Wiredu Leads Delegation To Liberia

A high-powered delegation led by the Director General in Charge of Human Resource Development of the Ghana Police Service, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Dr Alex Wiredu, was in Liberia to witness this year’s Medal Day parade of Ghana’s peace-keeping contingent.

Other members of the delegation were Mr Eric Afari, an Assistant Director of Immigration, Ms Caroline Kumassey, a Director (Technical) of the Prisons Service , DSP Victoria Yamoah, a staff officer, and Chief Inspector Joseph Afoakwa of the Public Affairs Directorate, among others.

The aim of the visit was to boost the morale of the officers and assure them of the administration’s support for their effort to lift high the flag of the Ghana Police in particular, and the country as a whole.

Medal awards ceremonies occupy a central place on the calendar of the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations UNPOL, serving as a fitting recognition of the various sacrifices the police, military and other personnel deployed in the operational theatres of conflict and post-conflict zones.

On arrival in Monrovia, the delegation paid courtesy calls on the Special Representative of the Secretary General of the UN, Ms Margrethe Loj, her deputy in charge of Rule of Law, Mrs Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, the UNPOL Police Commissioner, Gautam Sewang, Ghana’s Ambassador to the Republic of Liberia, Mr Kenneth Bosompem, UNMIL Deputy Force Commander, Major General Carl Setorwu Modey, and the heads of the Liberian Police and Immigration, among others.

At all the places visited, especially the UN offices, the Ghanaian contingent was highly commended for their hard work, dedication and commitment to the mission’s mandate.

Currently a 30-member contingent made up of 23 males and seven females eleven of whom are police officers, seven prison officers and four immigration officers are serving in the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL)

The Police Commissioner, Mr Gautam Sewang, who heads the police from 39 countries, appealed to the police administration to consider extending the tour of duty for those personnel who had performed their duties very well.

He said it was always difficult to bring new personnel on board and extension of duties of these officers would push the agenda of the mission and not draw it back as new personnel would have to be trained to take over.

Mr Sewang also appealed to the police to send specialised officers because UNMIL was now focusing on certain critical areas which needed officers to mentor the Liberians.

For her part, Ms Margrethe Loj appealed to the police administration to increase the number of females in subsequent contingents in order to enable the Liberian women to learn and relate to them.

She said apart from armed robbery, the second largest crime in Liberia was sexual abuse and victims felt comfortable talking to women than to men.

Ms Loj said Liberians were more focused on the US but they needed to look at West African countries to share ideas and experience, adding that recent reports indicated that a lot of progress had been made in Liberia and the UN was gradually shifting its emphasis into advisory and mentoring role.

Dr Wiredu said the Ghana Police’s first involvement in peacekeeping dated back to the 1960’s when the first contingent landed in Congo Kinshasa and since then they had been deployed to a number of countries namely Kosovo and Sudan, among others.

He said currently the Ghana Police could boast the largest female peacekeepers in Darfur in Sudan and there were plans to do same in Liberia as time went on.

According to Dr Wiredu, Ghana sees Liberia as a sister country and its success is Ghana’s success and will continue to foster closer relationship and support them to champion a common cause for peace and security within the sub-region.

The Director-General stated that “we live in a global world where a problem somewhere affects everybody’’ and expressed the hope that the visit would go a long way in translating the dreams of Liberians into a reality.

Ms Kumassey said crime was being considered as a disease which needed careful diagnosis, with the focus now shifting from incarceration to treatment so that offenders returned to the society as reformed persons.

Mr Afari indicated that the Ghana Immigration Service had trained 100 personnel from the Liberian Bureau of Immigration and Naturalisation in Ghana and 20 more would be trained as trainers so that they would in turn train others back home.