Newsroom
Crisis management workshop held in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
SKOPJE 6 June 2001
SKOPJE, 6 June 2001 (OSCE) - Police officers and mayors from the western part of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia are attending a two-day workshop on crisis management organized by the OSCE. Two officers from the police service of Northern Ireland are addressing the workshop, which has started today.
"We hope that by sharing with the participants some of our operational experience of dealing with a diverse society that has had to cope with considerable unrest, we can help them develop solutions to the problems here," said Superintendent Roy Fleming from the Northern Irish police service. Superintendent Fleming and Sergeant Stephen Boddy have visited the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia before, in the context of a project aimed at reforming the police academy.
"There is often little or no communication between security forces and local authorities", said Michael Meyer, Balkans Adviser of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). "However, the crisis can only be managed if there is co-operation between these groups which all represent public authority." He also pointed out that respecting international humanitarian and human rights obligations should not be understood as an impediment to the operations of security forces, but rather as an essential part of a strategy that aims at de-escalation and the moral isolation of the armed groups.
"We have seen in the past, during the Kosovo refugee crisis, very positive benefits from similar seminars with police, which we hope to repeat here," said Andreas Raab, Political Adviser of the OSCE Spillover Monitoring Mission to Skopje.
The workshop is jointly organized by the OSCE Spillover Monitoring Mission to Skopje and the OSCE/ODIHR, with financial assistance from Norway and the United Kingdom.
--
For further information, please contact Jens-Hagen Eschenbächer, OSCE/ODIHR Spokesperson, Warsaw, +48 22 5200 600 or +48 603 683 122, or Harald Schenker, Spokesperson of the OSCE Spillover Monitoring Mission to Skopje, tel: +389 91 111-143, fax: +389 91 111-267, e-mail: [email protected].
"We hope that by sharing with the participants some of our operational experience of dealing with a diverse society that has had to cope with considerable unrest, we can help them develop solutions to the problems here," said Superintendent Roy Fleming from the Northern Irish police service. Superintendent Fleming and Sergeant Stephen Boddy have visited the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia before, in the context of a project aimed at reforming the police academy.
"There is often little or no communication between security forces and local authorities", said Michael Meyer, Balkans Adviser of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). "However, the crisis can only be managed if there is co-operation between these groups which all represent public authority." He also pointed out that respecting international humanitarian and human rights obligations should not be understood as an impediment to the operations of security forces, but rather as an essential part of a strategy that aims at de-escalation and the moral isolation of the armed groups.
"We have seen in the past, during the Kosovo refugee crisis, very positive benefits from similar seminars with police, which we hope to repeat here," said Andreas Raab, Political Adviser of the OSCE Spillover Monitoring Mission to Skopje.
The workshop is jointly organized by the OSCE Spillover Monitoring Mission to Skopje and the OSCE/ODIHR, with financial assistance from Norway and the United Kingdom.
--
For further information, please contact Jens-Hagen Eschenbächer, OSCE/ODIHR Spokesperson, Warsaw, +48 22 5200 600 or +48 603 683 122, or Harald Schenker, Spokesperson of the OSCE Spillover Monitoring Mission to Skopje, tel: +389 91 111-143, fax: +389 91 111-267, e-mail: [email protected].