The ability of the Carabinieri to interact with very complex international realities is now known and the mission that ended the first days of July confirmed this trend. We met Colonel Massimo Mennitti, head of MIADIT Palestine, who told us about this experience of the carabinieri in Palestine.
You have been in charge of the MIADIT Palestine mission, the Italian Training Mission in Palestine, I started the 19 March current year and ended the 2 July of the same. What was the purpose of the mission?
The aim was to train all Palestinian police forces. Upstream, a careful planning phase allowed us to guarantee continuity of the mission through the knowledge and study of the work done by the other Western forces that preceded us. In particular, we have exploited the existing strengths, especially from a logistical point of view, concentrating our efforts on the innovation of the training method. In this regard, we immediately understood the need to enhance not only the preparation of the four individual police forces but also the effective capacity to work jointly in the field. This is how the idea of articulating the two-phase training was born: the first, of 8 weeks, aimed at ensuring interoperability and mutual knowledge through the involvement of young officers and officers between the 18 and the 30 years coming from the 4 police forces; the second, of 4 weeks, focused on the training objectives related to the specific tasks and tasks of each body. In this way we have ensured the future application of common basic procedures within the various police forces. .
How many units have you trained and in which operating sectors?
200 units have been trained. The training was focused on all the activities of management of public order and safety, of the control of the territory - including the execution of checkpoints and checkpoints - as well as on basic notions of investigation. A training activity for VIP escorts and for the execution of services and arrests in high-risk scenarios was also carried out against all the police forces involved. The carabinieri have trained all the police forces that on the basis of the Oslo agreements operate in sector A: the Presidential Guard, which deals with the safety of the President and the security of strategic infrastructures; the Civil Police, which carries out administrative and judicial police activities on the territory; the NSF (National Security Forces ed) born for the services of public order and robust police, a sort of mobile Battalion; finally, the GMTC (General Military Training Commission), that is the center dedicated to the formation of all the Palestinian Forces.
Have you applied the T3 concept, Train the Trainers?
At the beginning the training unit did a general training, then we applied the T3 concept on the basis of a long-term project that will enable us to train as instructors about 50 units, already identified among the 200 involved in basic training. These policemen, qualified "assistant instructor", in the second round of the mission, will be joined to the carabinieri with the intent to instruct the students. After, at the end of the second training cycle, which will end before Christmas, this staff will be qualified instructor after a dedicated training activity, to be carried out in Italy, according to aspects of detail yet to be defined. In the future, therefore, the carabinieri will be able to perform the functions of tutor towards new instructors who, in turn - this is the final goal - will be able to directly carry out the training activity in favor of their colleagues, allowing the MIADIT mission to evolve according to the successive specialization needs that will be identified in agreement with the counterpart.
The mission is the result of an agreement between the Italian Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of the Interior of the Palestinian National Authority. What was Israel's attitude towards this mission?
Yes, the mission is the result of an agreement between Italy and the PA, clearly with the Israeli placet and under the aegis of USSC (United States Security Coordinator). The final structure derives from both Palestinian and Israeli requests to limit the number of actors in a theater in which there is the risk of having too many interlocutors and consequently less formative coherence. The Israeli authorities have been very respectful of the Carabinieri and have shown confidence in us. Suffice it to say that it was the first time that a foreign mission in Palestine was authorized to shoot at a Palestinian polygon using Palestinian weapons and ammunition: this is the first time it has happened. This great demonstration of confidence I think derives from the approach of great clarity and openness that we have had from the beginning towards everyone and from the exceptional convergence of interests that we have contributed to enhance: by training the Palestinians we have also allowed the Israelis to count on police forces capable of controlling the territory of exclusive competence of the Palestinian authorities.
What kind of professional preparation did you find on the spot?
The situation was very heterogeneous. The first task in fact was to build, within the same police body, a common training / operating language on which to graft the specificities deriving from the different functions. For example, officers do not have a curriculum of study similar to ours; they have a very diversified formative activity with promotions based on conjunctures and particular systems. On the other hand, for the lower grades, it has not always been possible to rely on a common basic background. In this context, it was important to have an impact on the ability to respond to concrete problems through a preparation that adheres to the single possible activations and modulated according to the different levels of decision - making and technical - operational response. This aspect, together with the one already highlighted in the amalgam activity, was also recognized by those who preceded us, especially by the Americans, as a key moment for the success of the Italian initiative.
Who were the 30 Carabinieri who participated in the mission?
They are military whose diversified professionalism has allowed them to operate in a context that, if on the one hand can not be defined as pure operational theater like Afghanistan, on the other it has highlighted all its problems with the disorders and situations of conflict, started in the period when the mission was deployed and intensified during the summer. In this context, the choice of the General Command to send personnel of heterogeneous origin, and therefore also prepared in the activities of stability policing but not only, has proved successful. It is no coincidence that we were able to set up a police training unit and a tactical training unit to deal with the diversified training needs. Consider that in the police sector, in the margins of the typical activities, we have deepened the aspects related to the police of proximity, to human rights, up to the correct approach with the citizens in the control of the territory. With the tactical section, then, we focused on those activities more specifically of "robust police": stocks, management of public order, dangerous arrests, specific activities of intervention in situations of high risk.
We have gone so far as to carry out regular lessons on gender issues, thanks also to the professionalism of two female carabinieri expert in the specific sector; in the frame in which we operated, refractory to the subject by significant cultural remorse, this also takes on a particular meaning.
Will these forces only operate in the West Bank or even in the Gaza Strip?
They will only operate in the West Bank because, when the terms of the mission were decided, the agreement between Hamas and Fatah, reached at the beginning of June, had not yet been defined; then there was the kidnapping of the three Israeli boys and then the situation is notoriously degenerated. So, even now, with the second mission that will start soon, training will be focused on the police forces operating in the West Bank, while, as regards the Gaza Strip, there will be subsequent hypotheses and political and international evaluations that for now they are definitely premature. It is clear that from a medium to long-term perspective it can not be excluded that training activity is extended to all Palestinian police forces. Currently there is no such request.
In your opinion, can this mission be considered as a will to pacify the whole area?
At this time, making predictions about the general balance in the Middle East is very difficult. The only sure thing is that, by doing an educational activity towards people wearing a uniform, who are policemen, who are recognized by the population as such, integrating this training with important moments such as the proximity police, respect for women, human rights, we are already sowing well and contributing indirectly to the peace process.
Colonnello Mennitti, in addition to carrying out the activities he described, also trained the Palestinian tourist police. What did this type of training consist of?
We have carried out three one-month courses each in favor of the tourist police carrying the skills of the TPC (Protection of Cultural Heritage) in favor of a total of 45 units of the Tourist Police who have jurisdiction over archaeological sites. The first week of the course we provided general police notions, the second was focused on gender issues, human rights and local police to create a common basis in police skills and in the relationship with the civilian population. This last element was very important to make understand that the policeman is at the service of the citizen. Finally, the last two weeks have been dedicated to investigating the protection and recovery of works of art and how to insert them in international databases. The pragmatic approach that characterized the entire training course led us to perform two applicative visits to as many sites in Jericho: the Hisham palace, open to the public, and a site that is still excavating for the recovery of the ancient city of Jericho. All this in order to understand how to protect this precious cultural heritage.
Is it possible to say that with this mission the Arma dei Carabinieri has once again confirmed its leading role in the international arena?
We say that internationally there is a great respect for the ability of the Carabinieri to adapt to different needs, and this is the basis of the concept of stability policing. The Arma recently set up a NATO center in Vicenza alongside our COESPU, precisely because in response to the need felt in NATO to work in this direction to bring the capacity of police reconstruction into the different destabilized operational scenarios. to guarantee a more rapid pacification. Almost all countries have military or military policemen, but few have policemen able to do activities ranging from community policing to dangerous arrests in high-risk areas. These are typical features of European and world police forces, which possess this police and military capability. The ability to combine these two things means that you can cope with all the operational realities, especially in difficult theaters.
Are you satisfied with the results?
Yes, I am very satisfied. Among other things, it was also a way to make the weapon even more known in a theater where the Carabinieri are already operating. In fact, we are present in the TIPH2 (Temporary International Presence in Hebron ed) which is a monitoring mission set up in Hebron, between the Jewish and Palestinian settlers, following the unrest in the 1997. After this activity we are even better known in Palestine and the important thing is that on both sides, Palestinian and Israeli, there has been great satisfaction. The Israelis have no problem getting us back again, so it's a great confidence index and even on the American side there has been a great recognition of our work.
With a focus on the civilian population, we also implemented a legality project in schools through a series of conferences in which we explained road safety and taught Palestinian policemen how to conduct lectures in schools. Moreover, thanks to the Municipality of Alessandria, which is twinned with Jericho, we have received reflective jackets for children and also reflective adhesive tapes that have been rolled around their bicycles, ensuring greater safety in the use of a very used vehicle even at night , often in the absence of adequate street lighting. With this small gesture, we hope to have contributed to the reduction of not infrequent road accidents, even fatal ones that involve the children of Jericho.
For being the first mission was therefore a success ...
Yes, it was a success. This is borne out by the fact that even in this delicate moment there is no doubt on the part of the Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the opportunity to continue the mission which, in fact, will resume after the September 15. We are ready to start again. A new head of mission has already been chosen which will conclude this second cycle before Christmas. Afterwards, on the basis of the contingent situation, we will organize the course for instructors, so as to guarantee the Palestinians greater autonomy in the training activities and allow the Carabinieri to dedicate themselves to more specific aspects.
In Palestine, the Arma dei Carabinieri has therefore contributed to raising the level of preparation in a fundamental sector such as that of security. He did it with the typical way of doing Italian, in other words spreading not only technical knowledge but also human values. It is probably this added value that allows Italy in general and the Carabinieri in particular to be so appreciated abroad.
The MIADIT Palestine mission will continue and will undoubtedly continue to be an important element aimed at contributing, as far as possible, to the construction of a more secure environment within the sphere of legality even in those places.
Andrea Strippoli Lanternini
