards women in general and

negative attitudes towards female police in particular, were mentioned as sources of

tension within the multicultural institution. Material differences between ‘more’ and ‘less’

developed police organisations too featured in the conversations. Time and again South

African police women commented on how ‘privileged’ they were as members of the South

African Police Service. As one put it:

“We were so, so privileged. We arrived with different sets of uniforms and no less than

three pairs of boots. Compared to others we were smart, well off. There was a lot of

bartering happening for those boots. I had to go to Sudan to realise just how privileged

we as South Africans are. How privileged we as South Africa women are. We don’t

know what real poverty is. We misuse the word. We don’t have an idea.”

Nationality in particular was identified as a source of friction. South Africans, the

respondents emphasised, were often being accused – by Nigerians counterparts in

particular - of acting like ‘little Americans’ in the field.

34

“They did not like us on their turf. You must remember that Nigerians have been doing

peacekeeping for a long time. And now we South Africans were the newcomers.”

Whilst the majority agreed that national stereotypes were widespread, and that

‘nationality (often) played a role when dishing out jobs’ others again emphasised that

establishing inter-personal working relationships and demonstrating professional expertise

provided an effective antidote to such national stereotypes.

Working relationships between female and male police: In the field gender complicated

issues of nationality. Female police had a tougher time in ‘proving themselves’ in a field

environment where other troop contributing countries are still to open up the security

sectors to the employment of women. Contending with patriarchal attitudes and a ‘lack of

respect for women’ amongst such Troop and Police Contributing Countries constituted a

particular challenge for female peacekeepers coming from more ‘liberal’ contexts.

Anecdotes from the field provided a view onto the complexity of gender relations - and the

politics of sexual innuendoes - forged in the space of the peace mission. ‘One has to learn

how to cope with advances from day one,’ said one respondent. One had to avoid signalling

ambiguity, argued another. Different cultural codes underlying social interaction and sexual

flirtation had to be understood. The culture card, discovered one respondent, was a useful

tool for blocking unwanted approaches.

“When a man would try his luck I just told him that is not OK in my culture. I would tell

him: We don’t do it that way. That worked. Then they did not argue.”

Overall the discussions offered a glimpse into the politics of sexual interaction within the

context of the foreign mission and the compromises forged along the way..

Relationships with the police of the Government of Sudan: In terms of the UN mandate

foreign police are also expected to work together with the police of the Government of

Sudan. This working relationship required diplomatic skills – for all peacekeepers but again

more so for women. As there are very few women in the Sudanese police, foreign female

peacekeepers thought that they could not simply ‘tell local police men what to do.’ Female

peacekeepers had to ‘tread carefully’ in order to achieve the desired results in building

local police capacity. One woman who was deployed as a police detective described her

strategy:

35

“I was a detective. What actually happens is that the GOS police trust us, if for instance

a lady was stabbed, you had to go to the police, not tell them what to do, but what you

heard. Even if you know the suspect you have to go with the local people to the police,

but let them do it themselves, although you are actually doing it, but they don't know.”

Relationships with male colleagues from SAPS: The majority of SAPS female officials

interviewed spoke in positive terms about their relationships with male colleagues from

home. Here terms such as ‘good’, ‘brotherly’ and ‘professional’ inter-relationships were

used to emphasise the point. A third of the respondents explicitly commented on the fact

that South African male colleagues ‘protected their female counterparts’ in the mission –

particularly against sexual advances from other national contingents. When asked about

inter-racial interactions, the responses were cautious. Dealing with racial diversity within

South African ranks, it appeared, continued to pose a challenge in the far flung

environment of Darfur.

Police-military relationships: The focus group discussions also probed relationships

between military and police components of the peace mission. Responses to this question

had to be interpreted against the background that members of CIVPOL do not carry arms in

Darfur. In UN terms this hybrid peace mission is considered a Chapter 6 mission in that

police do not carry weapons. For daily security protection members of CIVPOL have to rely

on the military for protection. Built into the relationship is an interdependency based on a

functional division of coercive capacity. From the comments received on this issue two

opposing views could be identified. At one end of the spectrum police-military interaction

was described in cooperative terms reflecting a comfortable and professional co-existence

within the field as the following responses indicates:

“We worked well together. The relationship was professional.”

36

Working as a team across nationality and across institutions

Someone else’s response was more qualified:

“Once trust was established the relationship was good.”

At the other end of the spectrum there was reference to a perceived reluctance on the part

of military personnel to accept police as ‘equal’ partners. As one respondent put it:

“The military had the perception that they are better than the police because they had

weapons and we did not.”

As newcomers police were sometimes perceived as ‘encroaching’ on the military terrain.

According to police peacekeepers issues about mandates and a division of peacekeeping

responsibilities had to be addressed at the international and then national levels so as to

avoid institutional rivalries developing in foreign locations. This point was articulated as

follows:

“The military needs a better understanding of police work and responsibility (within the

peace mission).”

Education and awareness of the evolution of peace missions and the evolving role for

civilian police in peace missions, so argued the respondents, could go a long way to

addressing battles over turf.

37

5.9 Coming Home: Debriefing and Reintegration

A long way home?

Over the past six years the period of deployment has varied between six months and a

year. Regardless of the duration of deployment, all peacekeepers confront the challenge of

withdrawing from the ‘theatre’ and of picking up social and professional lives at home.

Field deployment to foreign jurisdictions may offer an escape from strained relationships

but in many more field deployment also exert strain on family and marital relationships. As

one respondent put it:

“I went to Darfur to get away from my ex-husband.”

For another it worked out differently:

“I was looking forward to coming back. But by the time I got back he has moved in with

another woman. Just like that.”

The ease with which the transition from Sudan to South Africa is negotiated depends on a

lot of factors. Assistance and support can make a considerable difference. It is here that the

concept and practices associated with ‘de-briefing’ and with social service support before,

during and deployment are relevant. By all informed accounts at the time of the research

SAPS has not been particularly good at providing much support. Social service support to

families of those deployed has been uneven. This was an issue also identified in stark terms

in the discussions which took place at the two-day conference in Pretoria. Until recently,

38

de-briefing too, reported those we interviewed, has been largely non-existent. ‘This focus

group interview’, commented one participant ‘was the first opportunity for members to get

together again and talk about the experience.’

Many of the respondents pointed out that they found it difficult to explain their

experiences to friends, families and colleagues upon their return.

“I mean how does one explain what you experienced? It is just too difficult to make

others understand the place, what you have gone through.”

This inability to give shape to ‘the Darfur experience’ exacerbated feelings of isolation upon

their return.

“I just stopped talking about Darfur. I just kept all those stories and feelings to myself.

It is better that way.”

Problems of isolation are furthermore exacerbated by difficulties encountered in the

process of re-integrating back into their positions at station-level. Some found upon their

return that they had been re-assigned to another portfolio.

“I mean when I got back I had no desk, no office. Someone else was sitting at my desk

in my old office.”

There were isolated cases of staff being transferred to other locations in their absence and

without their knowledge.

“When I got back I was told that I had been transferred. No one bothered to let me

know. Just like that.”

Many commented on the lack of interest amongst colleagues in their field experience.

“No one asked. Nobody cared whether I did a good or a bad job. I got a medal you

know. They just dumped the medal on my table. Nobody cared. Nobody congratulated

me.”

Many of the female police officers spoke of a degree of ostracism which they experienced

upon their return. There was, they noted, some resentment among colleagues about

peacekeepers who ‘had a nice time’ outside the country whilst earning ‘heaps of dollars.’

More serious however were rumours and allegations spread amongst office staff of sexual

impropriety on the part of female peacekeepers during missions. In the focus group

interviews much was spoken about the allegations of sexual misconduct which (some)

39

female returnees had to contend with upon their return to home base. From these

discussions it seemed that the management of gender and sexual relations in the field

constituted a considerable challenge and that reputational risks associated with rumours

and allegations of impropriety were particularly grave for women.

5.10 The rewards of peacekeeping

Respondents were asked to comment on their overall experience of external deployment

and to consider the extent to which their deployment had had an impact on them as

individuals and professionals. A striking observation had to do with the way in which the

majority reported high levels of job satisfaction. Within the impoverished environment of

Darfur police women commented on their sense of ‘competence’ in working in a multi-

national peace mission where they could ‘hold their own’ and ‘make a difference’ to the

lives of local women. Many spoke of a sense of ‘national pride’ accompanying their role as

‘ambassadors’ for South Africa. By way of illustration we draw on some of the comments

made by former peacekeepers.

“Going into the camps and building a relationship with the IDPs was really something

else. How they look up to you and you could see in their eyes how they appreciate you.

It felt so good to make a difference in somebody’s life.”

“What was good was knowing that I can help somebody – no matter how small my

contribution.”

“It was good to build up a trust relationships with people suffering because of war

related problems and at the end of the mission knowing that you helped someone, see

the smile on that person’s face.”

“I mean you know we were acting as ambassadors out there. We were making a

difference. You could feel it. You could see it in the eyes of people.”

The sense of accomplishment and professionalism in the field however was challenged

upon their return to South Africa.

“No one care about what we did there. The organisation is not interested. My station

commander was not bothered. It’s not like you qualify for promotion when you come

back.”

40

It is this disjunction between the experience out there and the return to the familiar and

mundane at home which stood out starkly. For some at least Darfur resembled a space

within which a difference could be made:

“If given half a chance I would go back tomorrow. Tomorrow I tell you. I would not

think twice.”

For another the benefits had to do with her sense of empowerment. As she put it:

“I learnt a lot. You know, I came back feeling like a man. I now know that I can do

things. I can survive. I don’t have to stand back. I am confident. Just like a man.”

6 CONCLUSION

This exploratory research enquiry which was conducted during the course of 2010 and 2011

provided a view onto the perceptions and experiences of a small number of South African

police women who have been deployed to the UN peace mission in Darfur. Observations of

field training furthermore provided a close-up view into the content of the training, of the

teaching methods utilised and of the social interactions amongst trainees and between

trainers and trainees. The conversations with research respondents were organised around

specific moments in the process of external deployment, i.e. the recruitment, selection,

training, actual deployment of police personnel, the routine business of peace keeping in

the field, as well as experiences of re-integration in the work situation back home. The

findings go some way toward capturing the dynamics of policing in foreign locales as in the

case of Darfur in Sudan. Needless to say a fuller understanding of external deployment of

police (both male and female) will require more in-depth research on a wider scale with a

larger number of police peacekeepers before one can arrive at a comprehensive

understanding of the experience of external deployment and the ways in which gender

impact and shape those experiences.

Training for external deployment is an evolving business. Within the South African Police

Service too important changes in the administration and delivery of training for external

deployment of police have been forthcoming. One of the more recent developments

pertains to the shift in responsibility for training for external deployment from Human

Resource Development to Operational Response Services. The implications of this shift for

the content of training and the administration of external deployment are unclear and have

not been considered in this report. This round of conversations with South African

41

peacekeepers suggests that the journey to Darfur can be a very rewarding one: extra

money is earned, confidence is boosted, professional skills are developed and social

horizons are widened. Of course the challenge for SAPS at home – and for all other police

contributing countries - is to put the experience and expertise developed during external

deployment to use at the domestic level. This is a challenge worth pursuing so that the

dividends of external deployment can be ploughed back into the police organisation and

boost capacity to engage with the safety concerns of South Africans at home.

7 ISSUES TO CONSIDER IN TRAINING FOR EXTERNAL DEPLOYMENT

Recruitment

Recruitment drives need to be widely marketed.

Recruitment needs to take care to adhere to the physical and

educational requirements for deployment.

Enhance UN systems in such a way that recruitment for

positions in the mission are linked to skills and expertise of those

recruited.

Training

Build further on existing achievements of training for external

deployment.

Capitalise on skills and capacities amongst existing trainers.

Recognise and reward the capacity of the cadre of trainers who

have been critical to the development of capacity of those

deployed to UN missions.

Develop a tight feedback loop between trainers, the mission

environment, those deployed in the field.

Capitalise on experiences in the field to make training as

relevant as possible to the external mission environment.

Utilise ex-peacekeepers in an organised manner in the training

environment and/or in briefings prior to actual deployment.

42

Tactical training

Gender training

Undertake period evaluation of the desirable and proportional

balance between knowledge and skills within the training

programme.

Critically engage with the resource-intensive nature of proper

tactical training.

Organisational clarity required with regards to where exactly

training for external deployment is best located with specified

mandates and authority.

Strategies to be devised to safeguard institutional memory and

training expertise should the responsibility for training move

elsewhere within the police institution.

Further development of the form and content of gender

awareness training in the pre-deployment environment with the

view to greater sophistication.

Create opportunities for (gender) trainers to receive feedback

from trainees upon their return home from the peace mission.

Find ways of capitalising on the experience and knowledge

gained by female peacekeepers in the field and feed this into

gender training.

Time specialist gender training within the process of external

deployment to avoid a squandering of resources due to

ineffective timing.

Deployment

Need for synchronising systems so as to reduce time lag

between training and actual deployment.

Notice period of deployment needs to allow for proper planning

for departure.

Social services support

Maximise existing resources so as to attend to the concerns of

in-mission personnel about the welfare of those at home.

Develop in-mission mechanisms to identify and respond to the

43

needs of in- mission personnel.

Strengthen communication between social service division at

home and those externally deployed.

Conditions in the field

Substantive briefing during pre-deployment phases of training to

challenging conditions in the field.

Recognise in training that in-mission challenges are

environmental, professional, social and cultural.

Make use of former peacekeepers to brief next batch on

conditions in the field. Develop visual and electronic resource

material about mission environment. Make use of photographic

material/videos to convey in-mission conditions.

Expand on simulation exercises to give trainees exposure to

conditions in the theatre.

Disciplinary rules and

systems

Clarification of the codes of conduct which bind peacekeepers in

the field.

Continue efforts to help develop in-mission reporting

mechanisms and disciplinary processes for when things go

wrong in the field.

Devise specific reporting mechanisms for sexual harassment of

female peacekeepers.

Managing Relationships

in the field

Build social skills to negotiate social relationships in the field.

Build diplomatic skills and conflict resolution skills of those to be

deployed.

Recognise up front the many types of relationships to be

negotiated in the field and that different sets of social skills are

required to manage different types of relationships.

44

Coming home :

Debriefing

Rotation and hand-over from one group of peacekeepers to

another requires planning so as to allow for proper transfer of

duties, skills, social contacts and networks.

Expand efforts at de-briefing upon return.

Identify issues emerging from de-briefing which need to be fed

into the system responsible for external deployment

Follow up debriefing after the initial debriefing.

Find ways and mechanisms of identifying difficulties of

adjustment for police members and family upon return and

develop a referral system for assistance.

Coming home:

Re-integration

Placement of returnees should be properly managed by

superior/commanding officers. Find ways of registering and

utilising in-mission expertise acquired on the domestic front.

Re-deployment Clarification of the rules and reasons for such rules relating to

re-deployment.

45

8 ENDNOTES

i This report draws on Van der Spuy, E. 2011. Policing beyond the domestic sphere: the case of South African police in Darfur, Sudan. African Security Review, 20(4): 34-44 as well as on the findings reported in Bourke, Lynsey 2010. “Their Women, They Have No Rights”: Experiences of Female SAPS in Sudan Peacekeeping. Unpublished minor dissertation submitted for the M Phil in Criminal Justice, Faculty of law, UCT.

ii For an overview of recent developments towards multidimensionality in Peacekeeping see Aboagye, F B, Ejoyi, E and A Atta-Asamoah 2010. Bottlenecks to deployment! Police capacity building and deployment in Africa. Institute of Security Studies Paper 221. iii UN 2007. Capstone Doctrine for United Nations Peace Operations United Nations: Department of Peacekeeping Operations. iv Boucher, A. J. and V. K Holt 2007 African Perspectives on African Security Challenges and Modern Peace Operations. The Henry L. Stimson Center. vDeployment of South African police service members to Darfur, Sudan. Report of the Government of South Africa, 24 January 2005. vi The first focus group interview involved 23 female police and took place in Pretoria, October 2, 2009. The second focus group interview involved nine female police in Port Elizabeth, December 9, 2009. A third mixed group of twelve male and female peacekeepers were interviewed in Cape Town, April 21, 2011. In addition we had a round table discussion with a group of senior officers involved in the external deployment division at Pretoria police headquarters, which were conducted in October 2009. vii For a detailed description and evaluation of the Training for Peace programme see Aboagye et al 2000 (note 1).

46